Wanting to add more vegetables to your next fettucine alfredo? Let me show you what vegetables are good to add.
Alfredo can be a simple dish. Often it's just pasta, usually fettucine and sometimes chicken.
But there is no reason you can't fill it with veggies. In this post I will give you plenty of ideas for how to use vegetables with alfredo while tying to make it as easy as I can for you to up the vegetable intake!
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🚜 Vegetables to Use in Alfredo
In the photo at the top of this post I included some broccoli and spinach into my alfredo sauce. There is a lot of more options you can try including:
- Kale
- Bok Choy
- Arugula
- Broccoli
- Spinach
- Cauliflower
- Onions
- Shallots
- Garlic
- Peas
- Corn
- Cabbage
- Snow or Snap Peas
- Peppers
- Diced Carrots
- Zucchini
- Asparagus
Now let's go into more details on how to incorporate these veggies.
🥬 Baby Greens
🏆 Easiest option
Baby greens like baby spinach, baby arugula, and baby kale are really easy to add, there is no reason not to. You just add them add the very end of cooking and the heat will wilt them. More mature spinach or kale won't cook as fast, so you use the baby stuff that comes in a mixed green bag.
The Power Greens mix from Earthbound would totally work. You also could use baby bok choy. I would chop it up and add it just as you are finishing the sauce. It needs a little more time to cook the stem pieces.
🥦 Broccoli
🏆 Favorite option
My wife is a huge fan of broccoli and cheese. If we are making mac & cheese, she wants to make broccoli that night. Not different than with alfredo. You can stem or microwave the broccoli ahead of time and then mix into the pasta when it's ready to serve.
⚪ Cauliflower
If you are using white cauliflower it is going to be easy to hide it in the dish. But the more colorful cauliflower is going to make your final dish more pretty.
For maximum flavor, use cauliflower that you have roasted in the oven or cooked in your air fryer.
RELATED - Does Purple Cauliflower Taste Different?
🧅 Onions, Shallots, or Garlic
These are really are vegetables and a great way to add tons of flavor. I would cook them in the same pan you are going to make your sauce in. And you will incorporate right in the sauce.
Garlic only takes 30-60 seconds to cook in the pan, so if you using onions or shallots too, only add the garlic once those are done cooking.
🌽 Corn or Peas
Both of these will cook pretty quickly. For best flavor, I would cook them in a pan with butter and then remove them to start your sauce. Add them back to the finished dish.
Choose fresh or frozen over canned.
You also can use snap peas or snow peas. Again I would cook these first. If you have never had sautéed snow or snaps peas you are going to love them. Their natural sweetness comes out when you brown them. To make them easier to eat cut each snow or snap pea into 2-3 pieces.
🟢 Cabbage
To use cabbage you will need to shred it first. Then you can boil it in a pot of salty water for only 2-3 minutes until it's tender enough. Then it's ready to go into your alfredo.
🟩 Asparagus
Roast or air fry your asparagus first and then cut it bite size pieces to mix into your pasta. This is especially tasty when you buy fresh asparagus when it's in season.
🌶️ Peppers
For any peppers you want to use, you need to dice them up finely. Then you can add some serious color to your dish or heat if you like. During Hatch chile pepper season it would be great to get some and roast or grill them before adding to your sauce. I love serving spicy peppers with a cool, creamy sauce.
Check out my recipe for Creamed Corn that Uses Hatch Chile Peppers.
🌞 Zucchini
In the summer time, when you got zucchini just exploding in your garden, you are also looking for more ways to use it. This is one. Diced it up and add to a pan with oil and garlic and then it's ready to go into your final dish.
If I am looking for the most tender zucchini, then I get the Baby Zucchini at Trader Joe's. The smaller zucchini are way more tender than those super large ones that I only would use for zucchini bread.
🥕 Carrots
You can either cook your carrots just as you would the zucchini I just mentioned or you can use shredded carrots. I would buy whole carrots and grate the using a box grater. Then adding them at the end.
If you enjoyed this post make sure you check out our entire series "What Vegetables Go Well In" to help you add more veggies to your favorite dishes.
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