AIP dairy-free Alfredo-style sauce thickened with arrowroot and coconut milk

Cream sauce sits near the top of what people miss when dairy leaves the kitchen, and Alfredo is usually the dish they name first. This version leans on full-fat coconut milk and arrowroot for the body, and nutritional yeast for the savory, almost-cheesy note underneath. Ladled over spaghetti squash, it does the same job the original did: it turns a plain dinner into something that feels considered.

Use a bone-based broth if you have one on hand, and it shows up here as glycine and collagen, tied to how the gut's lining knits itself back together while it heals. The nutritional yeast whisked in toward the end is a source of B vitamins, on top of the cheesy note it leaves behind.

Pour it warm over the noodles or roasted vegetables, and let yourself pause with the bowl in front of you rather than eating it on your feet between tasks. A sauce built to feel like comfort deserves to be received that way.

Ingredients

• 1 cup chicken broth, ideally bone-based
• 3 tablespoons arrowroot flour
• 1 cup full-fat coconut milk
• 3 teaspoons unfortified nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt

Method

Whisk the arrowroot into the cold chicken broth until it fully dissolves with no lumps, then set the slurry aside.

In a saucepan, heat the coconut milk with the nutritional yeast, basil, and salt, and bring it up to a boil.

Drop the heat to low, pour in the broth-and-arrowroot slurry, and stir constantly until the sauce thickens, about a minute.

Taste, adjust the salt, and serve warm over spaghetti squash noodles, roasted vegetables, or shredded chicken.

A note on swaps: tapioca starch works in place of the arrowroot. Avoid tigernut or coconut flour here, since both turn the sauce grainy. Confirm the nutritional yeast is unfortified before you use it.

This is a quick stovetop sauce that thickens in about a minute, so it needs no air fryer or Instant Pot version. The stovetop is the right and only tool for it.

*Adapted from asquirrelinthekitchen.com*