Traditional Alfredo sauce is insanely delicious and sometimes considered a splurge with its indulgent amounts of butter, cream, and cheese. This version still gives you a creamy luxurious experience but lowers fat and calories significantly, and all comes together in 10 minutes, so it’s perfect for last minute meals. This isn’t a recipe whose purpose is copycat the original with different ingredients. This recipe still uses real cheese, and real butter, just way less of it and some clever additions to make up the difference. This healthy, low-fat Alfredo sauce is one of the most popular recipes on our site. Originally shared in August 2008, this recipe has been a family staple in millions of households all over!
Ingredients Needed
- low-fat milk – anything from nonfat to whole milk works, I really like 1-2%. If you’re not tracking your calories, go ahead and make it with whole milk. It’s still going to be waaay lighter than using cream, and it tastes extra delicious.
- low fat cream cheese – adds creaminess and also adds body to the sauce.
- all purpose flour
- salt
- butter
- garlic
- parmesan cheese – you can make this recipe with fresh grated parmesan or even the crumbled kind in the bottle. They turn out just a bit different in texture, but honestly either one works. I almost always have both on hand so I tend to do half and half. Just experiment and see what you like.
How to Make Guiltless Alfredo
This is a simple overview of the recipe, you’ll find a full printable recipe below!
- Blend milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt until smooth.
- Sauté garlic in butter over medium heat until fragrant.
- Stir in the milk mixture and cook until thickened and creamy.
- Reduce heat, add cheese, and stir until melted.
- Let stand a few minutes to thicken before serving. Adjust seasoning as needed.
Storage & Other Tips
- Thickening: this sauce thickens a lot as it cools, so don’t panic if it seems too thin when it’s done.
- Refrigerate: let cool slightly, then store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 – 5 days. It will thicken a lot when it cools, so you’ll definitely want to add a splash of milk to thin it back out.
- Freezing: probably possible, but will definitely affect texture. We’ve never tried it this way so we can’t guarantee results. If you try it, let us know how it goes in the comments!
- Ways to Use It: this recipe is so versatile! Of course this is fantastic on pasta, but it’s also really great as a sauce on pizza, or a dip for breadsticks, or even drizzled over vegetables.
Frequently Asked Questions
1 – 2% work well, and whole milk is also delicious! We did have a reader in the comments said she had good success using soy milk, so maybe give that a try if you are sensitive.
Blending these together helps make the mixture smooth and avoids lumps when cooking.
If it’s too thin, it might need a bit more time to simmer or cool. This sauce thickens a lot upon cooling, so give it a bit of patience and it should work out just fine!
Freshly grated does give a nice texture, but pre-grated works great too. Sometimes I like to do half fresh and half grated, and I’ve noticed that works out really well.
Reheat it gently, in a thick-bottomed sauce pan with a splash of milk while stirring. This is the best way to get that nice, smooth consistency back.
Guiltless Alfredo Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups low-fat milk
- 3 ounces low fat cream cheese
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 3 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1 cup parmesan cheese, fresh grated
Instructions
- Place milk, cream cheese, flour, and salt in a blender and blend until smooth.
- In a non-stick sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter and add garlic. Let the garlic saute for about 30 seconds.
- Add the milk mixture to the pan. Stir constantly for about 3 or 4 minutes or until it just comes to a simmer. Keep stirring and let it cook for a few minutes more. It should be much thicker now.
- When it's nice and thickened turn heat to low. Add the cheese, stir it up to melt and then remove pan from heat and cover.
- Let stand for 5-10 minutes before using. It will continue to thicken upon standing. Season with additional salt if needed.
Questions & Reviews
Oh. My. I’ll add my kudos to the pile. Can’t wait to try this on pizza.
I just made this for dinner tonight and had to come and say THANK YOU–this was amazingly good, and so SO easy! We all loved it (so much so that I completely forgot about the french bread we were supposed to be eating with it, which was the whole reason I made italian in the first place. Whoops! :)).
I made this tonight for dinner. I never write comments but this was good I had to leave a comment. It was delicious! Thanks!
Made this last night for my family (husband, 5 year old and 1 year old) and they all loved it! Had it with leftovers tonight and it was still delicious. Will be adding to our regular rotation, thanks!
Made this last night for my hubby. In Guy Fieri fashion he said, “You could serve that on a flipflop”. If that’s not a seal of approval, I don’t know what is. 🙂 Thanks!!!
Made this for lunch today. Super awesome and delicious! And it was so quick and easy and I had all the ingredients easily on hand!
Hi ladies! Just had to share this: I was suppose to bring 10 cups of alfredo sauce to a teacher appreciation luncheon today. Not wanting to make that much sauce, I just bought several jars of the pre-made stuff. Well, this morning I opened one of the jars and just could not bring myself to take that to a luncheon with my name on it–yuck! So I checked your website (always my first stop for recipes!), ran to the store, and spent the morning making 4 batches of this. It is so delicious and now I am proud to bring it to the luncheon! Thanks for saving me today! 🙂
Made this for my family tonight with grilled chickenmy son, the chef apprentice loved it.
I’ve made this recipe many times (including last night), and I just love it!! I throw in a little extra garlic for good measure. 🙂
Just one comment to add- last night I was talking to my sister, and she told me that she made this too (I posted the recipe/link on my blog), but didn’t love it. She said it turned out grainy. My guess as to what went wrong was correct, which was that she used pre-grated cheese. I always freshly grate my Parmesan, and didn’t even think about the fact that it might not work with pre-grated cheese. I just updated my blog to say that I recommend always using FRESHLY grated cheese for this.
I make this all the time and I always use pre-grated cheese. I have never had a problem. Did she use a blender to mix the flour in? Maybe it didn’t get mixed in well enough…
just wondering how much the recipes makes? wanted to make this for the family tonight and didnt know how many servings are in one batch. thanks!