Whether you're having pasta or grilled chicken, steamed fish or baked vegetables - a dash of white sauce is always a welcome addition. Creamy and melt-in-the-mouth, white sauce is typically made by adding flour to butter and then roasting it lightly, followed by milk and cheese. Indulgent as it may be, white sauce can also be extremely calorie-heavy and may derail your weight loss plans. Further, having cheesy white sauce every day may not be the best idea for our health. Luckily, we have found the perfect health fix for this! Now, you can make the perfect creamy white sauce without even adding cheese to it. Try these five easy and healthy swaps for cheese in making white sauce.
Here Are 5 Easy And Healthy Swaps To Make Creamy White Sauce Without Cheese:
1. Cauliflower
Cauliflower has become one of the easiest low-carb swaps for a healthy diet. You can make cauliflower rice with it, use it to make pizza crust and now you can even use it to make a white sauce. Simply chop cauliflower into small florets, puree them and add them to make the white sauce super creamy and thick.
2. Milk
Rather than adding oodles of cheese, why not use milk in the making of cheese sauce? This will make the sauce lighter, airier, healthier and of course, less calorific too. Just remember to cook it for a little while longer so that the milk thickens and gives the same creamy texture.
(Also Read: Cooking Tips: How To Make Restaurant-Style White Sauce Pasta At Home)
Use milk instead of cheese to make white sauce. Photo: iStock
3. Cashew Paste
This is a hack that we Indians are quite familiar with! The addition of cashews to any Indian gravy makes it thoroughly enjoyable too. Why not use cashew nuts to make white sauce too? The humble cashew nuts can be soaked for some time, added to a blender and then used to thicken the white sauce without the addition of cheese.
4. Mushroom
We all love mushroom soup or mushrooms as an addition to baked vegetables, but how about using it as an ingredient to make white sauce? Pureed mushrooms can help thicken the cheesy sauce and also give it an additional edge of umami flavour.
(Also Read: Quick And Easy Mushroom Sauce: How To Make And How To Use It)
Mushroom gives your pasta an umami flavour. Photo: iStock
5. Potatoes
When all else fails, there are always potatoes! The incredible vegetable is so versatile and can actually be used to make a cheesy and comforting white sauce. Simply boil the potatoes, mash them up or puree them in a blender. Add this to your cheese sauce without compromising on taste or health.