One of my favorite dishes before going on the keto diet was pasta. I loved almost every kind of pasta, and every kind of sauce that you could serve pasta with.

After the first few months of keto, fettucini alfredo was one of the biggest cravings I was starting to experience surprisingly. That’s why I did some research on the best ways to enjoy alfredo while on keto.

In this article, I’ll do a deep dive on alfredo sauce, it’s nutrition facts, and how you can make it enjoyable and still keto-friendly.

What Is Alfredo Sauce

As a classic Italian sauce, you probably know alfredo best from the pasta dish – fettuccini alfredo.

The sauce itself of this beloved dish is fairly simple, and just has four main ingredients. Most traditional alfredo recipes consist of the following:

• 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 cup of whipping or heavy cream
• A pinch of salt
• Freshly ground pepper for taste
• Half a cup of grated parmesan cheese, with more grated on top of the final product

From a nutrition perspective, most alfredo sauces are pretty calorie dense, but are generally a good source of fats and protein. The exact breakdown will of course vary from brand to brand and recipe to recipe, but here’s generally what you can expect from a quarter cup serving:

• 50 calories
• 3 grams of total carbs
  • 1 gram of sugar
• 3.5 grams of fat
• 1 gram of protein

While of course on keto you’ll have to avoid fettuccini pasta (Unless you go with squash or another type of vegetable pasta), this sauce is pretty versatile.

I’ve included my own alfredo sauce recipe below, as well as some non-pasta ways to utilize it at the end of this article.

Is Alfredo Sauce Keto-Friendly?

As you can see from the macro content of Alfredo sauce, most brands are generally pretty keto-friendly. The big obstacle with staying low carb while eating alfredo sauce is going to come down to portion sizes, because one serving is a bit small, and restaurants especially are known to heavy up their sizes when it comes to alfredo sauce.

One thing to keep an eye on is calories when it comes to alfredo sauce. It tends to be really high in calories. While calories aren’t going to necessarily take you out of ketosis, they’re still something you should keep relative track of if you’re trying to lose weight through ketosis.

Some caveats of alfredo sauce on keto have to do with the brand. Different types of brands might be more likely to have sugar, so you’ll always want to check the nutrition facts of any sauce you buy just in case.

Another big keto benefit of alfredo is the high fat content. Because it’s made from a base containing a lot of dairy, alfredo sauce is a great way to help hit your fat macro goal without getting a lot of unhealthy trans fats.

Keto-Friendly Alfredo Sauce Recipes

• Zucchini Noodles with Alfredo Sauce

Ingredients:

• • 2 whole zucchini
  • 3/4 cup of parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup of alfredo sauce (store bought or home made)
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • 3 cloves of minced garlic
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

• • Use a vegetable spiralizer to turn both of your zucchini stalks into spiraled “noodles”
  • Melt your butter in a large sauce pan over medium heat
  • Separately, heat up your alfredo sauce in another sauce pan on low to medium heat
  • Add garlic and the zucchini noodles, saute for about 3 to 5 minutes
  • Remove the sauce pan from heat, and then add the alfredo sauce, parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper

• Homemade Alfredo Sauce

This one is one of my favorite go-to recipes. It’s easy, cheap, and you know exactly what you’re getting so you can make it as keto-friendly as you want!

Feel free to adjust the ratios and add or subtract anything you prefer as well.

Ingredients:

• • 6 cloves of minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon of salted butter
  • Half a cup of parmesan cheese
  • 1 and a half cups of heavy or whipping cream
  • Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions:

• • Melt the butter in a medium sized sauce pan over low to medium heat
  • Add garlic to the mixture and saute together for roughly 30 seconds.
  • Add in the heavy cream and bring the entire mixture to a simmer
  • Let simmer for about five minutes
  • Reduce heat after five minutes and add in the parmesan cheese, mix together until smooth
  • Add in salt and pepper as desired for flavor

• Cauliflower Chicken Alfredo

Ingredients:

• • One and a half ounces of butter
  • 5 and a third ounces of diced bacon
  • 3 and a half ounces of grated parmesan cheese
  • 20 ounces of sliced chicken breast
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 7 ounces of fresh spinach
  • One and a half cups of heavy whipping cream
  • 20 ounces of diced (or riced, or mashed) cauliflower
  • Salt and pepper for tasting

Instructions:

• • Fry your bacon until crispy and thoroughly cooked through. Drain the pan, and set aside in a bowl or on a plate for later
  • Cut the chicken breasts into strips. Add butter in that same frying pan with the remaining bacon fat and sauté the chicken and garlic together. Set aside once the chicken has been thoroughly cooked
  • Sauté the spinach in a separate pan until it shrinks, set aside for later
  • Add the heavy whipping cream to the pan and let it boil for just a couple of minutes. Once boiling, add in the parmesan cheese, bacon, chicken and spinach. Salt and pepper to taste.
  • From there, lower the heat and let simmer while partially boiling the cauliflower.
  • Divide the cauliflower into small chunks (if using whole cauliflower stalks), using either fresh or frozen
  • Partially boil the cauliflower in lightly salted water for a few minutes. Let drain thoroughly. Add the chicken and sauce with the cauliflower.
  • Stir together and serve

• Blackened Shrimp and Alfredo sauce

This one is a favorite of mine from the fine people over at Keto Connect. Check them out already if you haven’t!

For this I’ll just assume you’ve made the alfredo sauce already (you can use the recipe above), or are using a keto-friendly store bought variant.

Ingredients:

• • 1 pound of raw shrimp
  • 2 tablespoon of Paprika
  • 1 tablespoon of garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon of Onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon of Thyme
  • 1 tbsp pepper
  • Half of a teaspoon of Pink Himalayan Salt
  • Half of a teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
  • 1 tablespoon of coconut oil

Instructions:

• • Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl (sans shrimp) to form seasoning
  • Coat shrimp in seasoning
  • Add a tablespoon of coconut oil to your skillet on high heat and place shrimp in the pan.
  • Cook until the shrimp is tender and “blackened.” Top the dish with Alfredo sauce and vegetable noodles as desired

• Egg Fast Fettuccini Alfredo

This one is great for those who are giving the egg fast a go, and are interested in trying a new kind of alternative to pasta.

The noodles will be made out of eggs as a base, so you’re going to need quite a few of them.

Ingredients:

• 7 whole eggs
• 120 ounces of spring water
• 2 tablespoons of MCT oil
• 5 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tablespoon of keto-friendly mayonnaise
• 4 ounces of cream cheese
• 2 sticks of string cheese (Mozzarella works best)
• 1 ounce of cheddar cheese
• 1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese

Instructions:

• Blend the eggs, cream cheese, salt, garlic powder, and pepper together in a magic bullet or blender of your choice
• Pour the mixture into a butter-greased 8 by 8 pan
• Bake the mixture for just about 8 minutes at 325 degrees Fahrenheit until it has started to set. Let cool for 5 minutes
• Using a spatula, gently release the sheet of “pasta” from the pan
• Roll up the pasta and slice with a sharp knife into 1/8 of an inch slices
• Gently unroll and set aside
• Add separately heated alfredo sauce to the dish, salt and pepper for taste

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there’s a ton of cool ways to incorporate alfredo sauce into the keto diet without having to worry about carb-heavy grain-based pastas.

As long as you keep a close eye on serving sizes, you should be able to enjoy alfredo sauce and stay well within your net carb limits for each meal.

Do you have any other favorite keto-friendly alfredo dishes? Drop any links or recipes in the comments! I’d love to hear more.