A lighter quick and easy fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli for busy Meatless Mondays, full of broccoli and cheesy Alfredo goodness!
Did everyone have a good Easter? Mine was very low key and involved a couple of bordeaux eggs and a sugar coma…
We’re going to finish of our March Meatless Monday series with some more comfort food, Easy Fettuccine Alfredo With Broccoli.
Who doesn’t like Fettuccine Alfredo? Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who isn’t a fan. I mean, what’s not to like. It’s creamy, cheesy, and delicious, aaaaaaaand, slurpy fettuccine noodles are just plain fun to eat.
This version of fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli is one of my favorites because it’s meatless, so Meatless Monday approved, it’s made with half and half rather than heavy cream, so you don’t need to be rolled away from the table after eating it, and it takes almost zero time and effort to make.
Two pots, 20 minutes, no knives required. Win, win, win.
Oh and did I mention it’s delicious too? Broccoli and Alfredo were made for each other and this particular Alfredo sauce is fantastic. It’s slightly garlicky, cheesy, and just the perfect level of not-too-rich.
Give it a try. You’re going to love it.
Looking for more pasta recipes? Scroll past the recipe for some of my favorites!
Ingredients
Pasta and Veggies
- ▢ 12 oz fettuccine
- ▢ 12 oz broccoli florets bought bagged (or cut up at home)
Alfredo Sauce
- ▢ 1/2 cup ( 4 oz, 1 stick) butter
- ▢ 2 cups half and half*
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ▢ 3/4 cup ( 3 oz) shredded Parmesan cheese plus more for topping
Instructions
Pasta and Veggies
- Cook fettuccine according to package instructions in a large pot of generously salted water. Add broccoli during the last 3-4 minutes of cooking time and cook until done. Drain, return to pot, and set aside.
Alfredo Sauce
- While your pasta cooks, melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add half and half and stir. Allow to come to a simmer and cook for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened and reduced. Watch closely and do not allow to come to a full boil.
- Add garlic powder, salt, black pepper, cayenne, and Parmesan. Pour sauce over noodles and toss to coat.
- Serve and sprinkle with more Parmesan if desired.
Notes
Make-ahead Instructions: Pasta and sauce should be cooked just before serving. Broccoli can be cut up to two days in advance and stored in an air-tight container. Make sure broccoli is dry before storing. Recipe for Two Instructions: Recipe halves easily. For the cheese, half of 3/4 cup is 1/4 cup, 2 tablespoons. No other cooking changes are needed. Freezer Notes: This sauce and pasta does not hold up well for freezing.
More Pasta Recipes
Easy Creamy Chicken Pasta with Bell Peppers – A rich and creamy pasta loaded with Parmesan cheese, chicken, and bell peppers, as easy as it is delicious. You don’t want to miss this one!
Quick Mac and Cheese for One – A quick recipe for mac and cheese for one. Easy, cheesy, and oh so good.
Lightened Up Copycat Carmela’s Chicken – Chicken, mushrooms, and delicious caramelized onions cooked up in a wine and cream sauce and served over rigatoni. A lightened up version of the Macaroni Grill favorite.
Saturday Morning Snapshot
If someone could explain my own 2AM photo shoot planning sketches to me, that’d be suuuuuper helpful because they are incomprehensible by the light of day.
State of the Blog
Happy Easter, everyone! How are you celebrating the day? I have barn duty all weekend, so I’ll be spending it shoveling manure and covered in horse hair. Basically the best.
Baking Mischief had a couple of recipes featured in BuzzFeed posts this week. My Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes With Broccoli and Cheese Sauce in 31 Utterly Divine Ways To Eat A Potato and my Samoa Cupcakes in 13 Game-Changing Ways To Eat Girl Scout Cookies . If you are looking for dinner or a sweet treat, check some of those other recipes on there out. They are awesome!
This week on the blog I posted my favorite pizza recipe, a round up of beautiful desserts to make this spring, and the last post in my Girl Scout Cookies Cupcake series. I’m so glad to finally have those all out. I marathon baked and then photographed all of those cupcakes in one weekend more than a month ago and it’s been killing me sitting on them all this time!
Next week we’ll have my last recipe in our March Meatless Monday series, another round up, and, not to over-hype it or anything, the most ridiculous recipe I’ve ever made. Stay tuned!
Recipes/posts released this week were:
Homemade Margherita Pizza – Simple but impressive homemade margherita pizza with dough and sauce from scratch!
21 Bright and Beautiful Desserts to Make This Spring – A round up of 21 gorgeous desserts perfect for bright and sunny spring days.
Thin Mint Cupcakes – Moist chocolate and peppermint cake covered with a smooth chocolate coating. A delicious cupcake version of the most popular Girl Scout cookie.
Pop-culture Corner
Bat V Supes is out this weekend, and man, I enjoy schadenfreude as much as the next person but I’m actually starting to feel bad for everyone involved. Didn’t stop me from reading all the reviews though, from the delightfully rage-filled “I’ve Never Hated Anything The Way I Hate ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’” to this truly thoughtful piece from Film Freak Central. Even if the film’s not good, there’s been some great writing about it this week.
Oh, and this Sad Affleck meme is not to be missed.
Speaking of poorly received Henry Cavill movies, I rewatched The Man from U.N.C.L.E. this week and I’m so bummed more people didn’t take to that film because it’s very slight, but completely charming. I would have shelled out money for a sequel in a heartbeat. Did you catch it this summer?
Did you know there was a Bridget Jones 3 in development? I had completely forgotten until the trailer dropped this week. I don’t know how I feel about this movie existing, but Emma Thompson’s growl of displeasure toward the end of that trailer is my everything.
Finally, if anyone’s looking for me this weekend, I’ll be right here, watching this video on a continuous loop until May 6th arrives…
Meal Planning
Saturday: Mom’s Sunday Beef Stew Sunday: TBD Monday: TBD Tuesday: TBD Wednesday: TBD Thursday: TBD Friday: TBD
An entire year’s worth of delicious Meatless Monday dinner ideas.
On Monday, I posted the last entry in my March Meatless Monday series. I love doing these monthly themes on the blog because it gives me a bit of structure for my posting schedule, and I get the chance to dig a little deeper into a food category than I might otherwise in such a short period of time.
So since it looks like these series are going to be a permanent fixture on the blog for the time being, I thought I would start finishing the month with a roundup of related recipes from some of my lovely fellow bloggers.
In the future, I’ll probably highlight 20 or so, but since this was Meatless Monday month, and there are 52 Mondays in a year, I rounded up 48 other vegetarian recipes to go with the 4 I posted. That means that all together there’s a new and delicious meal here for each Monday of the year!
To recap, these were mine for the month.
And on to the main event, 48 more gorgeous vegetarian recipes perfect for Meatless Mondays.
Easy Fettuccine Alfredo With Broccoli
Ingredients
Pasta and Veggies
- 12 oz fettuccine
- 12 oz broccoli florets bought bagged (or cut up at home)
Alfredo Sauce
- 1/2 cup ( 4 oz, 1 stick) butter
- 2 cups half and half*
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 3/4 cup ( 3 oz) shredded Parmesan cheese plus more for topping
Instructions
Pasta and Veggies
- Cook fettuccine according to package instructions in a large pot of generously salted water. Add broccoli during the last 3-4 minutes of cooking time and cook until done. Drain, return to pot, and set aside.
Alfredo Sauce
- While your pasta cooks, melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add half and half and stir. Allow to come to a simmer and cook for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened and reduced. Watch closely and do not allow to come to a full boil.
- Add garlic powder, salt, black pepper, cayenne, and Parmesan. Pour sauce over noodles and toss to coat.
- Serve and sprinkle with more Parmesan if desired.
