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Plant-based Sour Cream

Cashew-based Sour Cream substitute, oil-free, gluten-free, sugar-free
Last updated Oct. 6, 2019.
Prep Time10 minutes
Course: Sauce/Spread
Cuisine: American
Keyword: sour cream
Author: Angela Liddon & The Plant-based Bear

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ cups raw cashews, soaked
  • ¾ cup water err on the side of less rather than more*
  • 3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tsp white vinegar
  • ½ tsp salt

Instructions

  • Cover cashews with water in a bowl and soak overnight in the refrigerator. Alternatively, you can do the "quick-soak method", where you pour boiling water over the cashews and soak them for 1 hour. Drain and rinse the cashews when ready to use.**
  • Put all ingredients in a high-speed blender. Blend on high until super smooth. For me, this was 1-2 minutes. At the end, you might slowly slow down your blender until stopped to get out extra air bubbles. Depending on your blender, you may also have to stop a few times and scrape the mixture down a bit. Adding slightly more water will help it, if it doesn't seem to be blending.
  • Scrape out of blender and into an airtight container and chill. The cream thickens as it chills, and will last 1-2 weeks.
  • Angela says: You can also freeze it for up to 1 month. I like to freeze it in silicone mini muffin cups. Once solid, transfer the cups into a freezer-safe zip bag for easy grab and go portions.

Notes

*Start with barely 3/4 cup water and see how it goes.  Don't use a "generous" 3/4 cup.  If you need more liquid to make it properly blend, add it, just a little at a time, until you get a good blend going.  Remember, this cream will thicken in the refrigerator, and it's best to chill before serving, as the blender can heat this up quickly!
**After soaking cashews, they are a weird gray color.  Don't worry.  The cream gets pretty white upon blending!