This is the best vegan sour cream I’ve ever had. For real.
***And now this recipe is updated with a video. See below.***
If you’ve been following along with my posts, you know that I often have a blob of sour cream on my meals. Can you blame me? Sour cream tastes good on everything!
Especially when it tastes so much like the real thing.
While I was at the store buying raw cashews to make this batch, I met a new friend and chatted for a bit about raw and vegan food.
When the raw cashews came into the discussion, I described a short version of the cashew sour cream process:
Cashews, water, probiotic powder, blend, warmth, time, the end.
I have been meaning to write up my recipe for sour cream for a while now. And meeting a new friend was a sign.
So I came home and started documenting and photographing the long version of this process, so that you could enjoy vegan sour cream for yourself.
Vegan Sour Cream Recipe Video
I’ve made you a video, showing you step-by-step exactly how I make my sour cream.
See how easy it is? You can do this:
Why is Sour Cream Sour?
Sour cream is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, which is introduced either deliberately or naturally, sours and thickens the cream.
-Wikipedia
So for our vegan sour cream, we will just replace the “dairy product” with “plant-based product” and be on our way with some lactic fermentation.
This will be easy. You can do it!
Probiotics
You have heard of probiotics before. You might be taking them already. You know they are in yogurt and that probiotics are good for your gut health.
When you get sick and take antibiotics, you might have heard that your internal “good” bacteria get wiped out and that you have to replenish your gut flora with probiotics.
You may even remember your old friend by name, Lactobacillus acidophilus.
L. acidophilus a few of his buddies are going to help our cashew cream turn into sour cream.
Lactic Fermentation
The word ‘lactic’ might make you think of dairy, but there is no milk in this process.
The bacteria in the probiotic capsules eat sugars and leave behind lactic acid and some CO2. It happens in dairy with yogurt and cheese. It happens with sauerkraut and kimchi. It happens in cashew cream too!
Easy-Peasy
The important part is that cashew cream tasted like blended up cashews; it sits overnight and good bacteria do everything.
The cashew cream thickens, sours, and tastes like sour cream in the morning.
The Vegan Sour Cream Process
There is very little action on your part to make vegan sour cream. The microbes do all of the heavy lifting.
First you soak your cashews in water overnight.
The next day, you blend them in a high-speed blender with as much water as you need to get them flowing, smooth, and creamy.
As it’s whizzing around in there, you add the powder from one probiotic capsule. Just open up the capsule and add the contents to the blending cream.
Scoop everything out of the blender and into a clean mason jar.
Feel free to take a taste from your spoon.
Not very impressive, right? Don’t panic, you’re doing it right. I promise.
Lightly salt the surface of the cream. This is an optional step, but it helps prevent mold growth. I’ve never had a problem with mold growing on my cashew cream (even without the salt), but have mold problems when culturing almonds.
So I do a light dusting of sea salt on the cashew cream just in case it’s having a bad day and needs a little extra help.
Close it up with a lid. Lactic fermentation works best without oxygen, so your lid should be tight.
Put the Mason jar of cashew cream in your oven with the door closed and the oven light on for about 10 hours. I usually leave the jar in the oven overnight.
Leaving the light on in your oven keeps it warm enough in there for a happy culturing environment.
My oven with the light on varies between 80-90 degrees F depending on what time of year it is and what the temperature in the house is.
Please don’t forget that you are culturing and preheat your oven to 450 degrees for a late-night pizza or something. Eek! If you need to, put a note on your oven door “Culturing in process!” or something to prevent a probiotic massacre.
That’s an important step. Haha. I’ve learned my lesson the hard way. Oops.
After about 10 hours or so, taste the progress.
Take the jar out of the oven.
It will have thickened up a bit, and it will have tiny air bubbles where the probiotics have been breaking down the sugar in the cashews. It worked!
Give it a stir to mix in the salt and bubbles. And taste it.
You could notice a few things here.
First, it might be too sweet still. You’ll notice a bit of the sour tang happening, but you feel it is still too cashew-y and needs more culturing time.
No problem. Put the lid back on and stick the jar back in the oven with the light on for another hour or two, depending on how much more sour you want it.
The other thing that might happen when you taste it is that you will fall over at the shock of tasting sour cream for the first time in your vegan life.
And you’ll know it’s done culturing.
Storage and Care of your Vegan Sour Cream
If you have a dish to use it on right now, go ahead and use it.
Otherwise, stand up and dust yourself off, put the lid back on, and put the jar in the fridge.
The cream will continue to thicken in the fridge. Depending on how you will be using it, you can always add a splash of water and give it a stir for a thinner consistency.
When I make batches of this, I usually use the whole jar within a week.
I’ve also had great success freezing the sour cream. The pint-sized mason jars and plastic lids are freezable, so you can just stick the jar right in the freezer. When you are ready to use it, move the jar from the freezer to the fridge to thaw the night before you need it.
When it’s thawed, give it a stir, and put it on everything.
What do you use Vegan Sour Cream on?
Sour cream and chives top baked potatoes. These are the basics. But keep going!
This sour cream is great as a topping, but it is also works great as a base for dips and dressings.
My Favorite Recipes for Sour Cream:
Get fancy topping your potatoes with the Fully-Loaded Sweet Potatoes.
Sour cream adds an amazing flavor profile to Winter Squash Soup.
A big blob of sour cream practically waits its whole life to be the crown atop a bowl of Chili.
Sour cream topping Adzuki Bean & Squash Stew.
Tacos…tacos are always better with sour cream, especially summer squash tacos.
And sour cream in Broccoli Cheddar Soup, yes please!
Don’t forget vegan Kabocha Squash Black Bean Enchiladas!
- 1½ cup raw organic cashews, soaked overnight
- 1 capsule vegan probiotic powder
- sprinkle of salt (optional)
- water (have a cup on hand to pour slowly as needed)
- Soak the raw cashews in water overnight.
- Drain and rinse the cashews.
- Put cashews into your Vitamix or high-speed blender.
- Open the probiotic capsule and dump the contents onto the cashews.
- Start the blender and add water slowly until the cashews are blending smoothly and turning into a thick cream.
- Scrape cashew cream out of blender and into pint-sized wide-mouth Mason jar.
- Lightly salt the surface of the cream.
- Put lid on jar.
- Leave jar of cashew cream in oven with the light on and door closed for 6-8 hours.
- Check and test after 6 hours.
- Stir sour cream and taste.
- If done, move to freezer or fridge. If it needs more time to culture, put it back in the oven with light on and check again in another hour or two.
- Use to top your favorite foods or use as a base for dressings, dips, and sauces.
This article was originally posted in February of 2016, but has been updated to include a video demo showing you every step of the way. Enjoy!
Thanks for visiting my site. I share creative, delicious, and healthy recipes that everyone can enjoy and feel good about.
Yes! More videos! This was very informative and super-cute!
Thank you so much for watching the video! The plan is to make more. 🙂 Appreciate you!
Hi Kelly
thanks for the detailed instructions, your video was excellent 🙂 It was fun to watch, not boring.
I’ll certainly be trying this soon, you are right that was something I was missing, because the apple cider vinegar “sour cream” was not the same. THANK YOU THANK YOU for sharing!
thank you again!
Susana
Hi Susana!
You are so welcome! That’s exactly what I felt about the vinegar creams I had tried… something is missing.
I hope you love this cultured cream, and get to use it in all the things you love sour cream on.
Enjoy!
I mistakenly put 1 cup of cashews instead on 1 and a half. Also, my bro turned off the oven light during the night so it didn’t ferment so fast – it took me about 14 hours to get to the right level of sourness. It still turned out great and so much like the real thing I cried when I first tried it.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this recipe!
Aw, hi Tamara! The amount of cashews isn’t really *that* important for this recipe. As long as there is enough food (cashew cream) for the microbes, and a happy temperature for them to do their thing, you will have perfect sour cream eventually. Great work!! I’m so excited for you!! I felt the same way when I first did this. You are so welcome. Thanks for being here, appreciate you!
I loved this idea and I loved the charming presentation. You should have your own channel. I had a question about your work with almonds. You mentioned that you used salt because you had a problem with mold on almonds. Do you have a cultured almond recipe?
Hi Mike, thanks for stopping by. Appreciate your kind words. In the 5 years I’ve been making the sour cream, I’ve had maybe 2 fails. But with culturing almond cheese, I’m at about 90% fails. So I haven’t figured out a way to make it yet where it’s solid enough of a recipe to share. I’ve really enjoyed making cultured cheese with the book, “Artisan Vegan Cheese,” by Miyoko Schinner. That would be a good place to find recipes if you’d like to experiment more. I’ll keep working on the cultured almonds. Thanks for asking!
This is the best sour cream I’ve ever tried, and it’s vegan. Thank you for the recipe and the video.
If anyone is looking for a dairy-free alternative for sour cream, this is it. It’s fascinating to test as the hours go by and see how the flavor matures.
I’m so happy that you like it, Summer!! It was everything I wanted in sour cream, without the dairy. You are so welcome! I appreciate you being here and for the support.
Please make more videos, Kelly!
😀 Thank you, Karissa! I’m working on figuring out how I can make that happen. Appreciate the encouragement! Thanks for watching. <3
Hi Kelly,
So what temperature is it in your oven while you’re waiting for the cream to get sour?
I have 75 degrees.
Grace
Hi Grace!
My oven, just warm from the oven light on, is about 85-90 degrees F. I have cultured it sitting on the counter at 75 degrees, it still works… just takes a little longer to get it as sour as I like it.
Hope that helps! Good luck!
Thank you. I love it.
Thank you for this recipe. Do you think live sauerkraut brine can be used in place of the probiotic powder?
You’re so welcome. I think that would probably work just fine. I’m not sure if it would alter the flavor at all, but even if it did, I bet it would be delicious. As long as you have microbes, food for them, a happy environment, they should thrive. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!
I made this 3 weeks ago and HAD to comment! This was SUPER delicious and easy to make. I could not believe the flavor! Thank you so much for posting this recipe.
Nickie! I’m so glad, and so happy for you! You’re so welcome. Happy to share.
I just stumbled on your video – amazing for a first go! The ingredients and recipe are so easy to follow and love your sense of humor. It all brought me here to your site. Can’t wait to check out more recipes! Thank you for doing what you do <3
Oh! Thank you so much for watching and following it over! Appreciate you being here. Hope you try and love the sour cream! It’s one of my favorite things to make. 🙂
Thank you for this recipe and video! You have helped save my Vegan-ish life!
Yay! You’re so welcome! 🙂
This didn’t work for me. I ended up with slightly warm cashew cream. Maybe my oven was too hot? Too cold? I’ll have to get a thermometer and try again. (I so, so want this to work!)
Oh no, I want it to work for you too!! Let me know how it turns out when you get a thermometer!
Looks like my oven light heats the area right next to the bulb to about 70 degrees. Do you have a guess as to whether that will be warm enough?