plant-based sour cream

This plant-based sour cream delivers all the rich, tangy, and satisfying flavor you’ve been craving with just 4 ingredients and minutes in the making.

There’s no need to search the dark corners of the supermarket cooler for a dairy-free sour cream alternative. If you’ve got cashews, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and a pinch of salt, you’ve got everything you need for a healthy sour cream. And for my 2 cents, it tastes better than the ‘real’ thing.

I won’t pretend that I taste-tested every vegan sour cream I could find. Once I realized how easy it was to make my own, there was no need. All the flavor, reliable ingredients under my control – that’s right up my alley.

Cashew corner

The secret to great plant-based sour cream is all about cashews, and there are a few things to be aware of when you embark on this recipe for the first time. This first is all about the cashews you choose.

You only need to open a bag of cashews to appreciate the difference between plump, raw cashews, and their roasted counterparts. It’s the former you want. That makes the best sour cream.  

This is probably a convenient time to consider the differences between raw and roasted cashews. Raw cashews make more than a pretty and whiter sour cream. They yield a smoother texture with a less 'nutty' flavor. We’re going for sour cream, not grabbing and snacking.

There's not a lot of difference between the calories and fat of raw versus roasted. 1 ounce of raw cashews contains 157 calories and 12 grams of fat versus roasted at 167 and 13, respectively. This probably makes the fact that they have similar levels of protein and other nutritional components unsurprising. Although raw always retain more of their natural unmodified and contains all its original minerals and nutrients.

The high degree of similarity is limited to raw versus dry-roasted cashews only. You want to run full-speed from any oil-roasted cashews. You have no idea what unsavory ingredients they’ve been consorting with. 

Soak or grind

There are 2 methods for prepping your cashews for making sour cream. Soaking cashews for at least 4 hours (overnight is preferred) is a tried and true method that you’ll see in a lot of cashew cream recipes.

Personally, and because I can be a poor planner, I prefer a quicker method for grinding cashews. If you have a high-speed blender, then you are in luck. Toss them in and go. But if you, like me, don’t have access to one of those luxury machines, not to worry, my friend, an electric spice (or coffee) grinder is now your best friend. 

Tips for grinding unsoaked, raw cashews

You’d think it was just about tossing them in, but there are few tips I’ve learned along the way. First, be sure that the nuts and your grinder are dry. I make it a practice of wiping out my spice grinder with a paper towel just to ensure moisture hasn’t condensed. This can happen when you place the lid back on after washing it. At least, that happened to me once. It takes just a little moisture to keep the cashews from grinding finely. That means gritty sour cream. Yucky!

My second tip is to not overload your grinder. If you pack in the cashews, you won’t create enough space for the needed agitation to get the cashews to break down.

That said, you want to strike a bit of a balance. If you try to grind just a few cashews, agitation will again abandon you. If you’re aiming for just a smidge of sour cream, first, I'd ask why? (just kidding). If you grind more than you need, keep the rest in a dry, airtight container in a dry place or get busy making ranch dressing or Bechamel white sauce. 

Now blend

I find that a blender does a better job than my food processor in this case. This is likely because there is not such a large amount of ingredients, to begin with. For best results, take a layered approach when adding your sour cream ingredients. Start with a liquid, such as the lemon juice, add half the ground cashews, add the apple cider vinegar, the rest of the cashews, and a pinch of salt. If you start with 1 cup of raw cashews, then on the top, add ¼ of a cup of water.

You want to add the water slowly. You can adjust the thinness, but you can’t get it thicker, so take it steady. Once you’ve blended using the first bit of water, add either a tablespoon or at most 2 tablespoons at a time. Taste along the way (like I need to ask). Add more lemon juice or vinegar as you go. 

I love the part when I’m standing there, looking at a big bowl of sour cream, knowing it’s plant-based healthy and ready to top off potatoes, tacos, refried beans, or chili. But besides using it as a creamy meal-maker, you can easily switch up the flavor with a few simple ingredients. Need some inspiration? Consider these: 

Salsa – a half salsa, half sour cream mix tastes fantastic with any Mexican-inspired meal.

Onion dip – mince and sauté onions or add dry onions and a pinch of garlic powder and let the dipping begin!

Horseradish – add a teaspoon and make a sauce that is divine on tofu bacon and tomato sandwich.

Smoked paprika – add ½ to 1 teaspoon of this smoky, hot spice and make a topper for baked potatoes.

Avocado cream – think guacamole on steroids and mix mashed avocado, a pinch of garlic powder, dried crushed chilies, sour cream, and a tablespoon of minced cilantro.

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