Creamy, tangy and perfect vegan sour cream! An ideal replacement for ‘regular’ sour cream, perfect to use wherever a sour cream is needed.
This vegan sour cream is everything you want a sour cream to be, creamy, tangy and rich!
It’s the best accompaniment to a baked potato out there.
In fact, I may or may not have made roughly 10 baked potatoes on the same day I made this batch of vegan sour cream (oh I did!).
It’s amazing as a topping for Mexican dishes like vegan nachos or vegan tacos, as a dip or spread, on top of soups, on a big bowl of vegan chili, as a salad dressing, stirred into your vegan mushroom stroganoff and of course, as mentioned, on top of your baked potatoes (with chives, always with chives!).
How to make vegan sour cream
It’s a super easy 6-ingredient recipe that just involves throwing some raw cashews, water, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast and sea salt in the blender.
You blend it up until it’s very smooth and there you have it!
Soaking the cashews
You don’t need to soak your cashews first unless your blender is a weak model.
If you know your blender is likely to have a hard time with this, then soaking them for 15 minutes in boiling water is sufficient to soften the cashews enough to make them really easy to blend.
The result is a perfectly creamy, tangy cream with the ideal amount of sour!
Cashews provide the creamy base, and lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and nutritional yeast combine to create the tanginess.
A little sea salt for flavor balance and just enough water for the perfect thickness and you have a perfectly delicious vegan sour cream.
So if you have been wanting a dairy free alternative to regular sour cream then you are going to super pleased because this stuff is the bees knees (whatever the bees knees means, but it’s something good)!
How long does Vegan Sour Cream Last in the Fridge?
It lasts about a week in the fridge in a sealed container.
Can you Freeze Vegan Sour Cream?
Yes it is freezer friendly! So if you think you’ll take longer than a week to eat it all, then definitely freeze some of it. Just place it into a freezer safe container and freeze.
You will love this vegan sour cream, it is:
- Creamy
- Tangy
- Rich
- An ideal replacement for ‘regular’ sour cream
- Raw and gluten-free
Keep it stored in the fridge and consume within a week.
More vegan recipes:
What do you think of this vegan sour cream recipe? Let us know in the comments and rate the recipe too as that is super helpful! Thanks so much!
Sign up to our email list for an awesome recipe ebook containing 10 gorgeous dinner recipes (entirely free!) and you’ll also be the first to know whenever new recipes are posted to the blog.
Vegan Sour Cream
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup
Description
Creamy, tangy and perfect vegan sour cream! An ideal replacement for ‘regular’ sour cream, perfect for use wherever a sour cream is needed. Great in Mexican dishes and delicious on top of a baked potato (with chopped chives, of course!).
Ingredients
- 1 cup (150g) Raw Cashews
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Water
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice (Freshly Squeezed)
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 1/2 tsp Sea Salt
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to the blender and blend until very smooth.
- Enjoy wherever sour cream is needed. Great with chopped chives on top!
Notes
*You don’t have to soak the cashews first in this recipe. We didn’t soak them first. But if you know your blender is likely to have a hard time, then you can soak them in boiling water for 15 minutes just to soften them slightly so they’re easier to blend.
- Category: Raw, Gluten-Free, Dip
- Method: Blend
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/4 of the recipe
- Calories: 212
- Sugar: 2.5g
- Sodium: 297mg
- Fat: 16.5g
- Saturated Fat: 2.9g
- Carbohydrates: 12.3g
- Fiber: 1.3g
- Protein: 7.1g
Keywords: vegan sour cream
This didn’t really taste like sour cream but it balanced delightfully with some spicy rice and beans! I would make this again!
★★★★
I love this recipe! I have adapted it to make creme fraiche. I add a teaspoon of vegan lactic acid and reduce the lemon juice by half. I can now make a tasty, creamy mushroom and spinach sauce for pasta that tastes like the dairy version! It’s unreal… Thank you ☺️
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Rani!
Not quite as creamy as real sour cream, but I think I like the taste better than the real thing!
5 stars, thank you for this recipe.
Thanks Trudy!
My dietary restrictions prevent me from having yeast of any kind. Is it possible to leave out or substitute the nutritional yeast? If so, what would you suggest?
Hi Brenda, it’s completely fine to just leave it out in this recipe. 🙂
I’ve been vegan for several years (my husband not as long), but I’m always looking for ‘better’ recipes of familiar foods — like sour cream. Truly, this is the very best sour cream recipe I’ve come across, and I’ve tried many. I didn’t change the recipe at all, in fact, I should say my husband followed the recipe as written. He made it for our Mexican buddha bowls. Try it, you won’t be disappointed! I only came across this website when I googled vegan sour cream for our dinner tonight. I’m anxious to try some more recipes.
★★★★★
Thanks so much Sandra! So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Used this as a base and added green chilies and artichoke hearts. Wow, it was delicious. I gobbled it up in a few days.
★★★★★
Wonderful! So glad you enjoyed it.
Absolutely delicious, making this again and couldn’t resist not to comment. My non vegan husband absolutely loves this sauce.
★★★★★
Fantastic! Thanks Tanya!
Do you have to use cashews? Would walnuts or pecans work?
Walnuts or pecans wouldn’t be a good fit here but you could try slivered or blanched almonds. The texture will be slightly different (not as smooth), but it would work.
It was nice. I find it is a bit too thick for me, so I added water. In terms of consistency it was perfect, though I find it is a bit sweetish, next time I think I’d add more salt and maybe some mustard to make it more tangy. But overall the recipe is very nice, and most importantly super easy and quick to do. Thank you!
★★★★★
First vegan sour cream recipe I’ve seen that didn’t use tofu (I love tofu in other things, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t stand the flavor it imparts in sauces!). It is OUTSTANDING. I haven’t had a vegan cream cheese that I liked in many years. Thank you!!
★★★★★
Thanks Melanie!
Delicious. l didn’t soak my cashews and it was so smooth. Thanks for the recipe
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks so much Stacey! 🙂
Do you think this would work well in baking? I have a cake recipe that calls for sour cream.
Hi Chris, I haven’t used it that way so I’m not sure. I would probably try it though!
This was really easy and tasty but I will say 2 things:
1. Even with a Thermomix I couldn’t get this smooth so I will soak the cashews next time. Doesn’t affect taste I’m sure!
2. As a ‘new vegan’ who is dragging an ‘anti-vegan’ husband along for the ride, this tastes absolutely nothing like sour cream… but still bloody delicious! 🙂
★★★★★
Hi Kiki, you can soak them briefly as we discuss in the post, but just be wary of soaking them too long, because usually when someone says a cashew based recipe turned out bland/too watery, it’s because they soaked the cashews overnight, whereas we don’t actually soak them at all in this recipe. So shorter soak time is best. We use a Vitamix and have no issues with getting it super smooth, I have never used a thermomix though. Thanks for the great review and so glad you found it delicious! 🙂
How long do you think this would keep for in the fridge?
Up to a week. 🙂