I’ve ben making this recipe for a couple of years now and I’m wondering why moore people aren’t doing it (here’s the original Danish blogpost). I’m sure others have made this discovery as well, but since the whole vegan community isn’t raving about it, I see it as my duty to get it out there.I came up with this recipe after failing to make homemade tofu. I endend up with one part whey and one part, well not very tofu-y mess. Another recipe that came from this was my vegan feta cheese. But I was curious to see what happened if I simply blended up the curds and was generously rewarded when I ended up with this smooth, dreamy, creamy lovely tasting ehrm substance. A pinch of salt and sugar and it tasted quite a lot like sour cream or creme fraiche.
This sour cream can be used as a base for dips and dressings, on top of chili sin carne and in more or less all other recipes that require sour cream. Mind that it does’t contain as much fat so it might act a bit different if used in baking.
I rarely buy vegan sour cream substitutes, mainly bercause they contain a lot of fat (like around 79% of calories coming from fat) from added oils and often times palm oil. This recipe contains roughly the same amount of fat as tofu, which is actually not a little (in this example around 50%) but I like that it’s not coming from added oils.
How to make soy milk sour cream
Essentially you make a failed attempt of making tofu 😀 This is done by curdling soy milk and separating the whey and then NOT pressing it but instead blending up the curds. Be gentle when pouring the curdled soy milk into a cloth lined colander. This way you help keep it separated and this makes it easier to remove the whey.
I find that the easiest way to get the whey separated after curdling is to then hang it like this from a kitchen cupboard and let it drip into a meassuring jar. If starting with 4 cups of milk, you should let just under 3 cups of whey drip off. This gives the remaining sour cream a nice consistancy, but you can always adjust this to your exact liking by draining moore or less. Draining away 1/2 a cup more of the whey will leave you with a very thick sour cream. Don’t be put off, but top right picture here is what awaits you when unwrapping the cloth after dripping. A thorough blending with an imersion blender or a small foodprocessor will give you sour cream the desired consistancy. Keep blending for several minutes, it WILL turn smooth. Note that it will firm up moore on its own some time after blending and with refridgeration.
What soy milk should I be using?
I haven’t tried homemade – but this should definetly work. For store bought first of all I personally prefer go for one without sweeteners as this can add too much sweetness to the sour cream. It might still work for you but hold back on the sugar listed in the recipe. Also avoid additives like gums, stabilisers etc. which are likely to prevent the desired curdling (aka ‘separation’). An ingredient list containing nothing but soy, beans, water and salt is optimum. To test to see if your specifik soy milk will curdle, add just a tiny amount of lemon juicein a small container and pour a little soy milk over it. You should notice an instant thickening/curdling. This means the milk is very likely to work for making soy milk sour cream. Carry on!
NOTE: This is an original recipe of mine and if you wish to blog about my soy milk sour cream, please respect my work and link to this post instread of simply publising it on your own blog. Thanks 🙂 Nina
Soy milk sour cream or creme fraiche
INGREDIENSER
- 1 L (4 cups + 3 tbsps) unsweetened soy milk*
- 3/4 dl (1/4 cup + 1 tbs) freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 tiny pinch finely ground salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar (or your prefered neutral tasting sweetener)
SÅDAN GØR DU
CURDLE THE MILK
- To optimize this step, heat the soy milk untill lukewarm. It should feel 'neutral' and be about 40°C or 100°F. Be carefull not to burn it.
- Mix lemon, water, salt in a bowl. Pour the heated soy milk over while trying to make it reach different areas of the lemon mixture. Now just once or maybe twice stir the curdling milk EVER so gently to distribute the lemon mixture and encourage a more even curdling. This is what it should look like:
- Let it sit untouched for 10-20 minutes with a lid on.
SEPARATE THE WHEY FROM THE CURD
- In a cloth lined colander or tofu press slowly gently pour the curdled milk. Let it drip for a couple of minutes and slowly start to wrap the cloth around it to strain it. I like to hang it as illustrated in the blog post. When most of the whey has dripped away press some more off with your hands. Only clear whey should come out. If white stuff somes out, you're pressing too hard.
BLEND IT SMOOTH
- Open the cloth. Spoon out the mushy mess into a jar and with an immersion blender mix it for a coulple of minutes untill completely smooth. A small foodprocessor can also be used. It gets firmer when chilled and also when you allow it to set after the blending. So it's best not to serve it straight after blending but allow it to rest - and chill - first.
TIPS & NOTER
How to obtain the ‘real’ taste of cultured sour cream
Add lactic acid
If this recipe is not authentic enough for ya, there are ways to make it even more convincing. One way is to simply buy vegan lactic acid either liquid or powdered and add it to your sour cream. You use it to adjust the level of sourness, but not all brands will be strong enough to do the actual curdling without the help of lemon juice. In this case simply replace some of the lemon juice with a smaller amount of lactic acid (the brand I have is about 5 times as strong so 5 ml lactic acid replaces 25 ml of lemon juice)
Cultured vegan sour cream
Another way is to actually culture the sour cream after you’ve separated it. You do this by adding a starter culture before you blend up the sour cream mess. At this point, it should have the perfect temperature for initiating the culturing (about 40C or 100F). Then you wrap it and leave it in a lukewarm environment for 12-24 hours. THEN you blend and enjoy. If you can’t find a vegan ‘starter culture’ do what I do: Adding any food grade probiotic supplement containing an active kind of acidophulus strand should work, like these ones (make sure you find a vegan brand!). This gives you a crazy realistic taste of sour cream, so I really urge you to try it at least once – you deserve it 😉
Hello Nina! This recipe seems interesting. Can I use Scheimann’s active dry yeast as a starter?
Hi 🙂 There’s no culturing, proofing or rising process in this recipe, so I’m not sure what you would use yeast for? 🤔😊 I’m using an acid for separating things, and that can’t be substituted for dry yeast …
All the best
Nina
Sorry, I meant to replace the starter culture in the optional culturing at the end of the recipe. I got probiotics, as suggested, instead. By the way, can I freeze the sour cream to extend it’s life or will that mess with the taste?
Oh I understand! Makes more sense 🙂
I have never attempted to freeze it. I don’t think the taste as such will change, but the consistency definetly will. So it might taste weird for that reason. You should be able to recreate the consistency somewhat, by blending it together 🙂
Nina
I forgot to put stars, I give it five stars!
I feel so lucky to have found this recipe! I have been making it regularly ever since. I use a bit more lemon juice and pour it straight into the warmed soy milk in the pan. I have tried it with different soy milks and they all turned out well. I like using the most basic soy milk, we have a brand in the US that is only soybeans and water.
I like this cream so much better than any of the vegan commercial brand sour creams. I’m sure it’s much healthier, as well. I want to thank you so much for this recipe, I love making it and how easy it is. Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear this! Yes everyone should be making it – all the time, right!? 😅
Thanks for the feedback
All the best
Nina
Hello.
I just made this, and I was pleasantly surprised, as it tastes like real sour cream. Granted, I can taste the soy, but I really did not expect the other flavors to come together that way.
I will also use this recipe, in the future, to make plain tofu, as liquid nigari has not been working for me. I followed your instructions, to the letter, and the soy milk curdled immediately. At the end of the 20 minute wait, there were so many curds.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
You’re welcome! And thanks for taking your time to comment. Don’t forget to leave a rating, that along with your positive feedback is very helpful to my readers.
Congratulations on having homemade sour cream and tofu back in your life ♥️
All the best
Nina
Sadly this didn’t work for me, not sure where I went wrong!
Would you mind trying to trouble shoot so we can help others avoid any pitfalls?
What were the ingredients of the milk you used? 🤗
All the best
Nina
Just made it, Its brilliant! i can’t believe i have sour cream now! )
Congratulations on having sour cream! 🥳🎉
Now how easy was that? 😅
Best regards
Nina 🤗
Hello! I was wondering, if this was strained for longer, do you think it would hold up as a mascarpone alternative? Such a nice recipe, and I will try it for both sour cream and mascarpone, but was wondering your thoughts on the matter, or if there would be something to make it more similar? Thank you, for both your time and the wonderful recipe!
Hi 🤗 I actually don’t have ANY experience with mascarpone 🤭 I think it might be more … airy?
Let me know if you made any experiments since I didn’t reply for a looooong time 😝 sawy!
Nina
Hi Nina, I’m so excited so try this, I’ve got the almonds ready in the blender! Just wondering if I could use yoghurt in place of the lactic acid which would then allow me to also culture the sour cream (though I’d have to reheat the mixture to 42°c to activate the bacteria 🤔). Have you ever tried?
I haven’t tried but you’re absolutely right it might work culturing it but remember that this process will also thicken it significantly 🤗
Best
Nina
Hejsa
Jeg overvejer at lave tiramisu, og jeg jeg tænker jeg bare må være kreativ og prøve lidt forskelligt, så slaæ der absolut salt i mælken her? hvis nu jeg ville bruge den til dessert?
Hej Amelia, cremefraiche lavet af komælk indeholder også natrium (salt). Jeg tror du vil opdage at hvis du undlader Salten så får den en mærkelig fad smag Og der mangler noget. Men ja, i princippet kan du sagtens undlade at tilsætte det. Jeg vil dog anbefale det også selvom du skal bruge det i det søde køkken 🙂
Venlig hilsen Nina
Some great recipes thank you. Do you think I could make this soy-free and nut-free by swapping the milk to oat milk or some other soy-free and nut-free plant-based milk?
No I’m afraid not :/ It needs to be either soy or nut…
Hope you find an alternative.
Best regards
Nina
Hi, are you saying when I’m draining this is should not be refrigerated? And, if I add the probiotic and let it sit for 12-24 hours it should also not be refrigerated? It seems like it could go bad. No?
The training won’t take that long, so no you don’t have to refrigerate it.
And if you’re adding probiotics, they need a certain temperature to do their magic. It won’t work if you put them in the refrigerator. And the thing is, the lactic acid bacteria (which is what the probiotics are my parenthesis) will make sure that no other bacteria are able to survive in the sour cream. So unless your batch is somehow contaminated, it won’t go bad, that is the essence of culturing 🙂
I hope that helps.
Best regards
Nina
Hello. Wondering how long this lasts for in the fridge?
It will probably last anywhere from 3 to 5 days. Make sure you use very clean utensils, bowls etc. this will prolong shelflife.
All the best
Nina
Hi there, thank you so much for this recipe!!! How would you adjust this to make Cream cheese?
I would do something like this 🙂 https://plantepusherne.dk/almond-milk-cream-cheese/
Best regards
Nina
Hi Nina,
Thank you for the nice looking recipe! How many capsules of probiotic do you add
Hi Nickie 🙂 I would use two capsules for this one batch from 4 cups of soy milk. Good luck I hope you enjoy it.
All the best
Nina
Thank you!! I made it last night and added three capsules .since I wasn’t sure how many to really add….. I tried it this morning. It’s absolutely delicious. I’m sending this recipe to all my friends. Please post more oil-free dips/spreads recipes.
thank you, thank you, thank you, I’ve been contemplating if lemon & soy milk would give similar results as lemon & cow milk for last few months, but never dared to try. I’ll try making it tomorrow and write back how it worked
Well it will – I hope you enjoy it now you have been taking the plunge 😉
Vh Nina
Hello,
I am making the almond version of this. When do I add the lactic acid? I’ve had lactic acid in the cabinet but never used it before.
Thank you in advance
Hi Johanne, I’m pretty sure I saw you comment somewhere else that you had made this recipe, that’s why I didn’t get back to you sooner – so I hope you figured it out? 🙂 but if not, here goes: if the Lactic Acid is very strong you can use that instead of lemon juice to curdle the milk. You have to reduce the amount though. Some lactic acid won’t be strong enough so you just add a little at the end to adjust acidity.
Best Nina
Thanks for this great recipe! My sister just became vegan & since I like using sour creme when cooking, I wasn’t sure how to prepare some of my favourite dishes for her now. This sounds like a fantastic solution to my problem & I can’t wait to try out the recipe. So, thanks a million:)
Is this also the way to make homemade tofu, by draining more whey or is there a different recipe?
Greetings, Naomi
Yes! The only difference is that when making tofu, you’ll normally use nigari or Epson salt as coagulant. You could do it with ACV but it wont be as firm.
My recipe makes for an excellent base for cream cheese as well. What a great sis you are, looking for solutions for your sister <3
All the best
Nina
This tastes like “real” sour cream! Where has this recipe been all my vegan life?! Best sour cream ever.
I’m so happy to have you reunited with the taste of the ‘old fashioned’ sour cream 😉
Best
Nina