This vegan sour cream is the perfect finishing touch for so many recipes. Drizzled onto tacos or bowls of chili, dolloped on top of nachos or in baked potatoes, or even thinned out with citrus and other seasonings for a salad dressing. It comes together simply in the blender. 

You don’t need many ingredients to whip this up. Vegan sour cream is made from soaked cashews, water, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, and salt.

Soaking & Blending Cashews

• I use a high speed blender to make this. If you’re working with a similar blender, you only need to soak the raw cashews for 2 hours before draining, rinsing and blending. 
• For high speed blender users, you can also take a little shortcut if you forgot to soak. Simply cover the cashews with boiling water for about 10-15 minutes. Then proceed with the recipe.
• For a regular blender, I would soak as long as you can–up to overnight.
• I don’t recommend a food processor for this recipe. The resulting sour cream will still have some grit, no matter how long you run the motor.

I like the combination of acidity from both apple cider vinegar and lemon juice in this vegan replacement for sour cream. The apple cider vinegar is mildly sweet and the lemon is bright. The two in balance work really well. If you know that you’re using this sour cream for a particular purpose, you can mix up the flavours a bit too. Adding fresh dill, or cilantro and lime, or going super classic with chives.

For a vegan sour cream without cashews, I recommend substituting a similarly rich nut like raw macadamias or pine nuts. Macadamias will need overnight soaking in order to blend up nice and smooth. Pine nuts can be soaked similarly to cashews.

Recipes for your vegan sour cream:

• Grilled Sweet Potato Burrito Bowls
• Buffalo Chickpea Chili with Mushrooms
• Vegan Chopped Cabbage Roll Skillet
• Vegan Caramelized Onion Dip
• Sweet Potato Pecan Tacos

I recommend using this sour cream as a condiment, sauce, or as a component of a dip. It will not function like dairy-based sour cream in baking recipes.

Tangy Vegan Sour Cream

This tangy vegan sour cream is perfect for spooning onto chili, baked potatoes, nachos, and so much more! Made with only 4 ingredients and ready to go in 5 minutes. This dairy-free sour cream substitute keeps in the fridge for up to a week.

5 from 3 votes

Print Recipe

Prep Time: 5 minutes mins

Total Time: 5 minutes mins

Servings 1 cup

Ingredients

• ¾ cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours, drained and rinsed (see notes)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ¼ cup water, plus extra

Equipment

• Blender

Notes

• If you have a high speed blender and you don’t have time to soak the cashews, you can cover them with boiling water for about 10-15 minutes, drain and rinse, and then proceed with the recipe.
• This vegan sour cream keeps in the fridge for up to a week.
• I recommend using this sour cream as a condiment–dolloping on baked potatoes, nachos, and other savoury foods. It will not function like dairy-based sour cream in baking recipes.

Instructions

• In an upright, high speed blender, combine the drained cashews, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, salt, and water. Blend on high. Pause to scrape down the sides of the blender if necessary. Add more water by the tablespoon if you need a little extra to get the blade moving. Once you have a silky smooth and creamy consistency, after about 1 minute of blending, you’re good to go.
• Transfer the vegan sour cream to a sealed container and store in the fridge for up to a week.

Author: Laura Wright

Course: Basics, Sauce

Diet: Gluten Free, Vegan, Vegetarian

Keyword: 5 ingredients, apple cider vinegar, blender, cashews, lemon, lemon juice, non-dairy sour cream, quick, salt, vegan sour cream