Cashew Milk substitute

Best substitute

Oat milk

Use the same amount unsweetened for savoury cooking as the cashew milk you are replacing

Best for coffee and tea

Different taste

Oat milk is the closest swap at one to one, since it is similarly creamy, though sweeter and slightly grainier, so use unsweetened for savoury cooking. Almond milk is the obvious relative and the easiest to find, but it is noticeably thinner, so if creaminess is the point add a teaspoon of cornstarch or a tablespoon of almond butter or tahini per cup. Soy milk is the one to use if the dish has to set, brown or thicken, because it has the protein for it. If you are swapping because of a nut allergy, oat, rice, hemp and carton coconut milk are the routes to take.

Other cashew milk substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Almond milk plus a thickener
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch or 1 tablespoon almond butter per cup
The obvious cousin, made from the same kind of nut and stocked everywhere, but a much thinner liquid than cashew milk.
What changes
Best for
cereal, smoothies and drinking, cakes, muffins and pancakes, light sauces, iced coffee
More assertively nutty and considerably more watery, because almonds leave a lot of pulp behind when strained where cashews do not. Used straight in a dairy-free alfredo or a chowder the result tastes thin and hollow in a way people describe as watery rather than as almondy. The cornstarch or nut butter fixes that almost entirely. In hot espresso it separates into visible flecks more readily than cashew milk does.
3Soy milk
Different taste
Use the same amount
The protein-rich plant milk, and the one to choose when the recipe needs to do something more than taste creamy.
What changes
Best for
baking that needs structure, custards, puddings and anything that sets, browning in pancakes and French toast, bechamel and lasagne, coffee, using a barista blend
Beanier and less silky than cashew milk, and less sweet, but it has roughly seven times the protein, which is why a baked custard or a vegan flan made with soy sets properly and one made with cashew milk stays loose. Buy unsweetened for savoury use. In hot acidic coffee it can curdle unless it is a barista version, so warm it gently first and pour the coffee into the milk.
4Carton coconut milk beverage
Different taste
Use the same amount or 1 part tinned coconut milk to 2 or 3 parts water
The carton drink rather than the tin, which is comparably rich to cashew milk and is nut free in the tree-nut sense that matters to most allergy sufferers.
What changes
Best for
curries and Southeast Asian dishes, smoothies, tropical baking, nut-free, soy-free and gluten-free households
Similar creaminess with an unmistakable coconut flavour, which is either perfect or wrong depending entirely on the dish. Fine in a curry, a chocolate cake or a mango smoothie; noticeably out of place in a mushroom soup or a cup of tea. Do not use tinned coconut milk undiluted in place of cashew milk, because it is several times richer and will make the dish heavy and greasy. Diluted, it is one of the best options for multiple allergies.
5Make it yourself, and make cashew cream while you are there
Close match
½ cup raw cashews to 1 ½ cups water for milk, or to ½ cup water for cream
Cashew milk is one ingredient and ninety seconds in a blender, and adjusting the water gives you either a milk or a heavy cream stand-in.
What changes
Best for
dairy-free cream sauces, creamy soups, vegan alfredo, vodka sauce and tikka masala, coffee creamer, any recipe promising real creaminess
Homemade is dramatically richer than the boxed kind, which is often only two or three per cent cashews with the rest water and gums. If a recipe leans on cashew milk for creaminess and the carton is disappointing you, this is why. Soak raw cashews four hours in cold water or fifteen minutes in boiling water unless your blender is powerful, use raw rather than roasted, and blend a full minute. It keeps three or four days in the fridge and separates, so shake it.
6Hemp, sunflower seed or rice milk, for nut allergies
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
The routes to take when the reason for the substitution is that cashews are off the table entirely.
What changes
Best for
nut-free cooking and baking, smoothies and cereal, school and allergy-safe recipes, soups, with a thickener added
Hemp milk is the closest in richness of the three, with a distinctly grassy, seedy flavour that disappears in a smoothie or a spiced dish and stands out in a plain sauce. Sunflower seed milk is thinner and faintly bitter. Rice milk is the thinnest and sweetest and contributes almost nothing but liquid, so a sauce made with it needs extra thickening. Oat milk is usually the best nut-free option overall, as long as gluten is not also a concern. Worth knowing that people allergic to pistachios often react to cashews too, since the two are closely related.

What is Cashew Milk?

Cashew Milk is Cashew milk is raw cashews blended with water, and because cashews are soft enough to break down completely rather than leaving pulp behind, it needs no straining and comes out the creamiest and most neutral-tasting of the common plant milks.

Cooking tips

Boxed cashew milk and homemade cashew milk are very different products. Cartons are typically a small percentage of cashews plus water and gums, and they will not thicken a sauce or enrich a soup the way recipes promise. If a recipe is built around cashew milk's creaminess, blend your own: half a cup of raw cashews to a cup and a half of water.
Use raw cashews, not roasted and salted. Roasted cashews make a beige, toasty, slightly bitter milk that tastes of nuts rather than of cream, and salted ones will wreck a dessert. Raw cashew pieces are cheaper than whole and work identically since you are pulverising them anyway.
Soak before blending unless you have a high-powered machine: four hours in cold water, or fifteen minutes in just-boiled water if you are in a hurry. Unsoaked cashews in an ordinary blender leave a fine grit that no amount of extra blending removes and that you will feel on the tongue in a smooth sauce.
Cashew milk scorches and can separate over high heat, because it is an emulsion of nut fat rather than a stabilised dairy product. Add it toward the end of a soup or a curry, keep it below a hard boil, and do not reduce it aggressively. If it does look grainy, a quick blitz with a stick blender usually brings it back together.
It foams poorly for latte art, since it has very little protein and protein is what builds microfoam. Barista cashew blends contain added oils and stabilisers for exactly this reason. For a flat white, barista oat or barista soy will get you further.
Adjust the water and cashew milk becomes whatever you need. A cup and a half of water per half cup of cashews is a pouring milk, half a cup of water is a heavy cream that will enrich a sauce, and a quarter cup makes a thick spoonable cream you can use in place of sour cream once you add lemon and salt.

Frequently asked questions

Is cashew milk creamier than almond milk?

Yes, and by a clear margin, for a structural reason: cashews are soft enough to blend to nothing so the whole nut ends up in the milk, whereas almonds leave a considerable amount of pulp behind in the straining bag. That makes cashew milk the plant milk to choose for creamy soups, mashed potatoes and dairy-free cream sauces, and almond milk more of a drinking and cereal milk. The comparison holds for homemade versions; some cartons of each are so diluted that the difference narrows.

Can I use cashew milk instead of heavy cream?

Boxed cashew milk, no, because it is mostly water and will not thicken or hold. Cashew cream, yes, and it is one of the better dairy-free cream substitutes there is: blend half a cup of raw soaked cashews with half a cup of water until completely smooth and use it one for one in place of cream in soups, pasta sauces and curries. It will not whip into peaks, since that needs the specific fat structure of dairy cream, and it will not stand in for cream in a caramel or a ganache.

What can I use if I am allergic to cashews?

Oat milk is the best all-round nut-free swap and the closest in creaminess, with carton coconut milk, hemp milk and rice milk as the other main options. Soy milk is nut free too and is the strongest choice for baking. Hemp is the richest of the seed milks and tastes grassy; rice milk is the thinnest and sweetest. One thing worth flagging: people who react to cashews often react to pistachios as well, since the two are closely related, so treat pistachio milk with caution.

Can I use cashew milk in coffee?

For a drip coffee or an iced coffee, yes, and it is one of the better plant milks for the job because it is creamy and nearly flavourless. For a cappuccino, no, since it has too little protein to build stable microfoam and will collapse into a thin layer of bubbles. Barista cashew blends contain added oil and stabilisers and do foam. It also holds up better than almond milk against hot espresso, which tends to make almond milk flake.

Does cashew milk need straining?

No, which is the main practical advantage of making it at home. Cashews soften and disperse completely, so once blended there is no pulp to remove and nothing is wasted, unlike almond milk which leaves a substantial amount of meal behind. Straining it through a fine sieve does no harm if you want it perfectly smooth, but if the cashews were soaked and blended long enough it is unnecessary.

Can I just leave the cashew milk out?

In a savoury dish where it is one liquid among several, stock or water takes its place and the result is simply less creamy. In baking it is most of the moisture, so removing it leaves a dough rather than a batter, and water plus a teaspoon of oil per cup is a reasonable emergency stand-in. In a recipe that exists specifically to be creamy, such as a dairy-free alfredo, it is the sauce, and something has to replace it.

Related substitutes

More dairy alternatives substitutes

Cashew Milk substitute

Other cashew milk substitutes

2Almond milk plus a thickener

3Soy milk

4Carton coconut milk beverage

5Make it yourself, and make cashew cream while you are there

6Hemp, sunflower seed or rice milk, for nut allergies