Vegan Heavy Cream substitute

Best substitute

Cashew Cream

¾ cup raw cashews blended with ¾ cup water makes about 1 cup

Best for pasta sauce

Close match

Decide first whether you are simmering it or whipping it, because almost no vegan cream does both. For sauces, soups and pasta, blended cashew cream at 3/4 cup raw cashews to 3/4 cup water is the best swap and will never split. For anything that has to whip or set firm, chill a can of full-fat coconut milk overnight and whip only the solid cream from the top. Full-fat canned coconut milk also works one for one in curries and ganache.

Other vegan heavy cream substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Full-Fat Canned Coconut Milk or Coconut Cream
Different taste
Use the same amount for cooking; for whipping, chill overnight and use only the solid top layer
The only widely available option that both cooks and whips, at the cost of coconut flavor.
What changes
Best for
curries, ganache, whipped topping, ice cream, tomato cream sauce
This is the workhorse. Its saturated fat sets hard when cold, which is why it is the standard vegan whipped cream and why it makes a firm ganache. The trade is unmistakable coconut aroma, which is invisible in a Thai curry or a dark chocolate ganache and very obvious in an alfredo or a potato soup. To mute it in savory dishes, add extra salt, a teaspoon of lemon juice and a little nutritional yeast. Look for pressed or refined coconut cream if you want less aroma.
3Carton Oat Cream or Soy Cream
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
The most convenient direct swap for cooking, but neither one whips.
What changes
Best for
pasta sauce, soups, quiche filling, mashed potatoes, gravy
Oat cream is slightly sweet, so a savory sauce made with it needs more salt and a squeeze of lemon to balance. Soy cream is more neutral but splits more readily when you add acid to a hot pan, so stir in wine or lemon off the heat. Both are around the fat of single cream rather than heavy cream, so they will not reduce down into a thick coating sauce the way dairy does. Finish with a teaspoon of cornstarch slurry if you need body.
4Silken Tofu Blended With Oil
Taste and texture differ
1 block (about 12 oz) silken tofu plus 2 tablespoons neutral oil makes about 1 ½ cups
Very neutral, high in protein, nut-free, and prone to tasting flat.
What changes
Best for
savory cream sauces, quiche, creamy soups, baked pasta
Blend for longer than you think necessary, until there is no chalkiness left. It gives real body and it is stable in the oven, which is why it is popular in vegan quiche. The problem is that it has almost no flavor of its own and a slight bean edge, so it can make a sauce taste watery and dull unless you season aggressively with salt, garlic, nutritional yeast and acid. It does not whip and it does not brown.
5Coconut Cream Plus Melted Refined Coconut Oil
Taste and texture differ
1 cup coconut cream plus 2 tablespoons melted refined coconut oil
For anything that must set firm at fridge temperature.
What changes
Best for
ganache, truffles, chocolate tart filling, no-bake cheesecake
Extra saturated fat is what turns a soft coconut ganache into one you can slice or roll. Refined coconut oil is worth seeking out here because it is deodorized and tastes far less coconutty than virgin. Expect the set to be firmer and more brittle than a dairy ganache, and expect it to soften quickly at room temperature, so keep the finished dessert cold until it is served.
6Oat Milk Plus Vegan Butter
Taste and texture differ
1 cup oat milk plus 2 tablespoons vegan butter, warmed together
The genuine emergency version, and the honest limits of it.
What changes
Best for
creamy soups, mashed potatoes, gravy, scalloped potatoes
This gets you fat plus liquid, which is enough to enrich a soup or loosen a mash, and it takes ninety seconds. What it will not do is reduce into a sauce that coats pasta, because there is no emulsifier holding the fat and liquid together and it will separate into a greasy layer if you boil it. Use it where the cream is being poured in at the end, not where it is being cooked down.

What is Vegan Heavy Cream?

Vegan Heavy Cream is Vegan heavy cream, also sold as dairy-free heavy cream, plant-based heavy cream or vegan double cream, is a thick high-fat non-dairy cream made from soy, oat, coconut or cashews, intended to stand in for dairy cream in cooking or whipping.

Cooking tips

The one thing to understand: whipping and simmering are two different jobs, and they need two different fats. Whipping needs saturated fat that turns solid when cold, which is why coconut works and cashew does not. Simmering needs fat plus a stable emulsion that will not break under heat and acid, which is why cashew works and a whippable carton cream often does not. Choose by job, not by which product says heavy cream on it.
There is no vegan cream that whips like dairy and simmers like dairy. If a recipe needs both, use chilled coconut cream for the whipped element and cashew cream for the cooked element. Anyone promising a single perfect one to one is glossing over this.
Coconut fat firms as it cools, so a coconut-based sauce thickens noticeably on the plate. Serve it a shade looser in the pan than you want it on the table.
Acid plus high heat is what splits soy and oat creams. Get the sauce to the consistency you want, take the pan off the burner, then stir in the lemon juice, wine or tomato. Stirring acid into a boiling plant cream is the usual cause of a curdled vegan pasta sauce.
If you are using a carton labeled whippable, everything must be cold: the carton overnight in the fridge, the bowl and the beaters in the freezer for fifteen minutes. These creams have a much narrower temperature window than dairy and will refuse to hold peaks if anything is even slightly warm.

Frequently asked questions

Can I whip coconut milk like heavy cream?

You can whip the solid part. Refrigerate a can of full-fat coconut milk upright and undisturbed overnight, open it without shaking, and scoop off only the thick white cream from the top, leaving the watery liquid behind. Whip that with a little powdered sugar. It holds peaks well and it tastes like coconut, which is either a feature or a problem depending on the dessert. Low-fat coconut milk will not work at all.

Can I just leave the vegan heavy cream out?

Rarely. In a soup you can replace it with extra broth plus a blended potato or a handful of cashews and get a decent result. In a pasta sauce, a ganache or a whipped topping, the cream is the dish and removing it means making something else. The one place omission genuinely works is where a recipe adds a couple of tablespoons at the end purely to soften color and edge, which you can skip.

Why did my vegan cream sauce curdle or go grainy?

Almost always acid meeting heat. Soy and oat creams destabilize when you add wine, lemon or a lot of tomato to a boiling pan. Take the pan off the heat before adding acid, keep the sauce below a rolling boil, and if it has already split, blend it smooth with a stick blender, which usually rescues it. Switching to cashew cream prevents the problem entirely, since there is no protein to coagulate.

Is there a nut-free and coconut-free vegan heavy cream substitute?

Blended silken tofu with a couple of tablespoons of oil is the main one, and it works well in savory sauces and baked dishes if you season it hard. Carton oat cream is another, though it is lower in fat and will not reduce. Sunflower seeds soaked and blended like cashews are a third option, slightly bitter and grayer in color but functional. None of these whip.

How much vegan heavy cream do I need for a ganache to set?

Use the same weight ratio as dairy, roughly equal parts chocolate and cream for a soft ganache and two parts chocolate to one part cream for a firm one, but use full-fat coconut cream rather than a carton cream. If it still refuses to set, melt in a tablespoon of refined coconut oil per cup of cream, which supplies the saturated fat the carton products lack.

Related substitutes

More dairy alternatives substitutes

Vegan Heavy Cream substitute

Other vegan heavy cream substitutes

2Full-Fat Canned Coconut Milk or Coconut Cream

3Carton Oat Cream or Soy Cream

4Silken Tofu Blended With Oil

5Coconut Cream Plus Melted Refined Coconut Oil

6Oat Milk Plus Vegan Butter