As a vegan or even as an aspiring vegan, few things match the thrill of making your own homemade dairy alternatives. Especially when they are super clean, affordable, easy-to-make, and perfectly delicious!
If you live in a highly developed metro you’ll likely find SEVERAL plant-based substitutes for cheese, yogurt, and other dairy products. But maybe you’re tired of spending all your money on store-bought alternatives. Or maybe you live in a place where veganism is still a seed that’s yet to sprout. Maybe you’re already a pro in the kitchen, simply looking to expand your recipe base. Or maybe, just maybe, you’re curious about giving vegan a go, but worried about missing the taste of cheese, butter, whipped cream, and all that goodness.
Whatever the case, these recipes are here to widen our knowledge and tickle our curiosity. Set aside a nice weekend afternoon to give one of these homemade dairy alternatives a try!
1. Easy Vegan Cheese Sauce
By ElaVegan
Who would skip an opportunity to make a luscious vegan queso that takes less than 5 minutes to prepare?! With just a minimal set of simple, affordable ingredients, you can make this gooey, stretchy cheese sauce that works perfectly on pizza, toasties, nachos, mac ‘n cheese, burgers, pasta, and more savory dishes.
2. Vegan Butter
By The Hidden Veggies
Once you try this easy homemade vegan butter, you will never want to buy vegan butter or margarine from a store ever again! With its true butter taste and texture, ease of preparation, long shelf life, and simplicity, it’s a total win. You can whip up a batch in a matter of minutes for about half the price of a soy margarine and a hundred times more delicious too!
3. Tofu Sour Cream
By Go Dairy Free
This vegan sour cream has a wonderfully light, creamy finish and is unbelievably simple to make. Since it uses staple pantry ingredients and takes no longer than 5 minutes to make, it’s a great recipe to have on hand. Pro tip: once you make it, chill it for a couple of hours before serving as it firms up a lot in that time and the texture becomes magic! Use it as a dip for chips, or in your nachos, sandwiches, salads, crepes… the choices are endless.
4. Easy Chocolate Coconut Yogurt
By Full of Plants
This 4-ingredient homemade chocolate yogurt is like a pure, healthy indulgence—velvety smooth, chocolatey, and naturally sweetened! Just note that while the prep time is less than 15 minutes, it will take overnight for it to ferment and set. So it’s an easy recipe, but not a very quick one and you’ll need to plan to make it ahead of time!
5. Vegan Mayo
By Jessica in the Kitchen
Who says vegans can’t eat mayonnaise! Here’s a reliable recipe for a vegan mayo that only takes 5 minutes to make, tastes incredible, and uses easy ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen. And the best part? You can use this as a base recipe and customise it to your liking.
6. Sweetened Condensed Milk
By Clean Green Simple
These sweetened condensed milk vegan alternatives are so versatile and you can use them in place of (dairy) condensed milk in any recipe. If you scroll through the full article you’ll actually find 3 recipes altogether – each one using a different set of ingredients. Choose your favourite and give it a try 🙂
7. Vegan Parmesan Cheese
By Bianca Zapatka
This is THE EASIEST recipe on this entire list of recipes. With only 4 ingredients and less than 5 minutes to make, this vegan parmesan is like the real deal. Instead of having a block of cheese to grate, think of this as a pre-grated / powdered parmesan cheese that you can just sprinkle onto your pasta, pizza, salads, risotto, or anything that you want to serve with a dairy-free parmesan. Oh, and it’s great on popcorn too!!
8. Vegan Whipped Cream
By School Night Vegan
Ditch the store-bought whipped creams which are ultra processed with lots of strange ingredients, and make this instead. Most vegan whipped cream recipes call for coconut milk, but this light and fluffy version is made with other simple ingredients and promises to be very reliable. Ideal for cakes, scones, and even for topping your coffee or hot chocolate!
9. Homemade Almond Milk (+ 5 Fun Flavours)
In-House: From the HappyCow Blog
Making your own homemade nut milks is not only more nutritious than buying them off the shelf but also more tasty—and it saves you a ton of money. Whether you’re someone who loves making homemade nut milks or even if you have never tried, you’ll enjoy the fun and simple almond milk recipe variations in this article.
10. Simple Vegan Ice Cream
By Chocolate Covered Katie
No list of vegan homemade dairy alternatives can be complete if it doesn’t include ice cream! 😉 This creamy coconut ice cream recipe is straightforward and easy to make at home with just 4 ingredients and no ice cream maker required. In just a few easy steps, and with many different flavour options, a luxurious bowl of homemade coconut milk ice cream can be all yours!
Have you ever tried making your own homemade dairy alternatives? What’s your go-to recipe for any of these? Let us know in the comments.
Related Articles:
– 10 Traditional Vegan Soup Recipes From Around the World
– Top 3 Steps to Go Vegan: Tips from the HappyCowmunity
– 8 Easy Vegan Desserts You Can Whip Up In No Time
– Surprisingly Creamy Vegan Pasta Recipes
– Great Post-Workout Vegan Breakfast Ideas to Fuel Your Day
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