Hey all,

I am currently working on shifting towards a vegan diet. I have recently purchased a number of cookbooks from the thrift shop, most of them older cookbooks not centred around any specific diet, some of them based on a vegetarian, and one single one about vegan baking.

My reason for getting older cookbooks and ones focused on vegetarianism rather than veganism despite me trying to go vegan is because I’ve also been challenging myself to purely purchase second-hand goods whenever possible. This, when paired with my tight budget, has unfortunately made most vegan cookbooks too expensive, as the thrift shop I most often frequent, sells their books at a dollar a piece.

The one vegan cookbook I have has some suggestions for ingredient substitutions. For sour cream, it suggests using either 1 part soy yogurt, 1 part soy cream, and a splash of lemon juice as one option, and finely pureed silken tofu as another option.

My three questions are the following:

  1. Considering that this cookbook is focused specifically on vegan baking, will these sour cream substitutes work as such in general cooking, or purely where sour cream is used in baking?

  2. For the soy yogurt-based substitute, would oat or almond-based equivalents also work, or are there certain qualities exclusive to soy alternatives that other plant alternatives don’t have that makes them most suitable as a sour cream substitute?

3.When shopping, are products labelled as “creamer” the same as products labelled as “cream”? I was only able to find the former at the supermarket.

Thanks for any and all help in advance, and I apologize if this isn’t the community best suited for a question such as this. I’ve been especially curious as I have an older blender-centric cookbook from 1961 that has some vegetarian soup recipes with the only thing keeping them from being vegan being the inclusion of sour cream as a thickening agent.

  • Slatlun@lemmy.mlEnglish
    4·
    10 days ago
    1. In my experience creamer is meant for coffee/tea. It is not the same as cream. I think it even has less fat than half and half. I would check the nutritional labels against the dairy equivalent to see the comparative fat content. If all else fails, you might be able to find coconut cream in the canned food section.
  • Nimrod@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    9 days ago

    Going to be tough to answer any of these questions with authority, as I do not bake much, and nothing I’ve ever baked has used sour cream. My experience with sour cream substitutes is just slipping it on top of tacos/fajitas/burritos. And for that purpose- it works just fine.

    Regarding using four cream as a thickener for soups- any thickener is going to work. Another poster suggested coconut cream, that works well for me. Adding starch of any kind will also work to thicken soups. If you’re looking for extra protein: blend up some cooked white beans, or silken tofu works really well for this too.

    Now for your question #2: I don’t know if I’ve ever encountered vegan sour cream with oat or almond bases, but I know when comparing oat/soy/almond milk— the soy is the only one with protein and fat content. Oat and almond milk tend to have very little nutrition, and are mostly cloudy water (exaggeration). So I tend to use unsweetened soy for most my cooking. Your mileage may vary.

    Good luck!! And remember that you don’t have to only cook from physical cook books- the internet is LOADED with good vegan recipes. Do some experimenting. Don’t be discouraged when something doesn’t turn out, it takes a while to get the hang of using so many new ingredients!