Home / Substitution Guides / Heavy Cream
Heavy cream is ~36% fat, and that fat is the point: it thickens sauces, enriches soups, and whips into peaks. Successful substitutes bring real fat, not just liquid.
Best for: Soups, curries, whipping (chill the can overnight)
The only common vegan option that whips. Mild coconut note.
Best for: Pasta sauces, gratins · neutral and silky
Not nut-free; sub sunflower-seed cream for allergies.
Best for: Pan sauces, mashed potatoes, chowders
Won't whip, but pours and simmers like light cream.
Coconut cream splits under hard boiling with acid (tomato, wine). Add it off the heat at the end, or stabilize with a teaspoon of cornstarch slurry first.
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Chilled coconut cream. Refrigerate a can of full-fat coconut milk overnight, scoop the solid layer, and whip with powdered sugar. Aquafaba also whips but is lighter and less stable.
Cashew cream for the closest texture, or oat cooking cream for a nut-free pantry option. Simmer gently and finish with a little of the starchy pasta water to bind.
Full-fat coconut cream is the closest match, at 1:1. Soups, curries, whipping (chill the can overnight). The only common vegan option that whips. Mild coconut note.
Full-fat coconut cream (1:1) if you want the closest result, or Cashew cream (1 cup soaked cashews + ¾ cup water, blended) (1:1) for pasta sauces, gratins · neutral and silky. Which one is right depends on what the heavy cream was doing in the dish.
Related guides: Milk · Butter · Cream Cheese · All guides