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Nut-Free Vegan Cilantro Cream Sauce is the perfect plant-based addition to your tacos, enchiladas, or any other Mexican dish.

I’ve been experimenting quite a bit with plant-based/vegan dishes. It seems like the hardest thing for me to give up is not the meat, but actually dairy. I love everything creamy and cheesy, and the available substitutes just aren’t the same. Instead of giving up, I decided to make my own plant-based creamy goodness, and this easy Vegan Cilantro Cream Sauce was born.

What to know about vegan sour cream

There are so many options nowadays for vegan dairy replacements. While it’s easy to find plant-based yogurt or milk in almost any supermarket, sour cream is not as widely available (at least in my experience). The most readily available option we found was Tofutti, which is soy-based. This can be found either with the rest of the sour creams at the supermarket, or sometimes in its own dairy-free refrigerator section.

The Tofutti sour cream was very creamy–surprisingly creamy, actually. With such creaminess, it’s a really great stand-in for real sour cream, especially with an added squeeze of lemon or lime for tang.

If you decide to use a different brand of sour cream, I recommend tasting it first to make sure it actually tastes like sour cream. The consistency should be thick, like real sour cream. You may need to add more or less citrus, or even more cilantro if it needs some additional flavor.

Where should I use this sauce?

This sauce is perfect in any recipe that requires crema, or Mexican cream sauce. I poured it over my vegan enchiladas before baking, and then used a little extra as dip. You could pour some on tacos, quesadillas, or even use the sauce on its own as a dip for vegetables.

Is this recipe Top-8 Free?

Unfortunately, the answer is no, because it contains soy. Most dairy substitutes contain at least one of the top-8 allergens, which can be hard for families with multiple allergies. This recipe is free of dairy (cow’s milk), egg, wheat, tree nuts, peanut, fish, shellfish, and sesame, as long as you use the Tofutti sour cream (you should double-check the label yourself). If you use another brand, please check to be sure that it is free of allergens you are trying to avoid.

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Vegan Cilantro Cream Sauce (nut-free)

Vegan Cilantro Cream Sauce is a nut-free, creamy sauce that adds brightness to any Mexican dish.

Course Main Course, sauce

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword sauce, vegan

Prep Time 10 minutes

Servings 1 batch

Calories 490 kcal

Ingredients

• 1 cup Tofutti Sour Cream (dairy-free)
• 3-5 tsp fresh lemon or lime juice
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
• 1 tbsp minced onion
• salt

Instructions

1. Add the sour cream, 1 tsp of lemon/lime juice, cilantro, and onion into the bowl of a food processor or blender. Pulse until well combined and the cilantro is finely minced. Add more lemon/lime juice, 1 tsp at a time, and pulse to combine. Taste, and add more as desired. Add salt to taste, and again pulse to combine.

2. Allow the cream sauce to sit covered in the refrigerator for about 1-2 hour before serving.

Recipe Notes

Try using more cilantro for a stronger flavor.