Expert Chefs Lay Out 11 Substitutes For Heavy Cream

Heavy cream is a basic kitchen staple and can add a silky, smooth richness to a wide range of dishes, from no-bake cheesecakes to winter soups and creamy curries. However, there are a few good reasons why you might want to reduce the amount of heavy cream in your diet or replace this ingredient entirely. Heavy cream is high in fat and can give dishes a heavy or sickly feel. If you're cooking for vegans or anyone with a dairy intolerance, heavy cream is also off the menu.

For those who prefer a lighter touch or who want to cut back on animal products, there are a ton of great heavy cream substitutes that you can use to add richness to your food. To get a chef's eye view, we spoke to three professional cooks and asked them for their favorite heavy cream substitutes. Fanila Nawaby is the chef and owner of Mimi's Kabob in Maryland, Emily Laurae Carter is a trained pastry chef and the creator of Emily Laurae Studio, while Chef Trung Vu is a chef-instructor of Pastry and Baking Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City. These experts gave us a run-down of their favorite substitutes for heavy cream.

Fanila Nawaby explains that coconut milk is her number one choice of heavy cream substitute. According to Nawaby, coconut milk "provides a rich, creamy texture similar to heavy cream while being dairy-free, making it ideal for vegan or lactose intolerant diners." Nawaby especially likes to use coconut milk in meals like curry and soup, where the coconut flavor balances the savory elements and adds some complexity to the dish.

Coconut milk can also be used in desserts because it has a slightly sweet palette and a smooth, silky consistency. It also has roughly the same fat content as heavy cream, meaning you don't have to blend or thicken it with anything to create a similar texture. Nawaby suggests using a 1:1 ratio of coconut milk for heavy cream in most recipes. Coconut milk's rich, fatty texture also means you can whip it to create an equivalent for whipped cream.

This can make a delicious, coconut-flavored topping for a key lime pie or a filling for a batch of cannoli. Coconut milk is also an underrated ingredient you could be adding to boxed cake mix. Use it to add a light, fluffy texture to boxed coffee cake or make coconut and chocolate Betty Crocker brownies.

While heavy cream is extremely high in fat, Greek yogurt is a natural protein source, with around 20 grams of protein for every 200-gram serving. Fanila Nawaby also favors Greek yogurt as an effective heavy cream substitute, noting that "Greek yogurt adds a tangy flavor and creaminess to dishes with fewer calories and more protein than heavy cream ." Nawaby states that she prefers to use Greek yogurt as a cream alternative in sauces and soups and in some baking.

The slightly tart flavor that Greek yogurt brings to dishes can work well in a creamy tomato or broccoli soup. You can replace the heavy cream with Greek yogurt in pasta Marinara sauces or curries, like chicken korma or tikka masala. Greek yogurt is also one of those ingredients that will make your deviled eggs so much better if you prefer a slightly tangy filling over a creamy yolk mixture.

If you want to thin Greek yogurt slightly for baking, you can mix it with a little whole milk to create a more pourable texture. However, Greek yogurt cannot be used to substitute whipped heavy cream as its texture will not hold stiff peaks.

If you're looking for non-dairy substitutes for heavy cream, Fanila Nawaby recommends silken tofu, especially for making savory dishes. Nawaby notes that "silken tofu is a versatile, plant-based option that's high in protein and lower in fat, making it a healthier alternative to heavy cream." Silken tofu has a mild, neutral flavor and can be blended to replicate the consistency of heavy cream.

You can add your blended tofu to pasta sauces, curry sauces, or savory dips. Tofu also easily takes on and absorbs other flavors, making it great to use in spicy dishes to provide balance. You can also add silken tofu to creamy desserts, although you won't be able to whip tofu to a thick, fluffy consistency without adding extra fat. If you've never used it before and you're wondering how long tofu lasts in the fridge, you should aim to use it within one week of opening.

On the surface, cottage cheese and heavy cream seem like total opposites. Cottage cheese has a lumpy, curd-like texture and a crisp, tangy taste reminiscent of cream cheese, while heavy cream is pourable and smooth. However, Emily Laurae Carter assures us, "cottage cheese can work as a substitute for heavy cream, especially when blended to create a smooth texture."

The cheesy flavor works well if you want to add tartness to a dish instead of heavy cream's more neutral flavor. You can also mix some whole milk in with your cottage cheese to help water it down.

Like Greek yogurt, cottage cheese is also high in protein and lower in fat than heavy cream. Cottage cheese has around 14 grams of protein per half cup and is a good source of vitamin B12 and folate. Due to the lower fat content, cottage cheese does provide less richness than cream, which may not be as effective for binding baked goods. Instead of baking, Laurae recommends using cottage cheese as a light swap for sauces and soups.

Emily Laurae Carter explains that, for many recipes, "combining melted butter with milk adds the richness that heavy cream provides," although you should "keep in mind [that] it works best incorporated into cooking or baking rather than whipping." A milk and butter mix is a great, quick swap if you're making something that calls for heavy cream, but you've got none in the fridge. Instead of running to the store, mix around one part butter with three parts milk. Melt the butter first over low heat and mix well when you add it to the milk.

By adding butter, you put fat back into the milk, making it resemble heavy cream again. Just as you can make buttermilk with just two ingredients, mixing butter and milk is a handy way to recreate a creamy texture throughout your dish. Be aware that this method works best with whole milk as low-fat milk has had fat removed, which changes the ratios and means your dish won't be as creamy. If you want to mix butter and low-fat milk to make a heavy cream substitute, use a tablespoon of flour to bulk out the consistency. 

Fanila Nawaby explains, "Cashew cream is rich and creamy with a neutral flavor, making it suitable for both savory and sweet dishes." Cashew cream is also a versatile plant-based option for vegan desserts and nutrient-rich meals since cashews are high in protein, antioxidant polyphenols, and healthy fats. Nawaby explains that to make cashew cream at home, you need to soak raw cashew nuts (not roasted) in water for around four hours, then blend them in a food processor. You can then use a 1:1 ratio in any dish that asks for heavy cream.

Once made, cashew cream has a pourable consistency, unlike cashew butter, which is a firm paste that can be sold in jars. One drawback of making cashew cream at home is the price, as cashews cost around $6-8 per kilo. You'll also need a sturdy food processor or blender to finely puree the nuts.

Cashew cream can thicken soups or make plant-based pasta sauces. It can also replace cheese sauces in some dishes, such as cashew-based mac and cheese.

Nothing beats the light, airy quality of whipped heavy cream as a cake frosting or served in a dollop alongside dessert. However, Emily Laurae Carter explains that "cream cheese can be used as a heavy cream substitute, [although you should] keep in mind that it's thicker and tangier." This means that cream cheese works well in dishes where the tangy taste adds to its overall flavor rather than clashing with it. Think decadent lemon cheesecake or a red velvet cake frosting.

The robust texture of cream cheese also means you won't have any problem fluffing it into peaks, although the result is much denser than whipped cream. This also makes it slightly easier to mold, which can be handy for decorative cake frosting or dishes that need to set.

Cream cheese can also be used instead of heavy cream to enhance savory meals and sauces, such as cream cheese and salmon pasta or cream cheese and red pepper soup. If you want to thin your cream cheese slightly, Laurae recommends adding a splash of milk. You can also soften cream cheese in under a minute by putting it in the microwave.

Chef Trung Vu explains that a mixture of milk and cornstarch can be useful when making a traditionally creamy dish while lowering the calories. While whole milk adds the creamy dairy flavor, "cornstarch thickens when heated, so when mixed with milk, it may restore some of the body that heavy cream would have provided in the sauce." Heavy cream has significantly more calories than whole milk, with 100 milliliters of whole milk sitting at around 62 calories compared with around 350 for 100 milliliters of heavy cream.

To make a milk and cornstarch mix, you'll want to put a cup of warm milk on low heat and whisk around one tablespoon of cornstarch with some cold water in a separate bowl. Then, pour the mixture into the milk on the heat and bring to a gentle boil. Make sure you keep stirring your mixture so the milk doesn't catch and scald. You can then stir this combo into soups, sauces, or baking.

Fanila Nawaby likes to use evaporated milk as a heavy cream substitute because it "has a lower fat content than heavy cream but still delivers a rich texture." Evaporated milk has a thin, pourable consistency and is made by heating milk to reduce it. Although you can buy sweetened condensed milk, which has a very sugary taste, evaporated milk has a mild caramelized flavor, so you can use it in savory meals, not just desserts. You can use evaporated milk instead of heavy cream to make a chowder or add a silky richness to soups.

You can also use evaporated milk to sweeten coffee in place of cream or incorporate it into baking. Evaporated milk is high in lactose, making it unsuitable for anyone with a dairy intolerance. Unsweetened evaporated milk is also high in nutrients and minerals. Like canned soups that double as creamy pasta sauces, a little can of evaporated milk can be the key to a luxurious alfredo sauce or a warming winter stew.

Made from an equal parts of whole milk and cream, half-and-half is a great dairy option for watering down your coffee or making quick recipes, like pancake batter. In certain circumstances, it can also be an effective heavy cream replacement. Chef Trung Vu notes that "many custard-style ice cream recipes call for half heavy cream and half whole milk [...] so, if all you had on hand was half-and-half, you could replace the entire amount of dairy with half-and-half, and your custard would come out the same."

Custard-style ice cream involves making a custard by heating eggs, sugar, and milk, then mixing in heavy cream and flavorings before churning. Vu explains that while half-and-half is a great cream substitute for this type of dessert, the reduced fat content compared with pure heavy cream means that you can't turn it into whipped cream or frosting. Half-and-half is a great cream substitute for when thickness and fat quantity don't matter, such as when adding cream to mashed potatoes or putting a splash into a curry sauce.

Chef Trung Vu notes that "a mix of soy milk and olive oil [can] make a good substitute for heavy cream for use in savory vegan recipes." Vu notes that for plant-based soups, like broccoli or tomato, a soy milk and olive oil mix can give you a smooth, luxurious consistency that replicates the mouthfeel of dairy cream. To get this blend just right, Vu recommends mixing two parts soy milk with one part olive oil.

You can also do the same with other non-dairy milks, like almond or cashew, though almond milk has a somewhat bitter taste that may come through milder flavors. Just make sure you buy unsweetened soy milk if you're making a savory dish. Using a mixture of unsweetened soy milk and olive oil is also a great option for making many oil-based cakes, which are known for having a light, fluffy sponge texture.