Cheaper than cashews, sunflower seeds blend up to make a thick, rich sour cream. Perfect nut-free option for topping nachos, tacos, chili or potatoes.
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🧄 Ingredients
This allergy-friendly, nut-free vegan sour cream recipe has the following plant-based ingredients:
- raw sunflower seed kernels
- garlic
- lemon juice
- apple cider vinegar
- cane sugar (or other sweetener, like maple syrup or agave nectar)
- spices (salt, onion powder and a touch of cayenne)
If you're familiar with my cashew cream recipe, you'll notice this recipe has a few more ingredients.
The reason is because sunflower seed kernels have a stronger flavor than cashews. So, they need a little more "help" to mask that raw sunflower seed flavor.
The added spices and extra acid in the apple cider vinegar and lemon juice all help with this.
🔪 Instructions
The longest part of this recipe is soaking the sunflower seek kernels in hot water.
After they've soaked for 15-20 minutes, drain and rinse them.
Then, add everything to a high speed blender and process until completely smooth. At this point, it's ready to be eaten atop chili, nachos, tacos, baked potatoes or whatever else you'd like a dollop of sour cream on!
Keep it stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. Or, freeze for later!
How to soak sunflower seeds
The fastest way to soak sunflower seed kernels is to pour boiling water over them and leave them to soak for 15-20 minutes. Drain and rinse with fresh water. At this point, they're ready to be used for this recipe.
If using cool water, soak for 2 hours on the counter. Then, drain and rinse and continue with the recipe.
❓ FAQ
How long does it last? How to store it?
You can store sunflower seed sour cream in the refrigerator for up to one week.
You can also freeze it (it will be a little thinner and smell stronger of the onion powder after defrosting it. If that is off-putting, then perhaps omit the onion powder or add it after defrosting).
Which is better? Cashew cream or sunflower seed cream?
I make vegan sour cream out of cashews, silken tofu and sunflower seed kernels, depending on what I have in the pantry. All are dairy-free, vegan, oil-free, plant-based recipes.
We like all three but our favorite is cashew cream. The lowest fat option is the one made of silken tofu. Sunflower seed sour cream is best for those with nut or soy allergies, in addition to those avoiding dairy.
Is there a vegan substitute for sour cream?
Yes! Many, actually. You can find store-bought vegan sour creams in health food stores but it's quite easy to make your own out of cashews, sunflower seeds or silken tofu.
The recipe on this page is a sunflower seed sour cream, which is a vegan, nut-free, soy-free, dairy-free recipe.
What is vegan sour cream made of?
Vegan sour cream, depending on the recipe or brand, can be made of soy (tofu), coconut, cashews or sunflower seeds.
Some are a combination of several of those ingredients. Store-bought vegan sour cream often includes preservatives or processed ingredients in order to bind everything together or alter the flavor.
If you have a high speed blender, it's easy to make sour cream at home out of plant-based ingredients. It keeps in the refrigerator for the week and some recipes will even freeze well.
Is there dairy free sour cream?
Yes! You can mimic the flavor and texture of dairy sour cream with a host of plant-based ingredients. See above for some of those options!
🔄 Variations
- Garlic Aioli: add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and 2 extra garlic cloves when blending. Great with paella or as a mayo substitute!
- Chipotle Sour Cream: add 2 chipotles in adobo sauce when blending. Delicious on tacos, nachos, tostadas, burritos or anything TexMex.
- Taco Dip: mix in 1 package of taco seasoning to prepared vegan sour cream.
💜 More recipes you'll love
Love this recipe? Please rate it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ down below. ⬇️ And, if you make it, please tag me @veryveganish on Instagram in your posted photos! I would love to see your creations. 😄
📖 Recipe
Vegan Sunflower Seed Sour Cream
Ingredients
- ¾ cup raw sunflower seed kernels (not roasted)
- ¾ cup cool water (plus more for soaking)
- 1 clove garlic
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon cane sugar (or other sweetener)
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon onion powder
- pinch of cayenne pepper
Instructions
- Soak sunflower seed kernels in 1 cup of boiling hot water on the counter for 20 minutes. (If you have a high speed blender, you can skip this step, you just may need to blend a little longer to get it smooth.)
- Drain and rinse sunflower seed kernels.
- Add to blender with remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. On my Blendtec, I used my small twister jar and blended on the smoothie setting twice, so about 80 seconds total. You may need to stop to scrape down the sides of your blender jar. If it's too thick to process, add more water a tablespoon at a time, stir, scrape down sides, then blend again.
- Store in refrigerator for 5-7 days.
Notes
If you have cashews, give my vegan cashew cream a try.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 16 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 34Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 428mgCarbohydrates: 1gFiber: 1gSugar: 0gProtein: 1g
Nutritional calculations are done using online tools, such as recipe widget Create. Even though we have tried to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates.
Bethany says
Have you tried it w/o sugar?
Yeah, I'm 'that person' that changes every food bloggers recipes... 😆
Abi Cowell says
Hey Bethany! I'm "that person" too!!! 😆 To answer your question: Yes, we did try it without sugar when I was testing the recipe. It was fine without sugar, but we prefer it with the added sugar, since the sunflower seeds have a slightly bitter taste to them. We prefer the cashew cream and it naturally has a very, very light sweet taste without any added sugar. I hope that helps!!