Vegan Practically

Among the more frequent obstacles people cite that get in the way of moving from vegetarian to vegan, missing “creamy” is probably second (missing cheese is the main contender for the blue ribbon). Who doesn’t love a creamy dessert like chocolate mouse or trifle, or a creamy salad dressing like ranch, or a creamy pasta dish like fettucine alfredo or stroganoff, or a good old fashioned creamy potato salad or cole slaw? Creaminess has a texture and a weight and a richness to it that just feels so luxurious even in the simplest of dishes.

In the spirit of reassurance that it’s not as hard as you might think if someone would just point you in the right direction, I’m here to say: you don’t need to give up creaminess in any of its forms (well, maybe hollandaise, but if you’ve backed away from poached eggs there’s almost no use for it anymore).

I’ll divide the post into Desserts, Dressings, Creamy Pasta, and Classic Creamy Salads. I’m sure there are more types of creaminess that people might think of and I invite you to add to the joy in the comments. Let’s jump right into it.

Desserts

• “Ice cream”: Some of the creamiest ice creams I’ve had have been “non-dairy frozen desserts” by companies like So Delicious(variety of bases including oat, coconut, and cashew), Haagendaz (oat base), Ben and Jerry’s (almond base), Cosmic Bliss (rebranded from “Coconut Bliss” because they have introduced a separate line of products using milk from “grass-fed cows — so watch out for that if you decide to support their plant-based line, which is admittedly creamy and wonderful), and President’s Choice. My today favourite, for sure available in Canada: So Delicious Salted Caramel Cluster. But I have had delicious, super-creamy versions of vanilla, coconut, mango, chocolate. [if these brands aren’t available where you live, my apologies! Happy to take other recommendations]
• Chocolate mousse: Here is a coconut-milk based recipe for chocolate mousse that Chocolate Covered Kate describes as “the richest and creamiest chocolate mousse you’ll ever eat, vegan or not.” The website claimed that there are only three ingredients but then lists six (two are optional, but that still does not equal three). I tried it out in my “test kitchen,” and it’s a very easy recipe. My result is pictured above. In order to get the smooth velvety texture of chocolate mousse, I had to deviate from the recipe and add a little soy milk after the fact and re-beat it for a couple if minutes by hand. My parents and I had it for dessert last night and it lived up to its promise. My mother called it “a keeper” and asked for the recipe. For a different take on chocolate mousse, made not with whipped coconut milk but with silken tofu, you could try this recipe from Rainbow Plant Life or this recipe from Easy as Apple Pie.
• Trifle: This recipe from A Virtual Vegan looks great. The only fudge-factor is that it calls for “So Delicious coconut whipped cream or any other vegan whipped cream,” so that of course will depend on what is available. But there are lots of simple recipes that claim you can whip canned coconut milk (for example the technique in the above mousse recipe or try this one from Shane & Simple)

Dressings:

• Put-it-on-everything cashew sauce from Bon Appétit. It’s not strictly a “dressing.” But it could be used as one — or as a dip or a sauce or a spread. The recipe says, “this rich, creamy (vegan!) sauce is your new all-purpose condiment.” I have to agree. If you’ve ever missed cream, raw cashews are a welcome substitute for making cream-based dishes. I adored this recipe from the very first time I made it during the pandemic. You can use whichever fresh herbs you have on hand (I like to combine basil and parsley). You can also vary the consistency from sauce to spread, depending on how much liquid you add. My only advice — do not put in the full teaspoon of salt that they suggest. Go a little at a time. It’s one of those recipes where you need to tweak and taste, taste and tweak. Despite that, it’s simple if you have a food processor or a good blender. I use my Cuisineart.
• Soy-tahini dressing in this recipe for gomae. Gomae is a delicious Japanese spinach dish that you can get at some sushi places (but apparently none in London, Ontario). I first tried it in Vancouver and the dressing was so deliciously creamy that I couldn’t believe it was vegan. I have since made this dressing a lot, sometimes to have with the spinach, sometimes to have as a dressing for a bowl. [p.s. I just use more rice vinegar with about 1/2 tsp of sugar and skip the mirin because I don’t use alcohol in any of my cooking]
• Ranch. I used not to like ranch dressing but now I like it as a dip for when I make buffalo cauliflower or perogies. This recipe for ranch dressing from Nora Cooks again uses cashew as the miracle ingredient. I confess that I have never made it exactly as stated, but if you blend cashews soaked in hot water for a few minutes with some water, lemon juice, rice vinegar, and add dill and some seasoning you’ll end up with ranch.
• Bonus dressing suggestion: Kraft Creamy Italian (not the olive oil kind, but the original) is accidentally vegan. Whether that is positively meaningful to you will depend on your opinion of xanthan gum, polysorbate 60, and Propylene Glycol Alginate. But it’s vegan and it’s creamy.

Creamy Pasta

• Mac & Cheese. This is comfort food at its finest and, occasionally, at its easiest. Annie’s has a really good vegan mac and cheese that is reminiscent of Kraft Dinner. That may not be a good thing to everyone. But to those of us to whom it is a good thing, it is a truly wonderful thing indeed. For the more adventurous, Isa at the Post Punk Kitchen has a wonderfully creamy and (you guessed it) cashew-based recipe for broccoli mac and cheese. It also contains the most common other ingredient in cheesy vegan mac and cheese: nutritional yeast. If Annie’s boxed version and Isa’s broccoli version don’t cut it, google “vegan mac and cheese” and you’ll find something creamy and yummy. If you’re in London, Ontario, you can get it from the local favourite vegan fast-food place V-Foodspot on its own or as a side in a combo (great donuts too).
• Fettucine Alfredo. I can’t attest to these recipes because I’ve never been a fan of creamy pasta dishes other than mac and cheese. But I know lots of people who love love love fettucine alfredo. Nora Cooks, whose recipes I typically find to be excellent, offers this cashew-based version. If you’d like a nut-free version, try this one from the Herbeevore. Both can easily be made gluten free with the right choice of pasta.
• Creamy red sauce pasta. Even though I’m not a fan of creamy pasta, blush sauce is a different matter. Vegan Richa offers this vegan rose farfalle pasta with roasted veggies. Farfalle are those little bowties and they’re a fun and different pasta shape. And here’s a great idea for mixing a veggie sauce with some blended cashews (surprise), for a blush sauce in a pasta dish loaded with veggies called, “30-minute creamy vegan pasta with veggies” (the site, Eat the Gains, is not itself vegan).

Classic creamy salads for picnics, BBQs, and potlucks:

• Creamy Potato Salad. I absolutely love creamy potato salad. I’m a fan of the vinaigrette kind too, but today we are focusing on the creamy stuff. A lot of the recipes just substitute vegan mayo for the regular, and obviously leave out the hard-boiled egg (if you ever put it in originally, which I did not but a lot of people do). Here’s one such recipe, from The Pretty Bee (whose recipe site is for people with allergy-related food restrictions of all kinds), and another from My Darling Vegan. But if you want to go all-out making your own dressing from scratch without using store-bought vegan mayo, Rainbow Plant Life has a creamy potato salad that uses a tahini and plain coconut yogurt base.
• Creamy Cole Slaw. Much like the potato salad, you can swap regular mayo for vegan mayo and continue using your original non-vegan recipe. There are many good brands of vegan mayonnaise that are easily available these days. Here’s a classic creamy vegan cole slaw from Connnoisseurus Veg that takes that approach. For an oil-free and mayo-free cole slaw that the Minimalist Baker describes as “super creamy, crunchy, and portable,” using soaked raw cashews instead, this recipe looks yummy.
• Creamy Macaroni Salad. I get that this isn’t on everyone’s “must-have” list, but whereas I prefer vinaigrette for my cole slaw and my potato salad, I love creamy macaroni salad. This wasn’t part of my childhood but somehow it has made it onto my nostalgia/comfort food list anyway. If you’ve got vegan mayo and yogurt, Sweet Simple Vegan offers this “classic vegan macaroni salad.” If you’ve got some raw cashews (already soaked, or soak them in hot water for 15 minutes and you’re good to go) and an extra five minutes, The Garden Grazer has a version with oil-free dressing that uses cashew-mayo (recipe provided) as the base.

I hope I have offered enough of a starting point for anyone who has been worried about missing the creaminess of creamy meals and desserts. This is by no means an exhaustive list. I haven’t even talked about cream cheese, sour cream, creamy soups, cakes with cream cheese icing or butter cream, creamy hot drinks like hot chocolate and lattes, or whipped / whipping cream (there are coconut-based varieties).

If you have other suggestions, please share them in the comments. If you have other creamy-cravings not covered here, please let me know and I’ll see if I can help. If your main fear has to do with cheese, please see my post “Have you tried vegan cheese lately?” to fend off that particular despair.

Bon appétit!