Tofu Sour Cream

When we used animal products in our home there was a lot of greek yogurt and sour cream that made its way to our dinner plates. Giving up dairy products was much more difficult for us than going without meat. I used to buy the prepared vegan sour cream substitutes but the laundry list of chemicals, stabilizers, preservatives and other unknown unnatural substances began to worry me. I tried many variations of sour cream before I settled on this version. The taste is reasonably mild, with a mouth feel that is similar to the dairy version of sour cream. If you want to reduce the calories you can cut half the canola oil from the recipe. It will still be good with less oil, but the texture will be a little off. My version contains a decided lemony flavor. I love all things lemon and it finds it way into many of my recipes. If you aren't a lemon lover half each lemon component to start.

Tofu Sour Cream
makes approximately 2 cups



Ingredients:

12.3-ounce package of Mori Nu lite silken tofu (firm)
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 to 3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon agave
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
finely grated zest of ½ to 1 lemon

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process several minutes, until very creamy and smooth. This will firm up a little when it chills. It is important to use the firm silken tofu to get the correct consistency. Begin with the smaller amount of lemon juice and taste the sauce to see if you would like more acid. The lemon zest also adds a lot of flavor to the sauce. I frequently use all the zest from the lemon, but I love the flavor. If you are trying to replicate sour cream more closely you should start with less lemon zest and adjust the amount to your taste. Refrigerate sour cream until it is ready to be used.

Serve this sour cream over Mexican dishes or on baked potatoes. This makes a great topping on soup. I use it frequently as a component for salad dressings. This recipe is one of my foundation recipes that I use in many other recipes. We make a batch of this healthy sour cream 2 or 3 times each month.

Nutritional Information (for entire recipe):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 387.35
Calories From Fat (70%) - 272.91

Total Fat - 30.81g
Saturated Fat - 2.53g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 1238.16mg
Potassium - 253.28mg
Total Carbohydrates - 6.42g
Fiber - 0.82g
Sugar - 2.16g
Protein - 22.09g

Nutritional Information for 1 tablespoon vs. dairy sour cream:

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 13.83 vs. 31.2
Calories From Fat (70%) - 9.74 vs. 26.83
Total Fat - 1.1g vs. 3.06g
Saturated Fat - 0.09g vs. 1.9g
Cholesterol - 0mg vs. 6.42mg
Sodium - 44.22mg vs. 7.73mg
Potassium - 9.05mg vs. 21 mg
Total Carbohydrates - 0.23g vs. 0.62mg
Fiber - 0.03g vs. 0g
Sugar - 0.08g vs. 0.02g
Protein - 0.79g vs. 0.46g

Comment:

I was a little surprised to see that dairy sour cream has almost 2 grams of saturated fat in one tablespoon. That is disturbing when you realize that most servings are more than one tablespoon and you are supposed to have 10 grams of saturated fat total all day. If you are eating other dairy and meat it is very easy to exceed the 10 grams.