How to replace milk, butter, cream and derivatives in recipes – 

In this guide on how to replace milk and derivatives in recipes, we will give you some alternative solutions to cow’s milk, whether you need to eliminate it for medical reasons (intolerance or allergy to milk) or whether you have decided to voluntarily take away it from your diet.

In recent years, more and more people are found to be intolerant to milk and have to look for alternative solutions to cow’s milk, and lactose intolerance is often related to Celiac disease, so many celiac patients are forced to prepare recipes gluten-free and lactose-free. You can change the recipes with the substitutions that we propose, clearly, the results will change depending on the substitution you choose: experiment and see which solution is the best for you, both as a result and as a flavor.

NOTICE: In the various replacements below, you will find ingredients that can contain gluten: for Celiacs, as always, be careful to choose all gluten-free ingredients.

How to replace milk and its derivatives in recipes

Milk

100 g of cow’s milk with:

• 100 g of vegetable milk (rice, soy, almonds, etc.). Vegetable milk has various taste, the best thing is to taste them all and see which one meets our tastes. If they are too tasty, you can dilute them with water, always forming 100 g for every 100 g of cow’s milk. Almond milk is a bit dense, so it’s good for puddings and creams.
• 100 g of water. By using water, no flavor will be added to the preparation, but obviously, there will be no nutritional supplements. Water can be used for any preparation: custard cream, béchamel, but also cakes and muffins. However, to give flavor to the preparations, you can add aromas to your liking, such as spices, grated citrus peels, vanilla seeds, etc. depending on the recipe you have to make.
• 125 g of animal or vegetable yogurt
• 100 g of animal or vegetable cream
• 100 g white wine (not to alter too much the flavor, use it only in recipes that provide less than 100 g of milk)

Cream

100 g of cream with:

• 100 g of vegetable cream
• 100 g of animal or vegetable milk
• 100 g of seed oil

In desserts, I recommend choosing a more tasteless oil, such as sunflower or corn oil.

To replace the whipped cream you can use the vegetable cream (attention to the ingredients if you are lactose intolerant, not all the vegetable cream are lactose-free). It’s also possible to whisk vegetable butter with vegetable milk, but it will result in a buttercream, rather than a whipped cream.

Yogurt

100 g of yogurt with:

• 100 g of vegetable yogurt
• 75 g of animal or vegetable milk
• 100 g of animal or vegetable cream
• 100 g of seed oil

In desserts, I recommend choosing a more tasteless oil, such as sunflower or corn oil.

Photo from: http://www.benesserecorpomente.it

Butter

100 g of butter with:

• 100 g of vegetable margarine (in recipes where is required butter cut in pieces)
• 100 g of coconut oil
• 80 g of seed oil (in recipes where melted butter is required)
• 125 g of soy cream (in recipes where melted butter is required)
• 125 g of soy yogurt (in recipes where melted butter is required)
• 100 g of puree of avocado or apple or banana in muffins, cakes, and plum cakes

You can also try making a homemade vegetable butter:
beat 100 ml of seed oil or olive oil with 50 ml of soy milk, a bit of salt and a few drops of lemon juice: it will make about 120 g of vegetable butter.

Cheese

Cheeses can be replaced with vegetable cheeses such as tofu, or other cheese based on rice, almonds, etc.

To replace grated Parmesan cheese you can use gomasio (a mixture of toasted sesame seeds and integral sea salt, sometimes enriched with hemp seeds and fragments of algae (Wakame or Nori). The gomasio is also used to enhance the flavor of vegetables, meat, and rice instead of salt.

In place of grated Parmesan cheese you can also use a mix of peeled almonds and sesame seeds, toasted and minced, or toasted breadcrumbs with a teaspoon of olive oil (optional), as I did in this recipe “Gluten-free spaghetti with tuna and dried tomatoes“.

For gratiné, you can use breadcrumbs with a bit of olive oil.

Do you want to replace the eggs in your recipes?

Here is our guide How to replace eggs in sweet and savory recipes.

Sources for this article:

• http://www.misya.info
• https://fornellidisalvataggio.wordpress.com
• http://blog.giallozafferano.it/asilannablu/