Your Blender Is Key For Making An Easy Sour Cream Substitute

Delicious, tangy sour cream goes just as well folded into creamy pasta sauces as it does when you add a dollop on top of baked potatoes and burritos. A spoonful here and there can really add a punch of creamy flavor and texture, but if you're trying to avoid using it for one reason or another or simply have run out of sour cream for other reasons, there's a way you can approximate that same texture and taste with other ingredients. As long as you have a blender on hand, you're well on your way to a perfect sour cream substitute.

All it takes is 2 tablespoons of milk and a tablespoon of lemon juice added to a cup of cottage cheese. The mix gets blended until all the cottage cheese curds are smooth and the consistency is just how you like it. The result won't be an exact replica of sour cream, but it'll have a similar smooth texture and tangy taste, with a hint of lemony brightness that goes well in all the same applications.

Though this blended cottage cheese mixture is a little different than the sour cream it's trying to imitate, it makes up for the slight differences with an added nutritional boost. Using cottage cheese increases the protein content of the condiment by a considerable amount: 1 cup of sour cream contains only 5 to 6 grams of protein, while the same amount of cottage cheese has 23.3 grams.

The fat content is also wildly different between these two dairy products. Sour cream contains 46 grams of fat per cup; compare that to only 9 grams of fat from cottage cheese — even the full-fat kind. The difference in fat will also affect taste and flavor, with sour cream providing a much more silky, heavy, rich flavor than the substitute. But if you're looking to cut back on fat for one reason or another or want to increase your protein intake, cottage cheese is the way to go. The substitution will work with cottage cheese of any variety, so you can even use fat-free cheese if you prefer.

Your sour cream substitute can be used anywhere you might use regular sour cream. Just be aware that the results may be a bit thinner than typical sour cream, so if you plan on dolloping it onto nachos or otherwise using it plain, keep that in mind. One way to get around this is to drain your cottage cheese a little before using it; it'll remove some of that wateriness.

Cottage cheese sour cream is especially good for recipes where the sour cream gets cooked down or added to a hot liquid, like in stews, sauces, or soups. This is because the blended cottage cheese mixture won't curdle in the same way that regular sour cream will over long periods of time in the heat. Try using it in a slow cooker beef stroganoff recipe or for adding a creamy smoothness to loaded potato soup. You won't miss the real deal.