I live with a Ukrainian. That Ukrainian is vegan, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t spend the majority of his life dedicated to sour cream.

If you’ve ever sat down for a meal with people from the former Soviet block, you’ll have noticed that there are several constants running through the meal. These include meat, cheese, mayonnaise, some sort of bizarro meat jelly thing that still haunts my dreams and sour cream.

For Putin, then, going vegan was tough, and made tougher still that he didn’t want vegan sour cream enough to warrant buying it and just letting it get mouldy in the fridge. It was the sort of thing that was needed once in a while (when I made nachos, or beans, or baked potatoes) and I knew that the meal just wasn’t the same for him without it.

Now, all that’s changed. Here’s a vegan sour cream recipe that’s ready in less than 10 minutes, and saves in the fridge for days. It’s creamy, tart, a little cheesy thanks to the nutritional yeast, and pretty darn good for you! Better than that hydrogenated stuff you buy in stores, anyway.

You’ll need:
(Feeds a few)
1 cup medium-firm tofu
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Method:
Combine everything in a blender / food processor and blend until creamy. Enjoy!

This has changed Putin’s world. Now, whether we need a drizzle of sour cream on top of chilaquiles (recipe coming this week) or a huge dollop of it on top of fried potatoes, vegan sour cream is mere minutes away.

What I like most about this recipe is that it’s made of things that I always have in my house. I don’t have to run to the store to buy any of these things, and if I’ve run out of one of them, they’re easy to find. This is a cheap, useful recipe that will make a bunch of dishes just a little bit better!