Alternatives for cream on pasta night (2024)

FAQs

Alternatives for cream on pasta night? ›

Whole milk is an excellent substitute for heavy cream. It adds richness to your pasta sauce without the excess fat. Simply simmer your favourite pasta sauce with whole milk until it thickens to your desired consistency. The result is a velvety and indulgent sauce that pairs beautifully with pasta.

You can make a stand-in for the heavy cream called for in a recipe where it will be mixed with other ingredients. Melt 1/4 cup unsalted butter in a large glass bowl and gradually whisk in 3/4 cup whole milk or half and half. You'll end up with 1 cup of a cream substitute. Use in soups, sauces, puddings, etc.

You might try half and half instead of heavy cream. Or even milk. Sometimes evaporated milk also makes a good substitute. For creamy pasta, try carbonara.

Milk + butter

No half-and-half? You can make a similar heavy cream alternative using regular milk and butter. Whole milk has a fat percentage of around 3.5% and is preferable to lower-fat varieties, but you'll still want to use more melted butter than you would with half-and-half.

How do I thicken pasta sauce? Starch: Cornflour/Potato starch/Pasta starch/Flour. Mix the starch in water if it's powder form, let it dissolve in the water then add that to the sauce;If you add powder to hot sauce it can make it difficult to mix, it forms small clumps.

Use Cornstarch

Finally, Arturo says that you can make a cornstarch slurry, which is a mixture of cornstarch and water that should resemble the consistency of heavy cream. "Always make more than you need and use less than you think," he says.

Yes, you can use milk instead of heavy cream in some recipes. Combine 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup melted butter as a substitute in sauces, baked goods, pasta, and frosting. Milk won't whip like cream. It works in mashed potatoes or for thinning small amounts of frosting.

Thanks to all of its wonderful qualities, butter is the perfect addition to any pasta sauce, especially as a replacement for cream. The reason is that the fat in butter helps to calm the acidity of tomatoes, onions, and any other ingredients you've added.

Half-and-Half Substitute: Milk + Cream

If it's heavy cream that's in your fridge, for 1 cup half-and-half, substitute ¾ cup milk plus ¼ cup heavy cream. If your household is more of a low-fat milk kind of place, adjust the ratio to account for the missing fat: 2/3 cup low-fat milk plus 1/3 cup heavy cream.

Similarly to half-and-half, milk makes a good heavy cream substitute when it's combined with melted butter. Combine 3/4 cup milk and 1/4 cup melted butter for every cup of heavy cream. This mixture is not suitable for whipping. Best for: cooking and baking.

Can I use sour cream instead of heavy cream? ›

Sour cream is an easy replacement for heavy cream. It can be easily stirred into a dish and offers another flavor profile to soups, stews and sauces. Plus, using it as a heavy cream substitute is a great way to use up that lingering tub in the fridge.

But milk won't whip like heavy cream. Can I use milk instead of heavy cream in pasta? Yes. Use whole milk and stir in a flour-butter mixture to thicken and enrich pasta dishes instead of heavy cream.

Low-Fat Milk: This is my substitute for heavy cream in Alfredo sauce, and I promise, you really can't tell the difference! Any type of milk will work, but my preference is low-fat organic milk.

Condensed milk is evaporated milk that has been sweetened with sugar. Evaporated milk can be used in place of heavy cream in most recipes, whereas condensed milk is best reserved for desserts. Some health food stores may sell evaporated coconut milk, which is also a good substitute.