How To Make Vegan Buttermilk With Just 2 Ingredients

Buttermilk, a cultured dairy product, is essentially fermented milk. The fermentation process results in an acidic yet creamy liquid that is great for tenderizing meats, providing a creamy tanginess to dressings, and giving baked goods the fluffiest texture and most rise while ensuring they stay moist. It's a versatile ingredient to keep in your kitchen for any cooking or baking needs, but it's not vegan-friendly. Luckily, the master of vegan cooking, Nisha Vora, has shared the best dairy-free buttermilk substitute, and it only requires two ingredients. To make vegan homemade buttermilk, you can mix dairy-free milk with an acidic liquid such as apple cider vinegar or lemon juice.

In her cookbook "Big Vegan Flavor," the New York Times best-selling cookbook author recommends oat milk and lemon juice or soy milk and apple cider vinegar, though you could use one acidic agent with the other milk and vice versa. What's important is that there is a creamy liquid with an acidic agent. According to Vora, the mixture, "when combined with baking soda in the heat of the oven, enhances the amount of rise in cakes and breads."

As Nisha Vora suggested, the acid in buttermilk activates baking soda, which produces gas and bubbles that help baked goods rise, resulting in fluffy treats. After mixing the buttermilk ingredients together, the mixture is left to sit for a few minutes to allow it to thicken and curdle. In this vegan sub, the acid will have the same effect on the rising agent, so it's perfect to use in all of your vegan baking recipes. In her recipe for the best vegan pancakes, Vora uses a mix of 1 ½ tablespoons of lemon juice and 1 ¾ cups of soy milk. And in her popular vegan cornbread recipe, it's 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar and 1 ½ cups of oat milk.

But vegan buttermilk isn't limited to sweets. The acidic nut milk mixture can also be used to marinate and tenderize proteins, like in buttermilk fried chicken. Of course, you'll have to substitute that chicken for your favorite vegan protein, though. Lucky for you, Vora has a recipe for buttermilk fried mushrooms in her book. You can also use it to replicate your favorite creamy dips, like buttermilk ranch! Yes, she's got a recipe for that, too.