Dairy-Free Substitutes
Find dairy-free substitutes for butter, milk, cream, yoghurt and cheese. Ratios and baking notes included. Free dairy-free ingredient substitute guide.
Select a dairy ingredient
Dairy-free Butter substitutes
3 alternatives available
Vegan block butter
All usesBest all-round substitute. Creams, bakes, and melts like dairy butter.
Brands: Flora Plant, Vitalite, Naturli. Block (not spreadable) for baking.
Coconut oil (solid)
Baking & cookingWorks for creaming and pastry. Adds subtle coconut flavour in large amounts.
Use refined coconut oil for more neutral flavour.
Vegetable oil (for melted butter)
Baking (melted)Only when butter is melted — not for creaming. Gives moist texture.
Sunflower or rapeseed oil for most neutral taste.
How to use this tool
Select the dairy ingredient you need to replace
Click any dairy ingredient button — butter, milk, cream, yoghurt, cream cheese, or hard cheese. The dairy-free alternatives appear immediately.
Check the ratio and best use
Each alternative shows the substitution ratio and which dishes it suits best. Not all alternatives work for all applications — the "Best for" label guides you.
Read the purchase tip
Each alternative includes a practical note about which brands or preparations to use and where to find them.
Tips
For dairy-free baking, vegan block butter is consistently the most reliable substitute — do not use spreadable dairy-free margarines in baking.
Coconut cream must be refrigerated overnight before whipping — room temperature coconut cream will not whip regardless of how long you try.
When a recipe calls for both butter and milk, substituting both with plant-based versions together works better than substituting just one.
Nutritional yeast adds a convincing cheesy, umami flavour to dairy-free sauces — use 2–4 tablespoons in bechamel or pasta sauces.
About this dairy-free substitutes tool
Dairy-free cooking has improved dramatically in the last decade. Plant-based butter, cream, milk, and cheese alternatives are now available in most UK supermarkets and perform convincingly in most cooking contexts. The key is matching the right substitute to the right application — coconut cream is excellent for whipping but adds coconut flavour; oat cream is neutral but will not whip; vegan block butter creams like dairy butter but contains no butterfat for flavour contribution.
The most important principle is to match the fat content of the original. Dairy butter is approximately 80% fat; vegan block butters match this. Double cream is approximately 48% fat; coconut cream is 20–24%. These differences affect texture, mouthfeel, and how sauces bind. For casual cooking the difference is minor; for pastry, cakes, and precision recipes the gap is more noticeable.
Plant milks vary significantly in protein content. Soy milk (3.3g protein per 100ml) is closest to dairy milk (3.4g). Oat milk (1g), almond milk (0.5g), and rice milk (0.1g) have much lower protein. This matters for recipes where milk proteins contribute to structure (custards, bechamel thickening) — soy milk is the best choice for these applications.
For cheese substitution in cooked dishes, nutritional yeast is often more useful than commercial vegan cheese. Vegan hard cheese melts poorly in many applications and can have a distinct flavour. Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast stirred into a bechamel produces a convincing cheesy sauce without the texture issues. For gratins and pizzas where melted cheese appearance matters, Violife is consistently rated the best melting vegan cheese.