Summer berries are readily available everywhere, and there is one simple condiment that can turn a little bowl of mixed berries into a decadent little dessert. Lemon Curd. It’s zesty tang and freshness work so wonderfully with the sweetness of fruits. You can, of course, buy it in the store but once you see how easily this is made you won’t be buying this anymore. And why should you when you can enjoy this delicious homemade vegan lemon curd.
Now, this is a recipe that has as many variations as it has uses. Even without venturing into vegan territory the traditional recipes differ a lot from each other, which raises the question: what are the essential ingredients that you actually can not do without?
Lemon curd has been out of reach for me for months when I initially went vegan. It seemed impossible to make since the traditional lemon curd is made of lemon juice, sugar, butter and egg yolks. Now don’t get me wrong I always loved cooking and making things from scratch I just never really thought about the ingredients themselves and why some were crucial in certain dishes.
Let’s take the main ingredient here. The lemon juice. Its primary job apart from delivering the flavour is that it has emulsifying properties. If you try to mix oil and water, you won’t have much luck, but once you add lemon, it’s a whole other story. The butter provides an extra silky texture and creaminess while the egg yolks seem to both add colour and texture since they thicken the curd. The sugar is pretty much self-explanatory.
What you mainly need is lemon juice, a thickener and fat. I have tried numerous ways of making it, with different ingredients but this seems to work for me each single time without fail. To make your vegan lemon curd all you need is lemon juice, coconut cream, sugar and arrowroot powder. The last ingredient might sound alien to you, but it can be found in the baking aisle of supermarkets. If you have trouble finding it, you can substitute it for cornstarch.
It is all just a matter of mixing the ingredients, stirring them while simmering and then chilling your lemon curd. You can even adapt it to your preference. Add sugar for more sweetness or even use less zest for a milder lemon curd. Doesn’t seem too complicated when you look at it that way, and it is that simple. In fact, lemon curd is so easy to make that it would be a shame to buy it in the store. There is just something gratifying about spreading your home made lemon curd onto waffles or eating it with berries. How do you like to eat yours? Don’t forget to tag me in your Instagram posts with #gloriathegreedyvegan I love to follow what you are doing.
- 500ml (2 cups) coconut cream
- 150ml (2/3 cup) lemon juice
- 2½ tsp arrowroot powder*
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/s tsp vanilla
- Add the coconut cream, about half of the lemon juice and lemon zest to a small saucepan. Whisk until combined and simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
- Strain the coconut cream and discard the lemon zest. Return the coconut cream to the pot and set aside
- Whisk together the arrowroot powder and the other half of the lemon juice and pour it into the coconut cream.
- Add the sugar and vanilla to the coconut cream and return the saucepan to the stove. Bring the mixture to a low bubble over medium heat and keep stirring. Make sure the mixture does not come to a boil and keep stirring until it thickens. In about 10-15 minutes it should be ready.
- To test if it is ready, you can try to draw lines on the lemon curd by drizzling some of it over its surface. If they don't disappear immediately and stay slightly visible, then your lemon curd is perfect.
- Move the saucepan off the stove and let the lemon curd rest for about 10 minutes. Pour it into a bowl or jar and cover it tightly with cling film. This will prevent a skin like film from forming.**
- Once your lemon curd has cooled down, store it in the fridge. Because it has a rather large amount of lemon juice, which is a natural preservative the lemon curd will easily keep for7 days in an airtight container if it remains refrigerated.
- I love serving lemon curd with pretty much anything ranging from fresh berries to mixed into yoghurts or drizzled over cakes.
**Alternatively, you can leave the cling film out and stir the curd every once in a while until it has cooled down.
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My family has a funny relationship with lemon. I’m a huge fan of chocolate and for 20+ years made my dad a multi-layer chocolate cake for his birthday. One day my mom said “he hates chocolate” Oh no .. what? Why didn’t he say? What does he like? “Lemon” Lemon? “Lemon” True story. So I’ve been expanding my lemon reportare with his promise that he’ll give me an honest assessment of the recipe. He always puts lemon curd on his blueberry pancakes, so I’ll have to make this vegan version for him. We’ll see if it passes the test!
Oh please let me know! Lemon curd itself is very polarizing, let alone a vegan version. Curious… – Love, G.
Also laughing at the chocolate story. My uncle has been serving my aunt soft boiled eggs for breakfast each Sunday. He was under the impression she loves them. She ate them because she thought he liked them. Took them nearly a decade to figure out they both hated eggs for breakfast. 😂😂😂 – Love, G.
I made this yesterday and let it sit over night, forgot to cover it and now there is a skin on it. Can this be salvaged?
There is nothing wrong with it. You can simply scoop the skin off with a spoon or just eat it if the texture doesn’t freak you out. – Love, G.
I forgot all about Lemon curd! Yummy😋 Will be making this during the summer for sure! Thank you🙏
I keep seeing recipes for lemon curd but have never tried it. Your recipe sounds super yummy and easy to make.
It left me speechless with those yummy photos. OMG. They look so good that I just want to go straight into my kitchen and follow your instructions right away even though it’s 12AM now. Seriously. I’m kinda into good food, sorry for that. But it looks really amazing you know. And the recipes seem to be simple to follow! That’s all I need to be honest. The fact that online recipes sometimes really hard and complicated to follow really gets me down. Maybe I found a new home for my cooking hobby! 🙂 By the way, thank you for sharing this. It’s summer in my country and thanks to the global warming, everything is getting hotter, urgh. Your recipe definitely will save me from these terrible hot day.
Hello, Hoan Chau! I feel you; online recipes can be tough to follow sometimes. That is why I try to make my recipes easy to follow and add a lot of pictures. It’s hot here as well by the way, very unusual for England. Hope you are having a great weekend! – Love, G.
I’m not vegan, but I can’t WAIT to try this out! I love the taste of lemon – it’s so bright and cheerful.
And can we talk about what an amazing photographer you are?!
Thank you so much, Caitlin. Reading this just made my day. – Love, G. 😀🌱💚
I m not vegan but I m alergic to eggs and always look for some good recipe without eggs.. I m glad you substitute eggs. I m going to give it a try as I get timeand truly it look very tempting too.
This looks super yummy! I just have two vegan friends over this weekend and it’s quite hard to find yummy vegan food in random restaurants. Tonight we will be staying in, making vegan food and watching netflix 🙂
Oh, I hear you. Some places still have dairy (butter) in and on everything. It’s so lovely of you to stay in with your friends and who doesn’t like a good evening on the couch, watching Netflix! =D – Love, G.
It looks delicious. I like that you went the arrorroot route. I’m not a big fan of certain types of desserts but I love lemons.