This cream is made from fermented lentil milk. Are you still hungry?

Imagine a dollop of whipped cream on a slice of your favourite apple pie. It's light and fluffy, like a little cloud of foam; a perfect companion to a warm, decadent treat.

Now, imagine that cream was made from fermented lentil milk. Are you still hungry?

Dairy-free lentil cream is the latest offering from Palmerston North start-up company AndFoods. It's made using lentil milk, which is neutralised through a fermentation process, and adds a touch of coconut oil to whip it into a proper cream.

It's not yet available commercially, but according to AndFoods chief technology officer, Arup Nag, it looks and tastes just like the real deal.

The innovative product joins a growing line of non-dairy cream alternatives. These days, you can make dairy-free creams from just about anything. Let's dig a little deeper.

So what other dairy-free creams are there?

There are plenty of options for the dairy-free (and the lactose intolerant).

Dr Arup says dairy-free creams are most commonly made using plant-based nut milks like almond, cashew, coconut, and macadamia, but they can also be made from soy, or cereal-based products like rice and oats.

If you're really feeling experimental, some people even like blending up silken tofu.

Is it easy enough to make yourself?

If you're making nut milk at home, "all you really need is a good blender," according to chef Megan May, the creator behind plant-based food producer Little Bird Organics.

May uses a combination of soaked cashews and coconut oil to create a decadent cashew cream, which she uses in cheesecakes and other treats at her Auckland-based Unbakeries.

She says using an ingredient with high fat content - like coconut oil - is key to whipping up a firmer cream, but you can use any oil or vegan butter with any blitzed-up soaked nuts.

Can the creams be used interchangeably?

Not exactly - the texture, consistency and flavours will vary slightly between different dairy-free creams. Dr Arup says it also depends on the functionality of the cream - whether you're using it for cooking or whipping.

"Cooking cream is used in savoury dishes like curries, pasta, that type of thing, where whipping cream is used in confectionaries, bakeries. The stability of the cream is important, it shouldn't collapse if you pipe it on a cake. When creams are made from oat or soy milk, you generally don't get that type of functionality."

Manjula Patel, a Wellington-based Indian cooking teacher, says what creams you use depend on what you're trying to achieve by taste.

"In curries, you can make cream out of cashews, walnuts, pistachios, and use mustard oil or tomato paste to influence the taste, or you can add jaggery for natural sweetness. If you want a thicker curry you can add coconut milk.

"If you're making a ladoo (an Indian dessert typically made of condensed milk), you can make a paste out of almonds and add melted jaggery to it instead. When the jaggery hardens up, it will keep the shape well."

Why do I have to make it at home?

Plant-based milks are popular, but creams? Not so much. Dr Arup says dairy-free creams are a "unique product", difficult to produce at high quality.

"You'll hardly see oat-based or soy-based cream, it's not that easily available on the market. If it was we would've seen it everywhere. That's what inspired us to make a lentil-based cream; we've only found one other lentil-based whipping cream so far, that's being imported from Germany in New Zealand and Australia."

How does the cost stack up?

Because dairy-free creams aren't really available for purchase, I decided make some at home myself. With all the raw ingredients in hand, the nut milk ended up costing more than a standard 330ml bottle of Anchor Cream ($3.50).

To make my cashew cream to the equivalent consistency of dairy cream, I needed about 150g of whole cashews (Mother Earth raw unsalted cashews / $4.99) and a couple of spoonfuls of coconut oil (Macro Organic Virgin Coconut Oil / $6.50).

At the end of it, my 330ml of homemade cashew cream cost me a whopping $11 (although a cheaper pantry staple, like vegetable oil instead of coconut oil, would've brought the cost down significantly).

Dr Arup says dairy-free creams are more expensive because they're "fetching some premium".

"There's a vacuum in the market... for people producing plant-based products, the cost has to be more to make money or break even. Eventually when more products enter the market, more competition comes, the price will come down at par with dairy creams."

He says raw material costs are a factor - with products like lentils being cheaper than cashews, for example - but ultimately, production costs are a big issue for plant-based products due to the dairy industry's dominance in New Zealand.

"Dairy is produced at such a high volume too, and it's such a large market, so naturally the cost of production has to come down. Dairy has that advantage. But as I mentioned, the cost is never permanent. As the market evolves and the demand [for plant-based products] grows, the cost will come down."

Though AndFoods' lentil cream isn't on the commercial market yet, Dr Arup says the product is benchmarked to cost $9-10 per litre.

"If you convert that into a 300ml pack, it should be similar to the price of 300ml of dairy cream."

Is dairy-free cream healthier than standard dairy cream?

Nutritionally, dairy cream takes the cake, with protein being the main source of nutrition. Where an equivalent dairy cream would boast 2.3 - 2.5 percent protein, AndFoods' lentil cream has 0.5 percent protein, Dr Arup says.

"As with any other plant-based dairy-alternative product, the nutrition is not as great as dairy... but our lentil cream is certainly better than oat or soy cream, which have lower levels of protein. In the plant-based category, I think we're in a comfortable position... I haven't seen any other plant-based cream have this level of protein."

Another nutritional component of cream is fat. In AndFoods' case, they use pure, deodorised coconut oil in their lentil cream - a "healthier" alternative to the oft-used palm oil. But Dr Arup stresses that cream isn't generally consumed for its nutritional value.

"The purpose of a whipped cream is mainly to create some indulgence. It's used in cakes and coffee, so more than nutrition it's in the indulgence category, nutrition is not the primary thing here."

Be honest - does it really taste the same?

I can't speak for the lentil cream, but my cashew cream certainly tasted different. It was velvety and light, not quite as rich as a dairy cream, but just as variable. And it had a slight nutty undertone.

However Patel says dairy-free creams tend to have a more neutral taste. They're a blank canvas, dependent on how you flavour them: for desserts, you can add vanilla and other sweeteners, for curries, it's spices and aromatics.

May says dairy-free creams won't taste exactly the same as standard dairy cream, but you can get them "pretty close".

"You can make it taste very similar, you can replicate it pretty closely ... but different apples taste different. Dairy does leave a coating in your mouth, it does have a different flavour. It's not like-for-like in terms of flavour, but it's pretty close."