01
Cream Substitute
10.01 cup : 1 cup
Full fat, thick and creamy
10.0
coconut milk substitutes
13 substitutes · avg score 6.7 · Creamy liquid made by blending grated coconut meat with water and straining, with a rich, mildly sweet coconut flavor. Essential in Southeast Asian and Caribbean curries, soups, desserts, and dairy-free beverages.
fat, liquid, and a flavour you cannot hide
Coconut milk is grated coconut meat blended with water and strained, which makes it an emulsion rather than a dairy product — fat suspended in water, held loosely enough that a can left standing separates into a thick cream on top and a thin liquid beneath. That separation is not a fault. It is how the ingredient is meant to be used: many curries start by cracking the thick cream in a hot pan until the oil runs out of it, and only then adding the thin milk as the cooking liquid.
The property that makes it hard to replace, though, is stability. Coconut milk holds together through long simmering and through a great deal of acid — tamarind, lime, tomato — where dairy cream would tighten and split. That is why it is the cooking liquid of choice across Southeast Asian and Caribbean kitchens rather than a substitution for one.
And then there is the flavour, which is not optional. Coconut milk tastes distinctly of coconut, mildly sweet, and it seasons a dish as much as it enriches it. Which brings up the question worth asking before you scan the list: are you replacing coconut milk because you ran out, or because you want the coconut gone?
choosing
matching the richness, or matching the flavour
Be warned about one thing first: this list leans heavily dairy. If you are here because you are cooking dairy-free, only the soy milk entry at 5.0 helps, and the note is specific — use the carton kind rather than anything canned. Almost everything else below is a dairy answer for a cook who has simply run out of coconut milk.
For a curry or a soup, the target is body. Evaporated milk at 7.5 is the strongest of the everyday options, noted for giving similar thickness in curries and soups; it holds up well to simmering because it is concentrated. Full-fat cream and the chilled thick layer from a can of heavy whipping cream, both 7.5, get you the richness — chill the can overnight and use the thick part. Half-and-half, also 7.5, is thinner and the note flags what it will not deliver: coconut richness. If the flavour mattered, a little coconut extract fills that gap.
Plain milk and whole milk both score 7.5, with the same practical instruction attached: add 1 tbsp of coconut cream per cup to build the body back. It is a good trick if you have a can of coconut cream and only a splash of coconut milk left — you are effectively reconstituting the ingredient. Skim milk at 5.0 gets the honest treatment in its note: very thin and bland, and it will not match the richness without help.
For desserts and drinks, the field shifts. Whipped cream at 7.5 works where you wanted coconut milk's richness in something cold and aerated. Chocolate milk at 5.0 is a niche entry that makes sense only in a sweet application already going that direction. Buttermilk at 4.0, sharpened with 1 tbsp of lemon juice, is the low-scoring bottom of the list and the score is fair — the acidity pulls a dish somewhere coconut milk never would.
One caution that applies across the dairy entries: coconut milk tolerates acid and a hard simmer that dairy does not. If your recipe has lime, tamarind or a lot of tomato in it, add the dairy substitute late and keep the pan below a boil, or it may split where the original would not have.
popular in these dishes
convert coconut milk measurements
quick swaps (averaged across uses)
02
Milk
7.51 cup : 1 cup
Thinner and less rich; add 1 tbsp coconut cream per cup for body, expect mild coconut flavor
7.5
03
Whole Milk
7.51 cup : 1 cup
Thinner and less creamy; whole milk lacks coconut richness, add 1 tbsp coconut cream per cup
7.5
04
Heavy Whipping Cream
7.51 cup : 1 cup
Chill overnight, use thick part
7.5
05
Whipped Cream
7.51 cup : 1 cup
Chill can, whip thick cream on top
7.5
06
Goat Milk
7.51 cup : 1 cup
Dairy-free, slightly sweet
7.5