Yea, I know exactly what you mean. I find cooking with cream can make things cloying rich, which is why I usually use regular milk instead of cream (even in cream sauces for pasta). You can check out my Butter Chicken recipe for how I use cashew nuts to add richness to that particular curry (https://norecipes.com/butter-chicken-recipe/) using cashew nuts and water.

Thanks Marc. I appreciate the suggestions. Substitution is harder for ingredients you don't normally work with as you don't know precisely what you are trying to match. And it is the taste, I can eat it but I don't enjoy it - not even a little.

Hi FoodJunkie, I'm going to assume that your aversion to coconut milk is the taste, and not the creaminess. Cream could work as a substitute, but it's a little richer than coconut milk so you may want to reduce the amount. The other option is to use raw cashew nuts pureed in water. I think this will get you closer to the plant-based richness of coconut milk and it even has the mild sweetness of coconut milk, without the coconut taste.

Hi Sam, when cooking I find it's always helpful to have the context of why you do something which is why I have such detailed headnotes. I'm so glad to hear you found them helpful, thanks for stopping by to let me know!