The best-tasting vegan butter! It's plant-based, super buttery, smooth, rich & creamy & can be made in minutes. Use it for all of your spreading, baking, and frying needs. This is a real reader favorite with hundreds of five-star reviews. No fancy ingredients are required and it's palm oil-free!
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FEATURED COMMENT
"I'm impressed! When I read all the comments & high ratings about it tasting as good as real butter, I was hopeful but still skeptical…. However, I proved it to myself today. It came out perfectly first go! Follow the well-detailed directions and you can't go wrong!"
- Clare ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ More reviews →
If there is just one new vegan recipe you are going to try this month, let it be this vegan butter. It is life-changing and absolutely tried and true. It has been one of my most popular recipes since 2015 and it comes with hundreds of five-star reviews.
Make it in your blender in minutes and then use it just like regular butter for all of your spreading and baking needs. It's unbelievably smooth, rich, and creamy, and spreads and melts perfectly. You can even use it to make vegan brown butter!
A slice of no knead sourdough bread, toast, or light whole wheat bread just isn't the same without a thick layer of butter and when you make your own you can avoid the palm oil, emulsifiers etc that are in most store bought vegan butters.
Mel x
What Is Vegan Butter Made Of?
So that you get the very best results when making this vegan butter recipe, here are some important notes on the main ingredients:
- Almond flour - This is crucial for the best buttery flavor and emulsification. Almond flour is made from blanched skinless almonds and is super fine, powdery, soft, and pale creamy yellow in colour. It has a mild, buttery flavor. Almond meal on the other hand is made with raw almonds, often with skins still on. It is coarser and grainier than almond flour, slightly stronger in flavor, and darker in color with small brown flecks throughout if the skins were still intact. For best results, you need to use almond flour for this recipe. Almond flour is found in almost all grocery stores and it will be clearly labelled on the bag that it is made from blanched almonds. I buy mine in bulk from Costco but Bob's Red Mill is a popular brand of almond flour carried in most stores in North America. In the UK you can usually find almond flour at Holland and Barrett or you can order it from Amazon.
- Refined coconut oil - Note that it must be refined (i.e flavorless and odourless) and cannot be MCT oil or liquid coconut oil. This is a crucial ingredient and without it the butter won't set.
- Dairy-free milk - For creaminess and emulsification. It should be a neutral tasting milk and it must be unsweetened and unflavored so be careful to check the ingredients. Vanilla and sugar sneak into a lot of plant milks and they really aren't good additions to savory recipes. My preferences are oat milk, soy milk, or cashew milk. I don't recommend using almond milk because it has quite a strong flavor which you can detect in the finished butter.
- Nutritional yeast - Just a touch for a buttery umami flavor.
- Apple cider vinegar - The butter needs some acid to balance the flavors and apple cider vinegar is milder than most other culinary acids which is why it's used here.
- Oil - Any neutral oil such as mild olive oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, or sunflower oil. This is what makes the butter spreadable.
- Turmeric - Used for color. It gives the butter a yellow hue. This is the only ingredient you can safely omit.
You will also need a high-powered blender.
If you have any questions check the FAQs for the most common ones, and if it's not covered there feel free to leave a comment under the recipe. I'll get back to you a.s.a.p.
Serving Suggestions
Slather this vegan butter on bread, scones, and biscuits, and pancakes, and waffles. You can also add it to all of your favorite buttery recipes like vegan mashed potatoes, vegan cream cheese frosting, and lemon curd, and use it in your vegan baking. It's great for cakes, pastry dough, etc. You can even use it to make brown butter!
Recipe FAQS
If you use unrefined or virgin coconut oil, your butter will taste and smell of coconut, not butter. Refined coconut oil has no coconut flavor or smell which is why it is essential for this recipe.
I have a few readers who use ground-up cashew nuts, sunflower seeds, or pine nuts instead of almonds. Almonds give a more buttery flavour but the results are still ok when using these substitutes.
The nutritional yeast helps with the buttery flavor and the butter is at its best when it is included so I highly recommend using it. However, if you omit it the recipe will still technically work, it just won't taste quite as good.
No. Baking yeast and brewer's yeast are completely different from nutritional yeast and will not work in this recipe.
There is no substitute for coconut oil in this recipe. Nothing else will work.
Yes, it bakes perfectly. Use it in cakes, pies and frosting etc as you would regular butter.
Vegan butter and margarine are similar but not the same. Margarine has a really distinctive flavor and a really soft texture that is not like traditional dairy butter. It is also not always vegan. It often contains milk derivatives amongst other things, even the ones that are sometimes labeled as plant-based" so be careful. Look out for ingredients like whey, lactose, and casein. Also, be wary of lecithin and vitamin D3 which can sometimes be derived from animals. My vegan butter recipe is more like dairy butter in flavor and texture than store-bought margarine.
No. The recipe will not set when made with liquid coconut oil.
Recipe
Vegan Butter
Author:WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240 mls) refined coconut oil , it must be refined NOT unrefined
- ½ cup (50 grams or 8 tablespoons) almond flour
- ½ cup + 2 tablespoons (150 mls) dairy-free milk , must be unsweetened & unflavored. See the post above for my fave milks to use.
- 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 pinch ground turmeric , optional but helps make colour a little more yellow
- ¼ cup (60 ml ml) neutral liquid oil , such as light olive, canola, vegetable, or sunflower oil.
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONS
Please see the recipe notes before proceeding if you intend on using this butter for frying/sautéing.
- Gently melt the coconut oil. I put it in the microwave on defrost for about 20 seconds but you can also stand the jar in some hot water. Measure it when it's liquid and not solid, then set aside for a few minutes to cool to room temperature. Do not use it while warm or hot.
- Place the almond flour, milk, salt, nutritional yeast, vinegar, and turmeric into a high speed blender and blend until completely smooth. Touch the blender jar and make sure the contents aren't really warm or hot. If they are wait until they are at room temperature again before moving onto the next step.
- Pour in the refined coconut oil and olive oil then blend again until completely emulsified. It's important not to let the contents of the blender get warm/hot so blend in short bursts and give it a break for a minute or two in between if you can feel it getting warm.
- Pour the liquid butter into a container, cover and refrigerate until set.
- Let the butter soften at room temperature for a few minutes before spreading for ultimate creaminess and ease of spreading.
NOTES
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Becky says
This is perfect ♡ thanks ever so much!
A Virtual Vegan says
So glad you like it!
Melanie New says
Hello Mel
I am wondering if I could use this butter recipe to make buttercream frosting for cakes. The recipes I have seen require vegan butter which I cannot buy here in South Africa, if I can it's very expensive. I want to make my own and then use it in the buttercream recipe.
Let me know your thoughts, I would it appreciate it very much.
Thank you
A Virtual Vegan says
Hi Mel, You sure can use it for buttercream. I do sometimes. It works really well and tastes great in it. It does get a bit soft when you work it for too long (especially when the kitchen is warm) so you might need to pop it in the fridge to cool down after making it and before frosting and it might be wise to keep the cake in the fridge after especially as it's likely pretty warm there in South Africa. Have fun!
Danielle says
Hi. Can you use it to replace recipes that call for butter, like baking. I was thinking for cookies or other baked items. Thanks
A Virtual Vegan says
it works really well in cakes, cookies, muffins etc, just not for frying or broiling.
Janet says
My daughter can not have canola oil or any yeast. Can I make this without the nutritional yeast?
A Virtual Vegan says
You can omit the yeast, remember though that nutritional yeast is an inactive yeast. I'm not sure whether that make a difference. You will lose a tiny bit of buttery flavour by leaving it out but it wont make too much difference.
ATOURINA CHARLES says
Thanks for the recipe! Much easier than the non palm oil butter I used to make years ago- that was a 2 day process. Q: Can I use virgin coconut oil if I'm not planning to cook with it?
Also, on that note, have you tried making frosting? Does it hold shape or needs to be refrigerated if made into frosting?
xoxo
A Virtual Vegan says
Glad you like it! You can use virgin coconut oil but the butter will taste like coconut. As long as that fits with whatever you are doing with it then go for it. For the best buttery flavour though it should be refined coconut oil. And yes it makes excellent frosting. As long as your kitchen is cool it should hold it's shape. My house is pretty warm so I usually end up having to put mine in the fridge. Hope that helps!
Gloria says
Any suggestions for someone who is allergic to all types of nuts (including almonds)? Ideas on what to use as an alternative to almonds in this recipe? Not sure if any type of seed would work? Really want to make this but just can't eat almonds!
Thank you for your time.
A Virtual Vegan says
I have some readers who make it with pine nuts (a seed not a nut despite the name) and some who use sunflower seeds. The flavour wont be quite as buttery but it will still work well. Just be sure to grind them to a fine flour.
Gloria says
Thank you so much!
Sam says
What can I substitute the almond flour with due to nut allergies?
A Virtual Vegan says
Some readers use pine nuts or sunflower seeds. Just make sure they are ground to a very fine flour first.
Sue says
I was just wondering if, as you don't recommend almond milk due to the strong flavour,, you have any thoughts on using ground cashews instead of ground almonds for the same reason.
A Virtual Vegan says
The ground almonds work much better than cashews in this recipe because they have a buttery flavour. I tried all sorts of nuts (and other things!),when testing it and they give the best results by far so I would highly recommend you use them if at all possible. I don't know what it is, but store bought almond milk always has a very distinctive, quite strong flavour that tends to come through in a lot of recipes. I personally don't use it in cooking much at all because of that. It really isn't the best choice in this recipe and takes away from the butteriness. My favourite milk for this recipe is cashew milk used in conjunction with the ground almonds. Feel free to use almond milk or cashew nuts if you want to. The recipe will work, but for optimum results/ best flavour I recommend you use ground almonds and cashew milk. Hope that helps!
Sue says
Dear Virtual Vegan, Many thanks for your prompt and very informative reply. Can't wait to make this as not only the ingredients but the plastic packaging (in the UK anyway) have made vegan butters completely off limits for me. I'll let you know how it goes - and thanks for all the research.
Sue says
Dear Mel,
You're a genius! I followed your instructions to the letter and had some on toast this morning. Lovely texture and flavour. I shall try making shortcrust pastry with it next.
A Virtual Vegan says
I am so glad you are enjoying it Sue and it makes fab pastry by the way!
Sue says
Sure does! I made shortcrust pastry for vegan 'sausage' (walnut & tofu) rolls today and it's GREAT! I also used it to make the roux for a proper bechamel sauce made with cashew milk infused with bay, thyme. peppercorns and onion - and that was a complete success too. Hurrah! All my buttery problems are now solved. Thanks again.
A Virtual Vegan says
I wish I was eating at your house! That all sound really yummy. I'm so glad you are enjoying the recipe!
Lidija Voljanek says
I will try this today and if I make it good I would like to share your recipes on our Vegan Food Fair.
If you are closer here I would invite you to join us with your goodies and presentation.
A Virtual Vegan says
I hope you enjoyed the butter and that the Fair goes well!
Mandy says
I am attempting to go vegan to lower my cholesterol. Butter is one of my weaknesses! So I started looking for a vegan substitution for it and I stumbled across this article. However, coconut oil is loaded with saturated fats, which I need to stay away from. Is there something else I can substitute the coconut oil with to make it less in saturated fats? (Unfortunately, you didn't add saturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, or the other I can't remember the name of right now)
Thank you!
Mandy
A Virtual Vegan says
There is no substitute for the coconut oil I'm afraid. It has to be an oil that solidifies for the butter to work and there is nothing else that does this other than palm oil which is what I am trying to avoid by making this recipe. Sorry!
clulu says
i think i left a comment here asking if i can use shea butter? is it here? im gonna try it and let u know if it works, hopefully it does
A Virtual Vegan says
You did and I replied a couple of days ago. It should be here somewhere. Hope it works out for you!
Myles Root says
Could I use avocado oil instead of olive oil. I know avocado oil has a high smoke point and was curious if there was any way I could make it so I could use it to fry. Could I turn it into ghee?
A Virtual Vegan says
Technically there is no reason why you couldn't use avocado oil. It would work. I'm not sure about the flavour though. Avocado oil is pretty pungent and quite green. I think the taste would come through and take away from the butteriness. If you are ok with that though go for it.
As for frying, switching the oil won't make a difference. When you fry with it, it tastes ok, it just goes a little lumpy and strange looking. I think it's to do with the almonds and evaporation. If you left the almonds out I think it would fry ok but I haven't tried it so can't guarantee. The almonds though really help the buttery flavour so you would lose that. Good luck if you decide to experiment!
Lori says
I only have unregined coconut oil. Why does it need to be refined? Thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
It needs to be refined as otherwise your butter won't taste like butter. It will taste and smell like coconut. It's really needs to be refined coconut oil that you use. :)
Carol says
Could you use water instead of milk? Cheers :)
A Virtual Vegan says
I think it needs the milk to help with the creaminess. I have never tried it with water though. My worry is it might not emulsify so well?
Thuthao says
Hi. thank you for sharing. I'd like to know about the purpose of nutritional yeast in the recipe. Can i skip it?
A Virtual Vegan says
The nutritional yeast adds a little depth of flavour to the butter and adds to the butteriness a bit. You could omit it if you wanted to and the recipe will still technically work, you will just lose a little flavour. Hope that helps!
Ember says
Tried it! Perfect buttery flavor and so delicious! I couldn't fully get rid of the grainy consistency though.
A Virtual Vegan says
So glad you are enjoying the flavour. It really shouldn't be grainy at all. I think that must be down to your blender unfortunately.
Caitlin says
I just made this and wow! The flavor is incredible! So buttery and luxurious!
A Virtual Vegan says
That's awesome! I am thrilled you are enjoying it. Thanks so much for stopping by to let me know!