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 favourite 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 flavour 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 flavour. 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 flavour, and darker in colour 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 flavourless 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 unflavoured 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 savoury recipes. My preferences are oat milk, soy milk, or cashew milk. I don't recommend using almond milk because it has quite a strong flavour which you can detect in the finished butter.
- Nutritional yeast - Just a touch for a buttery umami flavour.
- Apple cider vinegar - The butter needs some acid to balance the flavours 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 colour. 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 favourite 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 flavour 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 flavour 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 flavour 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 flavour 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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L says
Oh wow!
I just had to make this to believe it!
It works!!
And it tastes exactly like butter!
Thank you so much for this wonderful invention!
I will now double and triple this recipe and freeze them in silicone trays!
Yay!!
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm so pleased you are enjoying it. I know exactly what you mean. It's so hard to believe that those ingredients could combine and make something that tastes like butter, eh? But it works, as you discovered.Thanks so much for stopping by to leave feedback. I really appreciate it!
Margaret says
I used soy milk. It turned out just fine! Love this recipe, thank you! I also used white-wheat flour instead of almond flour.
Simone says
Just want to double check after reading your lovely article..
This butter recipe will b e good to make vegan frosting and also to create buttercream to potentially pipe flowers for cakes?
A Virtual Vegan says
Yes it will be. Just keep the frosting nice and cold prior to piping and don't put too much in the piping bag at a time. Keep the portion of frosting you aren't using in the fridge until you need it.
Rebecca says
I made this twice. The first batch I used the only refined unhydrogenated coconut oil I could find after looking high and low is KTC brand (from Morrisons) and it didn't taste so good. Sure it doesn't taste like coconut but it had an unpleasant taste and smell. Then I read the comments and buried somewhere it had the reason for choosing "refined" coconut oil, it's JUST for flavour. You could use any raw coconut oil you wanted and the recipe would work, just it would taste like coconut (which we don't want) . There are plenty of natural coconut oils that have been smoked to remove flavour that DONT have the word "refined" written anywhere on the bottle, probably because A) refined may mean dry milled from roasted coconuts as opposed to unrefined/raw which is wet milled from fresh coconut, and B) manufacturers of organic products would want to avoid using words like refined/processed at all costs.
Anyway my second batch was absolutely perfect. I used "Biona mild odourless coconut oil" which is organic wet milled yet smoked, some cold pressed rapeseed oil, cashew milk. I am so happy with this, butter was the hardest dairy product for me to quit!
I live in the UK if that helps explain brand names, and terminology differences that brands use!
Up next, omitting the salt at blend-time and stirring through some rock salt chips before setting.... mmmm rock salt butter
Thank you sooo much, I've passed it onto my friends!
Lisa Kenyon says
Have you recently changed the recipe? I've been using your great recipe for a while now but I noticed when I came to make it this time that the amount of ground almonds and coconut oil has increased. But the amount of plant milk hasn't? I'm sure it used to be 120ml of coconut oil and definitely much less ground almonds. When I came to step 1 I noticed how the mixture wasn't really a liquid so I added more rice milk. Is there a reason you've changed the recipe?
A Virtual Vegan says
I haven't changed the recipe. I did double it because people were finding it difficult to blend such a small amount in larger blenders, but all of the ratios are exactly the same. I just checked and re-checked it against my original master copy and it is all listed correctly. There did used to be 120mls of coconut oil listed, and now its 240mls because everything has doubled. Same with the milk. It was 5 tablespoons (75 ml) and now it says 150 ml. Almonds were 4 tablespoons and now are 8. So if measured correctly there shouldn't be any changes in the consistency when blending it up.
Lisa Kenyon says
Ah I see, thank you so much! Because I've made it so many times I usually just glance at the ingredients and method to remind myself so must have missed your note about doubling it up! Keep up the good work x
Kim Robinson says
Hello,
I’m looking for a vegan unsalted butter for a recipe. If I use this & leave out the salt fine, but will the nutritional yeast still give it a salty (umami) quality?
Any recommendations?
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
You can easily leave the salt out. And yes the nutritional yeast will really help with "seasoning" it. You could give it a quick taste it in the blender when you are making it and add a tiny bit extra if need be.
Corinna says
Hi, can this be made by hand, as I don't have a blender?
A Virtual Vegan says
You wouldn't get it smooth enough. It would end up grainy because of the almond flour. A food processor might do an ok job if you have one?
Patricia Mobbs says
Please can you give precise measurements. Your ingredients are a total mystery to me as tablespoons, mls, cup sizes etc. Can’t wait to make this butter but need correct amounts please.
Diana Klingner says
You really are amazing!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you!
Dave says
Tried them all and this is by far the best. Really easy too.
Lina says
Awesome! Can you make Whip Cream for cakes and cupcakes? or will it melt and not hold?
A Virtual Vegan says
You can use it to make frosting for cakes etc with no problem as long as it doesn't get too warm, and it bakes up in cakes etc really well too.
Anne Sanders says
I will try this but am interested to know if you've tried baking with it such as using to make pastry?
A Virtual Vegan says
It bakes up beautifully in cakes and pastry etc. In fact there is a bakery local to me that uses it for their vegan baked goods!
Tina says
I just made this! I'm astonished how buttery it tastes! It's a bit too salty for me -- next time I'll use less salt. Thanks for the recipe! I'm going to love not having to pay $5 every time I need more vegan butter!
A Virtual Vegan says
That's awesome Tina. I'm so pleased you like it. It does work out a lot cheaper than buying it ready made!
Lydia Sudyko says
Hi. I am allergic to apple. Is it possible to use rice vinegar or white vinegar for this recipe?
A Virtual Vegan says
I think white wine vinegar would be good alternative. I wouldn't use regular white vinegar. It might be a little harsh. A little drop of lemon juice would work also. it just needs a tiny bit of acidity.
Rachel says
This vegan butter is a dream! After going vegan a couple years back, I was having a tough time finding a vegan butter that did it for me and/or wasn't super expensive to buy, until I came across this magic recipe! This tastes like the real deal, and I no longer miss real butter. My non-vegan family members love it as well. I sub canola oil for the olive oil because I noticed a bitter taste after it was spun at a high speed. I have been making and using this recipe for months now and still can't get over how dang yummy it is. I use this on toast and bagels daily, as well as in my cooking and baking. It is perfect. I plan to start making it in bigger batches and freezing in 1/4, 1/2, and 1 cup increments so I can easily have it on hand whenever I bake. Thank you so much for the recipe! xx
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm so pleased you are enjoying it Rachel. Thank you!
Sabrina says
I love this recipe! I found that I’m not a fan of cashew milk, does macadamia curdle in the same way as soy?
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you Sabrina. Macadamia milk will be fine. None of the other plant milks curdle like soy does for some reason.
Roda says
Hello, i would like to make this vegan butter however I'm allergic to yeast and almond is there an alternative? I would appreciate it if you could help a gal out
Thanks
A Virtual Vegan says
You can omit the nutritional yeast but it will take away from the buttery flavour a little. You can also use finely ground raw cashew nuts instead of almonds but it will affect the flavor quite a lot. The almonds are what makes this butter recipe so good.
Joe says
What can i use instead of coconut oil?
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm sorry but there is no substitute for the coconut oil. It's the only thing that will in this recipe.
Lori says
What purpose does the almond meal serve? Thanks!!
A Virtual Vegan says
It gives the butter it's buttery flavour and helps emulsify it.
Megan says
This is the best vegan butter ever. My kids and husband are not vegan and they have not noticed I’ve replaced this delicious vegan butter with their cow butter. Amazing. Thank you for sharing.
A Virtual Vegan says
That's amazing! The biggest compliment is when people don't notice the difference. Thanks so much for coming back to let me know!