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
Ingredient Notes
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 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 flavour.
- 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 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 favorite buttery recipes like vegan mashed potatoes, vegan cream cheese frosting, and lemon curd, and use it in your vegan baking. It's great in cakes and 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 flavour and the butter is at it's 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 is completely different to 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 labelled 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 margarines.
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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NUTRITION
This recipe was originally published on March 15th 2015. I've added new photographs & some new content and now I am republishing it for you. The actual recipe remains the same. I hope you enjoy it. Thank you for following A Virtual Vegan!
Amanda Flynn says
Have to say I was dubious but wow, I'm not vegan but lacto intolerant and have really been missing butter as marg all be it dairy free is no substitute. I omitted the yeast as didn't have any and used coconut milk, its delicious! I was considering Ghee as its supposed to have all the lacto removed in the milk proteins but I wont be bothering now. Thankyou so much, I will be looking at your other recipes x
Im going to share it on my facebook page....Hope that's ok
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm so pleased you enjoyed it Amanda and thank you for sharing it on your page!
Liz says
Thank you so very much, for sharing this recipe!!! I am brand new to a vegan diet (for health reasons). By brand new, I’m talking 7 days today! Butter WAS going to be one of (if not THE) most challenging staples to give up.....until I made this recipe. It perfectly captures the incredible richness and decadence of traditional dairy butter! Thank you, for making this transition loads easier!
P.S. For those wondering, yes, I did try store bought vegan butter (3 different ones!) and found it to have a strange after mouth feel and taste. It made me think of a slightly rancid margarine.
This recipe is the perfect vegan butter! I also love that it is made with great ingredients that are not, 1. Processed and 2. Hard to find (which is wonderful for someone like me, that is new to vegan eating!)
A Virtual Vegan says
That's awesome Liz. I'm glad it is making your transition easier. Thank you so much for stopping by to leave feedback. It's much appreciated!
Lorey says
I'm so glad to find this recipe. Recently I found Miyoko;s vegan butter. It has no palm oil, and is made from cashews and coconut oil. You can fry with it, it browns beautifully, but it cost $6.49 for a half-pound. That's $13 a lb., plus it must be shipped 2nd day air. All a bit much, so thanks for this recipe.
I havcn't tried it yet, but plan to when I use up Miyoko's.
SuryaSmiles says
I pm presuming flaxseed oil wouldn’t work for the oil?
A Virtual Vegan says
You have to use coconut oil or the butter won't set. Any other oil would "technically" work for the liquid oil part but the best flavor comes from mild olive oil. I would imagine the flavor of flax oil would come through quite a lot and stop the butter tasting buttery.
SuryaSmiles says
Thank you for your response. Reviewing the recipe again, since the oil is only 2 T, and I love flaxseed oil, I’ll try it and let you know how it goes! I have lots of coconut oil on hand, not sure if I have the right almond milk, we’ll see. Excited to make my own! Thank you!
Liz says
I made this recipe this morning. Took it out of the fridge this evening, and it is hard as a rock :(
Will I have to let it sit out every time I need to use it, or did I do something wrong?
I tasted it before it set, and it was absolutely delicious! I just can’t spread it. At all ???? haha ????????♀️
A Virtual Vegan says
It's just like real butter in that you need to leave it at room temperature for a little while before you can spread it easily. Coconut oil gets hard when it's cold and that's what makes up the majority of the recipe. That's why it's called butter rather than margarine which tends to be softer and spreadable from the fridge.
Andrea says
What would be the consequences of omitting the nutritional yeast? Thanks.
A Virtual Vegan says
It would still work but the NY helps with the buttery flavor and the color so it wouldn't be at it's best.
Margaret says
Thank you for this. We are doing plant meals, for diagnosis reason. Losing simple butter was hard. So, looking forward to this. I only have to get the unrefined.. I have only refined (I like the flavor).
Juul says
I made butter from this recipe today and.. it is really delicious! I'm just hoping that I will have enough left over for when I try out your mac&'cheese' next. <3
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm so pleased you are enjoying it. Hope you like the mac and cheese too!
Katarina says
Hi! Do you think that buckwheat milk could work? Thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
I have never tried buckwheat milk so don't know what the flavor is like, sorry! As long as it's mild and doesn't have a really pronounced overpowering flavour it should be ok though.
Cassie says
Do you think this will work for making pie crust dough? Most dough recipes call for chilled, cubed butter...would the consistency of this butter work?
Thank you!
A Virtual Vegan says
Yes it works really well in pastry and all other types of baking.
Kathy T says
For a great vegan pie crust, you can also just substitute coconut oil for the butter. Works great!
Reese says
I just made this today. I’m new to the dairy-free life but I miss butter. Well, it’s official I will not buy any kind of butter anymore. The taste is real and I know what’s in it. Bonus, it’s so easy to make!
A Virtual Vegan says
That's awesome! I'm thrilled you enjoyed it so much and that it helps make being dairy free easier for you. Thank you for stopping by to let me know. I really appreciate it!
Susie Colson says
Please tell me which refined oil you use, all the ones I can find are for skin, or soap making
Regards S
P.S I’m in the UK
A Virtual Vegan says
I use Nutiva refined coconut oil, but all stores here sell at least a couple different brands. In the UK, Tesco and Sainsbury sell it for sure because I bought it there last summer. The brand was KTC. Here's a link to it at Tesco https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/256412443 I just checked Amazon.co.uk and they sell loads of it too. I'm sure there are other sources but as I'm in Canada I am not familiar with them.
Lauren says
Hi,
I’m so excited to try this recipe for my vegan cafe since its impossible to find vegan butter where I’m located! I was just wondering if the olive oil is necessary, or if I can use another oil (such as rice bran oil) or use only refined coconut oil? Thanks so much
A Virtual Vegan says
I tried many oils when creating the recipe and a mild olive oil gives the best overall flavour. Any oil that doesn't solidify would technically work though. Adding the liquid oil to the coconut oil helps make the butter glossy and more easily spreadable so I wouldn't recommend using all coconut oil instead.
Lorraine says
What will happen if I use unrefined.
A Virtual Vegan says
The butter will taste and smell of coconut and not butter.
Lindsay says
This is so delicious and "buttery".
I make it all the time and it is so easy.
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you Lindsay. I'm so pleased you are enjoying it. Thank you for stopping by to leave feedback!
Nicole Ferreby says
Is there any way to make this nut free, for allergy reasons?
A Virtual Vegan says
I have some readers who make it with ground up sunflower seeds or pine nuts instead of almonds. They say it works well!