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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Melissa Hedden says
Super replacement for butter! Thank you.
Heather says
Would Mct oil work for this perhaps? Thanks for sharing!
A Virtual Vegan says
No it wouldn't. It needs to be regular refined cococnut oil as otherwise the butter won't set.
Carol says
Can you explain why unrefined doesn't work? If you did already I have missed it , thank you.
A Virtual Vegan says
Because you want the butter to taste of butter. If you use unrefined it will taste/smell of coconut.
christina bickley says
hi , i was following your page,, and noticed that you use oil in your recipes.. which is a no no.. for all oils... surprised that so many vegans etc use oil.... its a shame
A Virtual Vegan says
I have a lot of oil-free recipes. You can find a whole section in my recipe index. But yes, I do use oil when it enhances a dish, and in recipes like this butter where there is no alternative. If you choose to eat oil free then that's your decision. It's a no no for you, but oil is vegan and it's up to each individual to make their own dietary decisions and they should be able to do that without judgement.
Tarey Beckwith says
Hi, can Brazil nuts be substituted for almonds and can Avocado oil be substituted for coconut oil?
A Virtual Vegan says
Almonds have a really buttery flavour. I tested all the nuts and they came out best flavour-wise. Brazil nuts would technically work though, but the butter might not taste so "buttery". As for the oil, refined coconut oil is the only option. No other oil will work.
Rebecca Valentine says
Made this yesterday and it definitely looks like butter! Yummy! But I do have a question. For cookie recipes that call for unsalted butter, am I supposed to lessen the salt mentioned in the cookie recipe by the amount of salt the butter has?
(PS. I added only half the amount of salt mentioned in the butter recipe here.) Thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
Glad you like it! Unless you are using the whole batch of butter in the recipe, then it could become hard to work out how much salt you should subtract from the recipe, but yes, in theory that would work.
If you need unsalted butter you could just make up a batch of my butter recipes with no salt added. If you don't use it all it freezes really well so you can save it for next time.
Hope that helps!
Elaine says
Absolutely outstanding! Thanks.
Bean says
This butter is AMAZING! I tried a recipe from another website that was an epic fail but I thought I'd persist and try yours and I am so glad I did! It tastes just like butter and holds together really well. Thank you for the recipe!
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased you enjoyed it. I take pride in my recipes being extremely well tested (by me and my recipes testers) so there should never be any epic fails here! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review. I really appreciate it!
Zippy Sanchez says
This is da BOMB!! I never thought I would say this as a butter addict but it's even better than butter. I followed your recipe, used oatmilk and left our the tumeric, it really is a game changer. Thank you so much for this recipe!
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased you are enjoying it. Thank you!
Marjorie says
SO like butter it's uncanny.
Leslie Renée says
Fantastic!!! My non-vegan friends loved this, and my vegan husband is so happy to have this... definitely a staple in our kitchen. Perfect on English muffins. Toast. Caramel sauce. Mashed potatoes... the list goes on. With the holidays coming up, we will be making a double (or even triple!!!) batch. Thank you for your hard work creating this.
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased you are enjoying it Leslie. Thank you so much for stopping by to leave a review!
Dream says
Yum yum yum.
Heather says
I made this butter to use in my baking and it looked really weird at first...tasted sort of like butter. It’s definitely better than any vegan butter spreads I’ve had. I think on it’s own, I’d use less salt. However, when I used it in my dishes, it worked great! I added it to my vegan key lime crust that I baked and it tasted just like butter. It was amazing!! Then I froze it and tonight I made vegan chocolate chip cookies and they worked beautifully! The perfect cookie with real butter always eluded me. They used to flatten out into pancakes. This vegan butter made incredible cookies! They were golden and crispy on the edges and top and bottom and yet chewy and fluffy in the middle. They puffed up and held their shape! I’m so happy thank you! The store vegan butter never had a yummy texture or taste. I’m happy I found your recipe! Thank you very much for sharing. I’m looking forward to more recipes from you.
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm really pleased it exceeded your expectations like that! I use it for all of my baking and a local bakery uses it for their vegan baked goods too. They make gallons of it at a time. Try it in pastry next time you make some. It works great!
Thank you for stopping by to leave a review Heather. I really appreciate it!
Katie says
Is there something that could make this more spreadable, similar to margarine? We currently use vegan becel but would love something homemade.
Lidia says
Hi, just a quick question. Could you make this a flavored butter? Would you recommend adding for example black truffle powder for?
A Virtual Vegan says
You could easily flavour this. I've made fresh herb and garlic versions. I've never used black truffle powder but I don't see why it wouldn't work. It might end up looking a bit grey though, that's the only downside. I would make the butter as instructed, then add a little of the black truffle powder to whatever portion of it that you want to flavour and stir through.
Adele Rumbold says
This is now a staple part of our new vegan way of life.
A Virtual Vegan says
That's awesome. I'm really pleased you are enjoying it!
Christina says
This recipe is VEGGIE VERIFIED. I just made this (finally!) and oh, baby, this is going to make my family freak the f*ck out—now one more thing they don't feel like they have to "give up" to live longer and better. Thank you, girl!
Melanie McDonald says
Ha ha, love this! Thank you so much!