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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Fernanda says
I can’t eat dairy, so this recipe really helps me not to miss it. I subbed the vinegar with lemon juice (it did not leave a lemon taste at all), and also I subbed the nutritional yeast with onion powder, as I can’t eat nutritional yeast... still it turned out really good! Thanks for the recipe :)
Bebe says
As much as I admire the work that went into what sounds like a great tasting recipe, it is time for vegans to get away from coconut oil, which is higher in saturated fat than even animal fat is. Despite coconut being touted as “healthy,” it, in fact, raises LDL levels and contributes to heart disease. Butter is usually melted in recipes, anyway, so to have a great a buttery taste and effect does not require vegan butter to be hard. Given this, I hope this talented cook will come up with a vegan “butter oil” recipe to replace her current vegan butter recipe—or at least offer one as an alternative.
popMurph says
I have to respectfully disagree. My triglycerides numbers were all RICHTER until switching to both coconut oil as my main cooking oil, and coconut derived, vegan "buttery spreads". My numbers are all either dead center of their respective target ranges or slightly lower, and have been for 7 solid years. When we examined what FEW dietary changes I made, my doc pin pointed it to these two.
Christina says
It is not true that saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease. Oxidized fats damage arteries. For more information, read The Fatburn Fix by Cate Shanahan.
Trish says
I was wondering why the Hoosier Hill Farm nutritional yeast is recommended on a vegan website (I love the recipes btw and all the tips). I didn't realize until I got it that it isn't vegan, it is produced where dairy products are made. I am new to vegan cooking, thank you for all your help.
Trish
Melanie McDonald says
It's recommended because it's vegan. It contains no dairy and is clearly marked vegan on the packaging. It has the "packaged in a facility shared by tree nuts, peanuts, soy, dairy and wheat" as an allergy warning. It means the same as labels that say "may contain". It's to cover themselves in case of accidental cross contamination by particles in the air etc, not because they put those ingredients in the food. Just about everything we ever buy from shops is from a shared facility like that. The only reason you don't see it on everything you buy is because it is strictly voluntary and not required by federal regulation. Spending your whole life avoiding those products would be a very miserable existence. You literally wouldn't be able to eat anything that's made or packaged in a factory or eat/drink at any anyone who isn't vegan's house, or any restaurants, bars or cafe. Being vegan is about doing the best you can in a not very vegan friendly world. None of us can be "perfect vegans".
Carolee says
Hearts to you! We do the best that we can! (I haven't tried your recipe yet, but I plan on trying it this weekend!)
Jem Jacob says
Seriously amazing! I made it this afternoon- I was hesitant to make it as I thought it would be time consuming but it is SO easy. I haven’t bought butter for years because all of the vegan butter is full of crap. I will seriously be making this for the rest of my life it’s THAT good. I only had almond milk on me so I used coconut milk from the can mixed with some water and it still turned out perfectly!
Melanie McDonald says
I'm really pleased you enjoyed it Jem, and thanks so much for leaving a review. It's much appreciated!
mia sison says
I love this recipe so much, thanks for sharing! my daughter is on an elimination diet and our family of five is on board to support her so this recipe came at a perfect time. Trying out the vegan parmesan recipe next!
Melanie McDonald says
You're welcome. I hope you enjoy the parmesan as much!
Sarah says
Hello, i’m histamine intolerant and can’t use nutritional yeast, you said that it would be okay to omit the nutritional yeast but it would not tastes as buttery,my question is: is there anything that i can subtitute the nutritional yeast with? If i don’t use it will it be super different to real butter? Because i dont want to waste all the Ingridients just because it doesnt taste right without the nutritional yeast,thank you
Melanie McDonald says
There isn't anything similar to nutritional yeast that you could replace it with. It's a really unique ingredient.
Dee says
Hi,
Please can you let me know if ground almonds are what you use for almond flour. There seem to be so many different options.
I make almond flour from the pulp left over from almond milk but Im thinking you are using finly ground almonds as they still have the fat in (both are called almond flour apparently).
Many thanks, I made this years ago with ground almonds I think, it was brilliant, I just need to check before I make it again!
Melanie McDonald says
Almond flour is made from blanched almonds and is pale yellow and really soft and super fine. I get mine in a big bag from Costco.
Some ground almonds are made from blanched almonds and some aren't. You'd need to check on the bag. It will say in the ingredients or on the front of the bag if it is.
I don't recommend using almond pulp for making most recipes as like you said, the fat and all of the flavour will have been strained out so it could affect the outcome of recipes that rely on the fat content, and it won't taste as good.
With this butter recipe ground almonds will be ok as long as they are ground without their skins (i.e no brown flecks) and you have a great blender.
Hope that helps!
JY says
I use coconut oil and avocado oil , but the butter has a very strong avacodo oil smell.
This aovcado oil is suitable for cooking.
Is avocado oil suitable?
Thank you!
Melanie McDonald says
You need to use neutrally flavoured oil. Avocado oil is fine if it's refined. The one you used was probably unrefined.
Clarissa says
I want to try this but I am allergic to (all) nuts. :(
I like the soy milk powder idea as something to experiment with.
Anyone have any tried suggestions or ideas?
THANKS in advance.
Melanie McDonald says
Use ground sunflower seeds or ground pine nuts instead of the almonds ;O)
Joan says
My first attempt is a success! It thickened beautifully. I used my high speed blender to get the almond flour and plant milk super creamy then set the blender jar in the fridge for 10 minutes to cool it down a bit as I was concerned about the overheating and the potential splitting you warned of. It began thickening immediately upon the addition of the oils. The flavour is very good. I may reduce the salt and nutritional yeast. Too early to day just yet. I can’t wait to play (bake, etc) with this butter. Thanks so much for your time and creativity!
jann bonner says
This vegan butter is really good. I can't eat dairy so Im most grateful as nothing seems to come close to butter, but this does. Wonderful and thank you.
Carrie says
Blown away. This is so good! The recipe worked perfectly and it tastes perfect. Just like butter. Thank you Mel!
Jill says
Hey Melanie,
Just made this for the first time tonight, taste is good, but a little too cheesy and salty to match our butter here, so will reduce the salt and Nutch by half next time.
I didn’t have a problem with the mixture splitting but it congealed like it would if you were making vegan Mayo, I guess this is likely to happen if you are whipping up milk and oil. Anyhow, I have put it all in a tub in the fridge and hoping that it will harden like butter, but I don’t like the odds of that happening, do you have any tips so that this doesn’t happen in the future? Do you think I may have over blended and should have just pulsed til combined and smooth? I used a Ninja Professional Plus Blender Duo first on pulse to combined the milk etc, and then put on medium for about 30 secs when adding the oils and that’s when it congealed. Any tips will be helpful, thanks.
Katie says
Hi there! I tried this recipe twice and as everyone has agreed... the taste was bang on! I had a few issues with the texture though, so I thought I'd pop my questions here. The first time I made it in a standard blender... nothing fancy... and the almond flour didn't seem fully incorporated. The texture wasn't totally smooth, but I chalked that up to the blender being ten years old. The next time I made it in a Vitamix. I gave it a good whirl (probably a minute or so) but that time it split... ugh. I'm about to give it another go in the Vitamix... there isn't a smoothie setting but it's pretty heavy duty. Anybody out here know exactly how long to let 'er rip? Or, if the butter just has texture and that's that? If so, it's still delicious, but I'd hate to miss out on any creaminess due to my own human error. Thanks so much!!
Melanie McDonald says
It should be completely smooth. A high-powered blender should have no issues. Is your Vitamix jug huge? It could be that there's not enough for it to blend efficiently. If you think that's the case try doubling the recipe. It freezes well so there's no rush to use it all.
Melanie McDonald says
Also I forgot to say that if it split that would be because of heat. High powered blenders get hot. You can make and heat soup in them. You need to blend until the mixture is completely smooth but you need to take measures to keep the mixture cool, either by blending in short bursts or lowering the speed. Hope that helps.
Laetitia says
Hi Melanie,
Will this butter work in puff pastry?
I know from French cook that vegan butter for such pastry should be in stick and contains more than 30% fat which I haven't found in Québec.
Did you try to make puff pastry with your recipe?
Have a good day!
Laëtitia
Melanie McDonald says
I haven't tried to make puff pastry with it but I have made croissants and it worked great. Just be sure to keep everything really cold. I try to work on a silicone baking mat so that when the dough gets a bit warm, I can easily pick it up, sit it on a baking tray and pop it in the fridge for 10 minutes. Hope that helps!
Laetitia says
Thanks for the reply and the tips. I will definitely give it a try.
Starrysky says
This is by far the BESTEST Vegan Butter recipe and the only one I use for nearly 2 years now as everytime I make it, it comes out PERFECTLY! I tried many many other Vegan butter recipes, which I thought were the best until making them several times and having to throw out and remake some batches, wasting ingredients, as often would not fully solidfy, or separate, etc. I use your receipe all the time as make several batches in advance & freeze the butter sticks. I use my Blendtec Blender and pour velvety mixture into either 1/2 Cup or 1 Cup Souper Cubes silicone molds as no guessing when needed for recipes & place in freezer until solid. I then remove the butter sticks from the molds and wrap in either wax paper or foil, and then vacuum package & seal in a vacuum channel bag (have a Nesco sealer machine) so I always have butter sticks on hand. I buy Almond Flour ahead and in keep in fridge. One adjustment I did switch to, is that I use Soy Milk Powder (mix it with water according to the directions to equal amount in your recipe) instead of Soy Milk to equal measurements in the recipe. Only listed some details in case helps someone else. Your recipe is PERFECT. I know you cannot use it for frying, but that's not an issue for me. Blessings & Have A Great Day!
Cheryl A Stein says
After my second of three children became vegan, I really started expermenting with vegan recipes in ernest. This is the third vegan butter I have tried, and I think it has the best taste and texture, so far. I'm not gonna lie; it's a lot more work for me cooking completely vegan for my family, mostly because, if I don't want to spend excessively, I have to make so many things that I used to be able to buy more cheaply. I really appreciate having excellent recipes, like this one, to rely on for staples like butter. I think I'm going to make more at a time, and freeze it, especially with Thanksgiving coming up. I use my Cuisinart food processor, and the butter comes out perfectly smooth and creamy. Just make sure you pulse the dry ingredients really well first, and then add the wet ingredients slowly. I tried it in the blender, and preferred the food processor. Thanks for this butter...it's a game changer.