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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Dr. Sir Francis Baron Von Ross says
Great Recipe for Butter. I am Allergic to all Nuts and Soy. I use Rice Flour and not Ground Almonds. I also make my own Rice Milk and use that. Hope this helps others who are Allergic.
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you! I am so glad you are enjoying it and that you found a way to make it work for you. Rice Flour is a great idea. Some other readers have been using ground hemp seeds or sunflower seeds too. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and leave feedback!
sofia says
Your print button doesn't seem to be working. It says error 404, page not found.
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I have my tech guy looking into it and will let you know when it's fixed :)
A Virtual Vegan says
The print button is now fixed :)
Samantha says
Just made this today and it is AMAZING! I'm a vegan newbie and was so surprised at how much like real butter this looks and tastes. Well done! Thank for coming up with this and sharing it with us!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you so much Samantha and you are so welcome. I'm thrilled you are enjoying it so much!
Jo Ann says
This butter has replaced my usual shop-bought spread! Thank you so much for the recipe, it's absolutely perfect.
A Virtual Vegan says
That's awesome. I am so glad you are enjoying it!
Tania says
Hi. Just making sure that the tablespoon you use in your recipes are 15ml. Down in Australia our tablespoons measure 20ml, so thought it best to check. Thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
Yes it is 15ml tablespoons. I only discovered recently that your tablespoons were a different size in Australia. It would make life so much simpler if there was a universal measurement system instead of us all having different sized cups and spoons! ????
Fredi says
I didn't have any almonds so just made this with macadamias, which works fantastically. Great recipe, thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
Awesome! So glad you like it and it's good to know macadamias work well.
clulu says
do u think sunflower seeds or any other nuts would work? or does the almonds give it a particular taste?
A Virtual Vegan says
If you aren't allergic to almonds then please use ground almonds. They make such a difference to the buttery flavour. I have readers who use other nuts or sunflower seeds because of allergies and they do work though so it's up to you.
Marcia says
This sounds great except for the coconut oil. Neither my husband or me like coconut. It seems like a large amount. Can it be replaced with another oil?
Thank you for your time,
Marcia
A Virtual Vegan says
Sorry but there is nothing else you can use as a substitute. It has to be coconut oil. As long as you follow the recipe exactly and use refined coconut oil there is absolutely no coconut flavour present at all though.
Gertrude says
I was really skeptical of this recipe but it turned out great. It wasn't quite as convincing as Earth Balance at mimicking real butter but it's a damn good alternative and the lack of palm oil really sells me. I made a batch of almond milk and then used the almond meal directly afterwords to make this butter. Thanks for the recipe! :D
A Virtual Vegan says
That's great! I'm so glad you are enjoying it. What an inventive way to use the almond meal after making milk. Bear in mind though that most of the flavour will have leached out by the time it gets to the butter. If you use fresh almond meal you will get a more 'buttery' flavour I expect. Thanks so much for stopping by to leave your feedback Gertrude. I really appreciate it! :)
Michael says
I like the fact that you're not using the "store bought" vegan butter. I didn't even start after a couple emails from Smart Balance. Seems that "natural flavors" could in fact actually include butter extracts. I know they don't claim to be vegan, but they do say "dairy free" I wrote to ask what chemicals were involved with "natural and artificial flavors" and was told it was proprietary. But things like butter extracts definitely could be used. That did it for me. Makes me wonder about other producers.
A Virtual Vegan says
It gets kind of scary when you start really looking into what is in our food. That's why I tend to make almost everything from scratch. I know exactly what's in it then. I hope you enjoy my butter recipe!
Moriah says
might be a silly question, but why does the coconut oil have to be REFINED and not unrefined? thanks for clarifying! im excited to make this!
A Virtual Vegan says
It will technically work with unrefined but you will get the coconut flavour/smell coming through so it wont be butter-like. If you use refined coconut oil there will be no detectable coconut flavour/smell and it will be very like regular butter.
Jen says
Why did you use refined coconut oil?
A Virtual Vegan says
Because if you use unrefined the butter will taste of coconut. Refined coconut oil does not smell or taste of coconut. ????
Donna says
G4eat recipe, although I will try it next time in the small bowl of my food processor, since half the butter ended up on the lid and the sides of the large blender jar! Thanks for this though! Great taste!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thanks Donna. Glad you enjoyed it! I'm not sure how well a food processor will do at emulsifying it all. I have never tried it but they aren't nearly as powerful as a blender so it might not turn out so well.
Jenny says
Hi Mel, just had to let you know I just made your butter...it is fantastic. I'm in danger of putting on weight now as I will want to be eating it melted on toast all day. Well done with this recipe...I just love it
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you Jenny! I am thrilled you are enjoying it so much. I ate nothing but things with butter on them for about 3 days after I created this recipe then had to stop myself! ????
Claire Keeley says
Wow, made this last night & just tried it on a jacket potato, fabulous butter substitute!
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you Claire. So glad you like it!.... Now you've made me crave a jacket potato dripping in butter! ????
Lynn says
Incredible!! That is how I describe the flavour of this vegan butter. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe. You have a new follower in me :)
A Virtual Vegan says
Awesome! SO glad you are enjoying it. Thank you so much Lynn. ????
Linds says
I saw this on another post:
My mom makes the one from the Seven Secrets cookbook. It contains no oil! It's very yummy on fresh bread! And great for those not wanting the extra calories or those with heart issues. (Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn of Cleveland Clinic advises no oil for cardiac patients; also it is advised no oil for those with cancer per the doctors at Weimar Institute.)