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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Chris says
I have a nut allergy, what could I use instead of almond flour? Thanks
A Virtual Vegan says
You could use ground pine nuts (they are seeds not nuts despite their name) and I think sunflower seeds ground up would work too. Hope that helps!
Chris says
I have always been fine with pine nuts and sunflower seeds so I will give one of those a try, thanks!
elizabeth says
coconut oil???? why do people think this is healthy? It is NOT! I noticed the label didn't break the fat down into mono and saturated fat. This is an unhealthy fat! What's the SAT count for this butter. You're not fully disclosing the unhealthy aspect of this recipe.
A Virtual Vegan says
This isn't the place to be discussing coconut oil and whether it is good or bad for you. That is up to each individual to decide. If you choose not to eat it then that's fine. Don't make the recipe. No-one is forcing you to eat it. As for the nutritional label not having mono and saturated fat on it, that is not included for any of my recipes. I always just calculate the general fat content. I do not have to provide nutritional information at all. Creating these recipes as I do takes an incredible amount of time. I choose to take a little extra time so that I can provide basic nutritional information. If that is not good enough and you want a more detailed nutritional breakdown, you are quite capable of calculating it yourself. There are many free tools available.
Nancy says
Good point. If someone is comcerned about eatimg fat they shouldn't be eatimg any kind of butter. The preceding criticism of coconut oil, etc., is likely from someone who is not vegan and is perhaps a dairy fatmer. Justba guess.
suzie says
Hi Mel, I just found your site, while looking for a good butter recipe and came across yours. I was delighted to see that there were no emulsifiers in your recipe. You mentioned that you have used your butter recipe in some of your baking recipes, would you please tell me the names of the recipes you tried, so I can try them. I totally understand if you are not ready to post them. I then have another question for you, do I let the butter soften and then beat in the sugar, as you would with regular vegan butter? I don't know at what point I have to be concerned about the butter melting.
Thank-you so much for any help,
Suzie
A Virtual Vegan says
Hi Suzie. I'm so glad you found me and my butter! You can use it in any baking recipe that calls for butter (vegan or not) or margarine. Most of my own recipes don't use it. I think all of my cakes and muffins except 2 or 3 older ones are completely oil free. Although I love my butter recipe, I tend to try to bake oil free whenever possible and if I can't get away without oil of some kind I usually use straight coconut oil. I do it that way partly because it's cheaper and also because I don't make the butter that often. I don't have good willpower and if I have leftover butter from baking hanging around, I'll just eat it on fresh bread and toast! I can't do that with coconut oil!???? That's why I just make butter as a treat every now and again.
I did use it in this newly published recipe https://avirtualvegan.com/sticky-lemon-strawberry-sweet-rolls/ . It works well as a sub for butter in any bread dough type recipe in like for like quantities. I have also used it in pastry in the same quantity as you would butter (half the weight of butter to flour).This cake works well with it https://avirtualvegan.com/lime-coconut-cake/ It uses ¼ cup of coconut oil and you can replace that with ⅓ cup of my butter. Any baked recipe that uses coconut oil, you can use the butter but you need a little more. For every ¾ cup oil you will need 1 cup of butter. This is a general rule of thumb. It won't always work but will in most cases.
As for beating in the sugar, you will need to let it soften a bit like regular butter. Just to the point that its beatable. Because it's made from mainly coconut oil it has a lower melting point than regular butter so as you are beating, especially in summer, if it starts getting a bit too soft just put the bowl in the fridge for 10 minutes or so until it firms up again. I have only ever had to do it in summer when it's really warm.
I do hope that helps!
suzie says
Dear Mel, thank-you so much for getting back to me. I am so excited make your butter, and use it in my cookie recipe. I have printed out your hints, so I will not miss place them.
You have so many recipes that I can't wait to try. Thank-you for all your work in creating them.
Again, thank-you
Suzie
A Virtual Vegan says
You are so welcome Suzie. I hope you enjoy the butter and anything else you try!
Rae says
Is there any way to make this recipe without using nutritional yeast? I can't east yeast
Thanks!
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm not sure whether it makes a difference or not but nutritional yeast is not an active yeast like the yeast you would make bread with. It adds a bit of depth to the flavour of the butter, however, you can leave it out. It wont make a huge amount of difference. Enjoy!
Lily Lockwood says
Can you make this without nutritional yeast?
A Virtual Vegan says
The nutritional yeast adds a little bit of buttery flavour and depth but it will still work absolutely fine if you omit it.
Holly says
This sounds perfect! I have a family member who has an apple allergy, just wondering if I use white vinegar instead of apple cider if the taste would be too greatly changed?
Thanks, Holly
A Virtual Vegan says
White vinegar will be absolutely fine.I hope you enjoy it!
Maeve Kerr says
I just love this butter recipe, have switched up the olive oil for garlie oil to make garlic butter. I gave my husband honemade wheaten bread soread with the original butter recipe and he was convinced I had bought dairy butter. It is by far the best butter and it is guilt free. ????
Torie says
I didn't have refined oil so i used normal coconut oil, extra light olive oil and an entire tablespoon of nutritional yeast to mask the coconut flavour. It turned out pretty nice, still a mild coconutty flavoue but the yeast definately.overpowers it! :) I'll definately try it with refined next time but for my first try (just to see if it works) I'm definitely pleased :)
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm glad it worked out despite the unrefined coconut oil. Using the refined oil makes all the difference though. You'll will be even more pleasantly surprised next time!
Christine Lund-Molfese says
Hello, I only have unrefined coconut oil. Can you tell me why it needs to be refined? Thank you!
A Virtual Vegan says
Hi Christine, It will technically work with unrefined coconut oil, but the coconut flavour and smell will come through. If you use refined coconut oil no detectable coconut flavour/smell is present and it will be much more butter-like. Hope that helps!
conhumdrum says
Awesome. This is a new favorite in our household, really impressed with how easy and quick it is to make, and the taste is incredible. Thanks so much for this!
A Virtual Vegan says
That's great! Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by to let me know! ????
Carinne says
Would this butter be good for icing for cakes/cupcakes? Does it keep the same consistency as real butter or does it get very soft like "margarine"?
A Virtual Vegan says
It's pretty hard like real butter so it makes great icing!It will go soft at room temperature though just like real butter so I recommend storing the cake/cupcake in the fridge once you are done.
renata says
Ive just made this butter and tried a bit before putting it on the fridge and It's already INCREDIBLE! thanks so much, I really love butter and this vegan recipe encourages me to continue my vegan path that I just started :)
xx
A Virtual Vegan says
This makes me so happy....Because you love it and because it's making your vegan path easier. Thank you so much for stopping by to let me know. I really appreciate it! ????
Em says
Thanks for the recipe! Used it and it was very tasty :) I just probably used a little bit more than half a spoon of the vinegar as it smelled quite vinegary. It couldn't have been much more than the recipe says but next time I will cut the amount. It wasn't much obvious in the taste but the scent was enough to spoil the experience a bit. But still a great stuff!
A Virtual Vegan says
So glad it worked out well for you! Hopefully you will enjoy it even more next time when it's not got quite so much vinegar in it ;)
Julie-Anne says
I made this butter last night and it turned out great. Very simple and I had everything. I used ground almonds and whipped it up in my magic bullet. Keep up the good work.
A Virtual Vegan says
I'm so pleased you are enjoying it Julie-Anne and thanks so much for letting me know! ????
Cheryl A. Allein says
Just tried this and it is fabulous!!!! So glad I tried it!
A Virtual Vegan says
Awesome! I am so pleased you like it. Thank you so much for coming back to leave feedback! ????
Karen says
Hello, I just made this butter and it is lovely! I wondered can I use a substitute for the almond flour as my son attends a nut free school.
Best wishes
Karen
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you Karen! I am so pleased you are enjoying it. As for nut-free, I am going to test a nut-free version one of these days but in the meantime I have had readers let me know that they have used hemp seeds, pine nuts (not a nut despite they're name) or sunflower seeds in place of the ground almonds. As long as you grind them down to a fine flour in a blender or food processor they will be good. Someone even told me yesterday that they used rice flour and had a good result. I think if you can get them, pine nuts would probably lend the best buttery flavour out of them all. Hope that helps!