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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Stacey McKnight says
I made this yesterday and tried it this morning. You didn't oversell it - it's every bit as delicious as you said. Even my husband, who's not on board with "going vegan" liked it! Thanks for sharing.
A Virtual Vegan says
That's awesome Stacey! I'm so glad you both like it. ????
Emma says
Thank you so much, you made my daughter happy. She really love it. Good thing was she can eat almond now.
A Virtual Vegan says
That's wonderful! I am so glad she enjoyed it. ????
Lisa Way says
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! This recipe is AMAZING! It actually tastes like butter!
I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer last year, and part of my treatment involves going on a two-week low iodine diet periodically to prepare for diagnostic tests. It is a very restrictive diet and the hardest part of it for me is that it does not allow any dairy products, including butter (or margarine). I was never aware before of how much I rely on butter as a flavoring, especially on vegetables. This recipe completely solves the problem for me and I can't tell you how happy that makes me!
There is a cookbook that the Thyroid Cancer Survivors' Association has compiled to help people like me with the difficult task of putting together low iodine meals. Would you consider allowing them to include this recipe in the cookbook? It would be so wonderful since the cookbook does not currently include any butter substitutes.
The thyroid cancer website is http://www.thyca.org, and here is a link to the low iodine cookbook: http://www.thyca.org/download/document/231/Cookbook.pdf
A Virtual Vegan says
I am so pleased you are enjoying it and that it is helping to make your test prep more bearable. I had no idea it was a low iodine recipe. That's good to know and I have added it to the tags so that hopefully once Google crawls my site again, if anyone searches for low-iodine butter it should show up in their search results.
As for the cookbook, I'm afraid it's a no. I'm sorry. I really struggled with making the decision as I would love to help but it is the most popular recipe on my website. It's kind of what keeps me going here and the ad revenue it earns helps me to keep my website online. Now I have so many visitors it's become pretty expensive to keep going! I also plan to publish a cookbook myself at some point in the future and after speaking to my agent she advised that as this recipe is so popular, I shouldn't allow it to be used anywhere else as it would probably end up in my own book when the time comes. So sorry! I feel really mean :(
I wish you all the best with your treatment Lisa and hope that you make a quick and full recovery!
Lisa Way says
Thank you for your reply and for adding the tags so that others in my situation will be more likely to find your wonderful recipe. I understand and respect your reasons for not wanting this recipe to appear in other people's cookbooks, so please don't feel bad about this. Thank you again for putting in the work to come up with such a great replacement for dairy butter!
Ciara says
Can't wait to try this! Is it possible to substitute almond meal for flax meal? I have all the ingredients now but almond meal
A Virtual Vegan says
No don't use flax meal. It is totally different to almond meal. You really need to use the almond meal as that's what makes the butter buttery. Flax meal gels when mixed with liquid and it would make the butter very strange and gloopy. Plus it tends to taste a bit bitter. Also it would make your butter all brown and speckled. Not good at all. At a push you can use ground up cashew flour instead of the almonds but for the best buttery flavour it needs to be almond meal. Hope that helps!
Jenilee says
Hello
Can this be used instead of (regular) butter to make frosting?
A Virtual Vegan says
Yes you can. It makes wonderful frosting!
Sandra says
Hi there - I tried this last night and the look and consistency is great. I used almond milk and do get a faint taste/smell of almonds which I'm not overly keen on. Do you have any suggestions as to a different milk that would cancel out the taste of the almonds? Can you use something else in place of almond meal? Also, could avocado oil be used in place of olive oil for a more buttery flavour?
This is my first ever attempt at making my own butter, any tips greatly appreciated.
A Virtual Vegan says
Hi Sandra. I don't ever use almond milk in any of my recipes because I find it's distinctive flavour always come through. I would imagine it does in this butter too as you have found. That's why I suggest using a neutral milk. One without much flavour. There is just something about almond milk. I can't describe it but it definitely has a unique taste. My preferred milk for this recipe is cashew milk. I often buy the Silk brand when I haven't made some myself.
It isn't the almond meal you can taste. That is really mild and is what gives the buttery flavour and it is necessary in this recipe for that reason. It also acts as an emulsifier.
I am sure the issue is the almond milk you used. I also wouldn't recommend using avocado oil. It is quite pungent and I think the flavour would come through more than with olive oil. If you use a regular olive oil and not extra virgin the flavour of it isn't pronounced at all.
Can I also check that you used refined coconut oil and not unrefined in it? If you used the wrong one that has a major impact on the flavour.
Hopefully if you give it a second try and tweak it a bit you should notice a difference. ????
Sandra says
I definitely used refined coconut oil and I will check my olive oil. I have never used almond milk before so didn't realise it would affect the flavour. Will give it another go with cashew milk.
Thanks so much!
Sandra says
Hi Mel I used plain olive oil rather than extra virgin and made my own cashew milk and the result is fantastic, what a difference it makes. I'm a convert!
A Virtual Vegan says
That's awesome! I am so pleased. Thank you for letting me know!
Patricia says
Hello thank you so much for this recipe it taste amazing ! I had one question , how do you get rid of the brown almond hauls in the butter? I picked up the almond flower at Wal-Mart.
Thank you for all your help.
Patricia
A Virtual Vegan says
I think almond flour is generally made using almonds with their skins on so has the brown flecks. If you buy almond meal it is generally skin free. Bob's Red Mill have it I think. I tend to make my own. I cover my almonds in boiling water for about 5-10 minutes then drain and the skins pop off pretty easily. Then I wait for them to dry (or dry them on low in the oven if I'm in a hurry) before making the flour in my blender. So glad you are enjoying the recipe!
Laura says
OMG! Thank you for this! We're a family of four omnis who are transitioning to a vegan diet, and the one thing I was really upset about was not having butter (I bake most of my own bread and it's just not the same without butter). This recipe seems like it'll be a good way to have butter for my bread, or pancakes, or popcorn.
One question about the need for refrigeration - I know during the summer, coconut oil will liquefy, but if I store this non-dairy butter in a butter bell or other butter crock (intended to keep dairy butter from turning to liquid during the summer, but allowing it to be a bit more spreadable than straight from the fridge), will that keep the coconut oil solid enough? In case you're not familiar with a butter bell/crock, you put the butter in a ceramic bell shaped holder that hangs down into a ceramic crock of cold water. The water seals the air out of the butter, keeping it fresh, but also acts to keep the butter cool. We generally refresh the water daily, more during the hot days, so that the water is always chilled.
A Virtual Vegan says
You are so welcome! I bake my own bread too hence the reason I needed to create a butter recipe! You're right. It's just not the same without butter on it. I would imagine it would be ok in a butter bell. You can always try it and see what happens. If it gets too soft just pop it back in the fridge again. You could even test it with a lump of coconut oil first perhaps and see what happens.
Kevin M says
Hi Mel. Love the look of this recipe, and will be trying it soon. I have been on the hunt for a butter alternative for a while. Also love the idea of freezing in little cubes for later use. My only question is re refined coconut oil. I have a cold pressed extra virgin coconut oil I would like to use, as it still has the phenols which are helpful (heat-treated coconut oil does not, according to my research). What would be the particular reason for not using the oil I have vs a refined oil? (or am I misunderstanding the term "unrefined"?). Thanks for any advice.
A Virtual Vegan says
It really has to be refined coconut oil when making this recipe. I personally prefer to use unrefined cold pressed extra virgin like yours, but in this it just does not work. Instead of tasting buttery it just tastes and smells of coconut and isn't very pleasant. If you use refined coconut oil you can't taste or smell the coconut and the butter tastes buttery.
Nutrition wise I am sure that refined probably isn't quite as good for you as unrefined but if you buy a good quality one and not one that has been bleached and deodorized it will help a lot. Most are bleached and deodorized so be careful when choosing. I buy the Nutiva brand because it is refined simply with steam and is not bleached or deodorized. According to their website, both their refined and unrefined coconut oil have 63% Medium Chain Triglycerides and 50% Lauric Acid. It doesn't mention phenols though so I'm not sure about that. Hope that helps!
Shella Murphy says
Are you using refined coconut oil because of Neutral taste? or is there another reason to not use Unrefined coconut oil? thanks
A Virtual Vegan says
It is because of the taste and smell. It doesn't taste buttery at all if you use unrefined. It really needs to be refined. Hope that helps!
edie says
on pintrest it says 1/3 ml coconut oil on here it says 1/2 cup which is correct
A Virtual Vegan says
Never go by what Pinterest says. As recipe creator we don't get to input that information. It's done automatically by Pinterest and is often wrong. The quantities stated on my website are tested and correct.
Gaby says
Could I use Avocado oil ore canola oil instead of the coconut?
A Virtual Vegan says
No other oil will work in the place of the coconut oil. It has to be one that solidifies otherwise your butter wont set.
Linda Stradley says
Why do you advise using refined coconut oil rather than unrefined coconut oil? Refined coconut oil goes rancid; unrefined NEVER does!
A Virtual Vegan says
It has to be refined it you want the butter to taste like butter. If you use unrefined it will taste and smell of coconut. I personally have never had any refined coconut oil go rancid. As long as you don't buy too much, use it within 2 or 3 months and store it properly it shouldn't be an issue. Hope that helps!
Linda Stradley says
You win! I found the refined coconut oil yesterday, at my local health food store, made the butter today, abd, OMG!!! It's spool delicious!!!! I'm hooked!
Thank you for your inciteful curiosity and ingenuity!!!
Linda Stradley
A Virtual Vegan says
Yay! I'm so pleased you found some and that you are enjoying it! Thank you for letting me know. ????
Gala says
I made this today and am very pleased. I do have a question though. Why does it only keep for a week on the fridge?
A Virtual Vegan says
So glad you are pleased with it! It wont last as long as store bought butter alternatives because they are filled with additives and preservatives to keep them fresher for longer. It will only last for as long as your milk is good for and as you know plant-based milk doesn't stay fresh for that long. Usually if it's store bought milk it lasts about 2 weeks. With homemade milk it only stays fresh for a few days. You might want to look at freezing some each time so it stays fresh longer. ????
Danijela says
Could you use an immersion blender
A Virtual Vegan says
I am pretty sure it would be fine!
Nancy says
Fantastic revipe! FYI Miyoko's vegan butter has no palm oul only good ingredients. But homemade is always best!! Thank you.
A Virtual Vegan says
Thank you Nancy! Unfortunately I can't get Miyoko's butter here yet. The cheese made it recently so perhaps the butter will arrive soon. Mind you the cheese is $20.99 per pack so if the butter is the same I wont be buying it often. When I created this recipe Miyoko's butter didn't exist, hence me saying there were no palm oil free butters available in my post. I could do with going in to update it. I'm thrilled you are enjoying the recipe!