Vegan butter, a healthy alternative to margarine and regular butter. It’s so creamy, ready in less than 5 minutes and out of this world.
Nowadays you can find several vegan butter alternatives at the supermarket, but not all of them are healthy and they’re usually quite expensive.
This vegan butter is much healthier than margarine, regular butter and many vegan butters out there. Besides, it’s made with simple ingredients you can get at your local supermarket.
Some vegan butter recipes call for a little bit of turmeric powder to get a yellow color, but I think it’s not necessary, and the butter tastes better without it.
I found deodorized coconut oil at my local health store, but refined coconut oil is also a good choice. If you can’t find them, just use regular coconut oil.
Please feel free to use this vegan butter for anything that calls for regular butter, like frying, baking, cooking, whatever you want!
You can keep it in the fridge for about 2 to 3 weeks, or even longer, but if you freeze it, it will last for about 3 months, which it’s really cool. If you want to defrost it, just transfer the butter to the fridge until thaw. I would freeze it in portions, but it’s up to you.
It really has a buttery flavor, because of the homemade vegan buttermilk, which is made with plant milk and lemon juice. All the remaining ingredients enhances the flavor and help to get the perfect texture.
This homemade vegan butter is the perfect option for frying, baking or cooking. It’s smooth, hearty, simple and delicious. It only takes 5 minutes and you can eat it with pancakes, pasta or even spread it onto your warm toasts!
How to make vegan butter – step by step
- Mix the milk and the lemon juice in a bowl (photo 1). Stir and allow to sit for a minute.
- Add the mixture and all the remaining ingredients to a blender (photo 2) and blend until smooth (photo 3).
- Pour the mixture into a container (photo 4) and refrigerate until set.
Pro tips
- Deodorized or refined coconut oil works best for this recipe, as they have a neutral taste. Extra virgin coconut oil has a stronger flavor, but it’s also a good option. If you can’t find them, just use regular coconut oil.
- You can use any kind of neutral flavor oil or also extra virgin olive oil.
- If you’d like your vegan butter yellow, you can add a little bit of turmeric powder, although that’s not necessary because the butter would taste different.
- Omit the nutritional yeast if you can’t find it.
- Add more or less salt depending on how salty you like your butter.
Can you freeze vegan butter?
Yes! It’s a great option if you don’t want to eat it right away. It will last about 3 months in the freezer, and when you defrost it, just transfer the butter into the fridge and wait until thaw. You can either freeze it in portions or the whole container.
Is vegan butter good for baking?
Of course! Its texture is so good you can use it just like the original butter, but your dishes will be much healthier! Feel free to use it for anything that calls for regular butter.
What’s the difference between vegan butter and margarine?
They’re pretty much the same as both are plant-based butter alternatives that are made by combining water and vegetable oils.
However, although most margarines are vegan, some may contain animal-derived ingredients like milk, lactose, whey, or casein, making them unsuitable for vegans.
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Vegan Butter
- Prep: 5 mins
- Total: 5 mins
- 2 cups (500 ml) approximately 1x
- How-to
- Vegan, American
Servings 2 cups (500 ml) approximately 1x
Vegan butter, a healthy alternative to margarine and regular butter. It’s so creamy, ready in less than 5 minutes and out of this world.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsweetened milk of your choice (125 ml), I used soy milk
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 and 1/4 cups coconut oil (315 ml), melted, see notes
- 1/4 cup neutral oil (65 ml), I used sunflower oil, see notes
- 2 tsp nutritional yeast
- 3/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Mix the milk and the lemon juice in a bowl. Stir and allow to sit for a minute or so. It will thicken and curdle. You can also mix them in the blender jar if you want.
- Add the mixture and all the remaining ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a container and refrigerate until set.
- Keep it in the fridge for 2-3 weeks, or even longer. Remove from the fridge to soften for a few minutes if you want your butter soft. It’s freezable and will last about 3 months in your freezer.
Notes
- Deodorized or refined coconut oil works best for this recipe, as they have a neutral taste. Extra virgin coconut oil has a stronger flavor, but it’s also a good option. If you can’t find them, just use regular coconut oil.
- You can use any kind of neutral flavor oil or also extra virgin olive oil.
- If you’d like your vegan butter yellow, you can add a little bit of turmeric powder, although that’s not necessary because the butter would taste different.
- Omit the nutritional yeast if you can’t find it.
- Add more or less salt depending on how salty you like your butter.
- Recipe inspired by Fork and Beans.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tbsp
- Calories: 90
- Sodium: 55 mg
- Fat: 10.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 7.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 0.1 g
- Protein: 0.2 g
Update Notes: This post was originally published in March of 2019, but was republished with new photos, step by step instructions and tips in March of 2020.
Hi could this bested asa replacement for buttercream? Would it hold its shape or do you think it would go too soft at room temperature? Thanks
Hi Tracey! I think it is not possible, sorry!
really nice site
Hi! Thank you so much 🙂
I do love the taste and spreadable texture of this recipe. The nutritional yeast really makes it pop. Great on breads and I imagine baking but haven’t tried yet. However, I tried to cook with it like I do my store bought vegan butter. That didn’t go so well. I really love to sauté veggies in a pan with butter. When I put this in the pan it just sorta turned into this weird goo and didn’t melt down. So great for some things, frying not so much.
Hi Devin! I’m so sorry about that! I didn’t use it to cook 🙂
Having tried another recipe that uses ground almonds and this one, with a couple of tweaks I’m now wedded to this one and I love it. I found it too hard to spread from the fridge, even after leaving out for a while because in a cool house in Scotland there’s enough coconut oil in this that it remains pretty solid at room temp and too hard to spread on soft bread. Solution: reduce the c.o. by 15ml and increase the liquid oil by the same amount. It now spreads perfectly!
The other tweak was to not melt the c.o. as the whole mixture remains warm and liquid for quite a while and would keep separating while I was trying to chill it and I’d end up having to transfer it back into the blender and blend it all over again. Instead, I simply work and mash the c.o. with a fork or spoon until it is softer and soft enough to blend smoothly.
End result: 5 stars!
Thanks for your kind advice and comment 🙂 Have a nice day!
Question! I made this yesterday, poured it into a small loaf pan lined with some freezer paper (no wax paper on hand), and let it sit in my fridge to set all day yesterday and overnight. I took it out this morning, popped it out of the pan, and it had separated quite a bit. The top looks like pale yellow solid coconut oil (I was excited!) but the underside is grainy and has pools of liquid. Not sure where I went wrong? I had to use coconut milk because of nut/soy allergies, and I used whatever coconut oil I had on hand. Any insight as to why it might have separated so much? (Was planning to use this in a frosting recipe and I’m worried what the outcome will be if I go ahead with the batch I made?)
Hi Angela! I’m so sorry 🙁 Maybe, next time try to use another type of milk!
Hi Angela. I had this same problem when I melted the coconut oil. Before it could cool and set, it had separated. I work around it now by not melting the coconut oil but just working it and mashing it with a fork instead until it’s soft enough for the blender to handle. The whole mixture is then like heavy cream so spoonable rather than pourable, and sets without separating.
Hope that helps. It’s such a great recipe so worth persisting with.
Thanks for your kind help Jess 🙂
I used organic extra virgin olive oil and homemade organic cashew milk and it turned out great! Wife who eats lots of butter says it tastes like butter. Having not eaten butter in at least 31 years I can only compare it to Earth Balance and it tastes just as good and less expensive. Thanks for a GREAT recipe!
★★★★★
Thanks for your kind comment Bill 🙂 Have a nice day!
Hi losune, I made this using my homemade oat milk which likes to separate into two parts so you have to shake it. However I’m wondering if this had an affect on the butter as once it had set there was a small layer of liquid underneath. Should I try again with a store bought milk maybe? It tastes really good though I love it!
★★★★★
I found this recipe after a frustrating trip the the grocery store – I couldn’t find a plant-based butter alternative without palm oil, which is horrendous for the environment. It never occurred to me that I could make butter cheaper and better at home!
This is a fantastic recipe. I was skeptical about the amount of nutritional yeast, as many vegan recipes overuse it and it has a rather distinct flavor that can be a bit overwhelming. It is perfect here. This somehow tastes like butter yet doesn’t use imitation butter flavor.
I used refined coconut oil, canola, and unsweetened almond milk. I added 1/8 tsp turmeric – it looks similar to butter, a bit paler though and less richly colored. Turmeric seems to add a sort of neon tint. I used an immersion blender, which was not the best tool for the job. This stuff is too thick for a stick blender. I’m curious if melting the coconut oil a bit and then mixing would work.
This stuff sets up nicely in a jar. It is similar to country crock in consistency, and may have too high a water content for use in, say, a pie crust. This stuff is perfect for spreading on toast though. Definitely going to be a staple in our house, and I think the batch cost me about $3 to make.
Hi Simon! Yes, it’s inexpensive and so simple to make! I’m glad you liked our vegan butter! Have a nice day!
Hi Simon!
I hope you don’t mind my chiming in with an off-topic comment that may be of interest to you, since you share my concern about the environment, and that is this:
Almonds are an environmental disaster.
Hope you don’t mind me giving this unsolicited information, but thought you might be interested to know!
Hazelnuts are a good alternative, and kinder to the planet as far as I know.
Pinenuts are too, though I realize they’re very expensive.
Have a good day!
Many thanks Iosune – wonderful vegan butter! Perfect. Saved me hours of unsuccessful experimenting. Never would have thought to sour milk or use nutritional yeast.
I normally use a spray of oil if really need something as i don’t like marg. However i was gifted vegan scones which were crying out for butter and i made yours while the scone was toasting. I dont like nut yeast too much but here it’s perfect. And the tasteless coconut oil is great as that’s another disliked flavour 😄. I added a tiny pinch of turmeric for colour. It didn’t affect the taste – it also didnt make a whole lot of difference to the colour 😆
★★★★★
Hi Mar! So glad you liked our vegan butter 🙂 Thanks for writing to us!