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.
I tried this butter recipe a few months ago as i tried to quite storebought and now it’s the only butter I use 👍👍 taste is freakin fab. I highly recommend it!!
So glad you liked it Celine 🙂 Have a nice day!
Hi thank you for this recipe. Do you strain the buttermilk and just use the curds or use it all?
Hi Carla! We use it all 🙂 Hope you like it!
Nutrional yeast powder or large flakes? Does it say which type on this recipe…did I miss something?
Hi Mari! Feel free to use your favorite one 🙂 Have a nice day!
I have made a similar recipe like this one before and found that the ratio of coconut oil and neutral oil leaves you with a very hard (unspreadable) butter.
I use 2/3 cup refined coconut oil and 2/3 cup canola oil, 2 teaspoons liquid lecithin, 1 teaspoon salt, and the 1/2 cup unsweetened plant based milk/lemon juice. I suppose you could use nutritional yeast instead of the lecithin. This recipe creates a nice, spreadable butter. Blend in mixer or with a immersion stick blender for at least one minute.
Hi Angela! Thanks for the idea 🙂 Have a nice day!
Can I use this for buttercream frosting??
Hi! I haven’t tried it myself but I think it would work 🙂 Have a nice day!
If you try this for buttercream frosting, please post your results. I’ve got it on my ‘to do’ list, but since I don’t bake frosted cakes that often, it might be awhile before I do this in my ‘lab’. Thanks.
SHUT! UP!!! I am not going to buy vegan butter at the store ever again!!! This is amazingly delicious! I have made Miyoko’s butter recipe and I thought it was good but it had issues when using it in certain recipes. Your recipe will absolutely replace any other vegan butter I have purchased or made, hands down! I will admit that I added a half teaspoon of soy lecithin to this recipe out of concern that it would not combine properly, but I am certain it was unnecessary now. This butter is so much like dairy butter it is scary! I am a bread freak so I have enjoyed some delicious fresh made bread with your butter on it and I just cannot say enough about it. I have shared it with several vegan friends already! Terrific!!!
★★★★★
Hi Richard! Thanks for your kind words 🙂 I am so glad you liked our vegan butter recipe! Have a nice day!
I’m wondering if this homemade butter will brown like butter. Meaning brown food, specifically baking potatoes, mashed (like a shepherd’s pie) or sliced.
Hi Rachel! I’ve never tried it myself, so I can’t help you, sorry!
I was slightly dubious – but this makes a really good vegan hard ‘butter’. A very easy recipe, and with a sprinkle of turmeric creates a nice yellow ‘butter’.
A pity that refined coconut oil is so expensive in the UK – otherwise would use this recipe more frequently. It is oily, but does not taste oily and is great thinly spread on scones or crumpets. Created a brilliant flacky pastry for pies that does not taste of fat or too much salt.
★★★★
Thanks for your kind words 🙂 Have a nice day!
I’ve been looking for a great tasting vegan butter recipe and this one, hands down, is the best I’ve come across. The ONLY thing I did differently was add a little bit of lecithin, based on other recipes I’ve researched. It didn’t change the taste whatsoever, and taste (of course along with texture) is what I wanted most of all. I would give it 10 stars if I could.
★★★★★
I just want to thank you! I am not Vegan- I’m on a low iodine diet in preparation for Radioactive therapy for thyroid cancer. That means no food prepared by anyone else. No dairy and nothing containing iodinized salt.
I knew that I could bake my own bread, pop my own popcorn or make my own baked potato but I had to find something to put on those things. Your vegan butter recipe is a Godsend.
Even for a non-vegan- your recipe is nothing short of wonderful.
★★★★★
OMG I’m in the same boat and that’s why I was looking at this recipe! Going to make it tomorrow. Good luck to you — hope the treatment goes well. I’ll be rooting for you from afar!
I didn’t really understand the leave the butter for 3-4 weeks part. Can I eat it earlier than that?
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I’m pretty sure she means it’s still safe to eat for 2-3 weeks, you can eat it straight away
Thanks for your help Helen 🙂
Hi Ana, you can eat it whenever you want. What I was trying to explain was that it’s still safe to eat for 2-3 weeks, or longer! Have a nice day 🙂
Thanks for your words 🙂 So glad you liked it!
I have been Vegan for 55 years. I too ran out of Myioko’s butter, found this, made it, froze half and lemme tell ‘ya…so good! Thank you for this amazing recipe. I will be making my own from now on. I would love to share a photo, but I do not see how.
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Hello there!! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!!!! It is great to know you liked it that much! Thank you! Have a wonderful day!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. Amidst the Covid-19 quarantine, we ran out of Smart Balance. I didn’t want to go out to the stores to find some, but rather decided to look for a vegan butter recipe. I found your blog and recipe. I made it with unflavored Oat Milk and it came out great!
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Hi Yvonee! Thank you for sharing your experience!! Have a great day!!!!
My husband and I are new to being vegan and I was so worried about dairy, especially when I saw the prices of vegan butter and also that a lot of them contain palm oil. Thank you so much for this recipe. My husband is allergic to almonds as well and a lot of other recipes use almond milk. Just great to find a recipe with things we have on hand and that tastes so delicious on nice fresh bread!!
Hi Hilary!! It is great to know this recipe is so useful for you!!! Great you liked it!!! Have a great day!!!
I love that I can make this butter at home, especially since my usual store-bought vegan brand appears to be a hot item these days and is missing from the shelves (coronavirus panic buying). This butter tastes great and is super easy (if super greasy) to make. However, it’s difficult to get it onto the knife because it’s so hard when cold and impossible to spread on anything that’s not hot. I’m not sure there’s any solution for that.
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Hi LeeAnn! Try to get it out of the fridge several minutes before using it. Have a nice day!
Is the temperature of coconut oil important when blending all ingredients? I melted coconut oil in the microwave and it was quite warm. My vegan butter was not creamy like yours in the video but liquid. Do you think I had to blend it longer?
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Hi Annie! I don’t think so, but my oil wasn’t too hot. Try to blend the mixture longer next time 🙂
Hi
A lot of vegan set foods contains coconut oil, unfortunately I’m allergic to coconut so what would you Suggest as an alternative for things like this better?
Hi Shelley! In this particular recipe, you really need to use coconut oil, but for pretty much any recipe you can use any other oil you want 🙂
It tastes exactly like butter! Thank you.
★★★★★
Hi Tayah! So glad you like it 🙂
Hello, do you have any substitution for coconut, as Iam not able to use it..
Hi Marie! I’m so sorry, but I think you need to coconut oil as it solidifies when is cold and the other oils don’t.
Not sure if it will work, but I’ve noticed when I refrigerate dressings with olive oil, when it separates, the olive oil solidifies, but probably not as much as coconut oil.
I love making homemade vegan butter (in fact now I hardly ever buy it in the store because homemade tastes so much better — I’ve spoiled myself!) but hadn’t thought of making vegan buttermilk to make it with. Awesome tip, I’ll try that for the next batch. Thanks!
Hi Caitlin! Hope you enjoy it 🙂
I am officially obsessed with this recipe for vegan butter! I’ve been vegetarian for about 20 years now but have recently started eliminating dairy from my diet as well for health reasons. I’m so glad I tried this recipe first! It’s so super easy and honestly it’s so delicious that I like it even more than “real” butter! I’ve shared this recipe with my vegan and non-vegan friends and it’s always a hit. Making my second batch today and I’m really excited!
★★★★★
Hi Kristen! So glad you liked it 🙂
Absolute success in my butter cream icing! I withheld the nutritional yeast, but I’ll use it next time, extraordinarily excellent replacement!
Hi Colin! So glad it worked 🙂 Have a nice day!
I’m particularly interested to hear how this home made vegan butter performs in your butter cream recipe. Can you share that recipe? I usually buy buttery sticks from the grocery store, but find they don’t remain stable at room temperature (could be I’m not using enough sugar). Based on most of these positive reviews, I’m going to make up a batch of this and give it a try in a couple of baking recipes.
Hope you like it Milvi 🙂 Have a nice day!
Thank you!
You’re welcome Blaire 🙂
This looks so Easy to make! Can’t wait to try it out. One question, ha e you tried making it without the nutritional yeast and would leaving it out have an effect on the outcome?
Thanks!
Hi Blaire! Yes, you can omit it if you want, but I think the butter tastes even better if you use it 🙂
Hi there!
Can anyone tell me if it’s possible to brown this as you would with typical butter for cookies?
Thank you!!
Hi Ryan! I’ve never tried it myself, so I can’t help you, sorry!
Can you freeze these for reheating later?
Hi Candice! No, I’ve never frozen it myself, sorry!
Hello Iosune!
You seem totally interested in health.
I’d like to direct you to Michael Greger, MD postings about the extreme saturated fat levels in coconut oil. He is just one expert making the same claim. While our bodies do need some saturated fats in order to function, the saturated fat levels are 3x the amount of regular cow’s butter – well above healthy tolerances for the human body!
I LOVE your recipes and look forward to more!!!
To your health!
❤
Hi Rev! Thank you so much for your comment 🙂 Have a nice day!
Thanks so much for this! But I need help. The first time I made it it came out perfect. But the next two times, the neutral oil (I used soybean oil) separated from the coconut oil in the fridge. Any suggestions?
Hi Robin! You’re so welcome 🙂 Blend really well the mixture or use another type of oil or milk. Hope it helps!
Really delicious !
I’m a butter lover, and honestly, I would recommend this without hesitation.Being new to vegan food, I am often disappointed with some of the substitutes that are touted as being “just like”, or “close to” the original food. This “butter” recipe, did NOT disappoint. I will have no problem setting it out in my butter crock, and letting it speak for itself. Thank you so much for this simple, and delicious alternative to butter.
★★★★★
Hi Joan! You’re so welcome 🙂 I’m so happy to hear that. Have a nice day!!!
At last I can enjoy plant based spread without palm oil. Fantastic recipe, thanks!
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Hi Josie! Thank YOU 🙂 Hope you enjoy it!
Wow! I’m so happy I tried this! It. Is. Marvelous. Thank you, Iosune, for sharing. I’ve even passed some on to my non-vegan family to try. Delicious~
★★★★★
Hi Linda! You’re so welcome 🙂 So glad you liked it!
Simply super vegan butter.
HI Farida! Thanks a lot 🙂