Creamy and super buttery homemade vegan butter! Easy 7-ingredient recipe that is spreadable, melts fabulously on toast and is great for baking and frying.
I can’t even tell you how pleased I am about this homemade vegan butter!
It is just perfect! It’s wonderful on bread, for spreading (and melting) on toast, you can use it for baking, for frying, for whatever you would usually use your vegan butter for!
And it’s homemade!
It has a wonderfully buttery flavor and takes all of about 5 minutes to make (a little longer to set 
).
Why Make Your Own Vegan Butter?
Now you might be asking: why do I want to make my own vegan butter when I can just buy some?
Well here’s the thing – a very common question I get asked on my baked goods that use vegan butter is: ‘Where can I find vegan butter?’ because a lot of countries don’t seem to have great availability for this.
Or it might be that you don’t love all the ingredients in the brands that are available to you, or maybe you’re like me and are just delighted when you can make your own things!
How To Use Vegan Butter
I wanted to make sure that this vegan butter is good for various uses, so I tried it for frying and fried up some mushrooms with some spring onions and it was perfect (and delicious!).
And then I wanted to make sure it was good for baking, so I creamed it up with some sugar and made some vegan oatmeal cookies with it, and they were perfect!
And as you can see I’ve been spreading it on bread and toast and just enjoying it all the ways one tends to enjoy butter!
You can pretty much use it anywhere you would use a regular dairy butter.
So Much Buttery Flavor!
I has a wonderful buttery flavor and everyone who has tried it agrees that it tastes like real butter. It really does.
And comparing the flavor to other vegan buttery spreads on the market, it compares very favorably. It’s just damn good I must say.
The buttery flavor comes about from the vegan buttermilk – apple cider vinegar mixed in with unsweetened soy milk or almond milk, I tested both and both worked great – and a little nutritional yeast.
Refined coconut oil is very neutral in flavor yet perfect in texture, so it enables this vegan butter to take on the other flavors added to it.
How about that texture..
It does get very hard in the fridge, so it’s a lot like a traditional butter in that sense, if you want to spread it on bread or cream it up with sugar for baking, it’s best to let it soften slightly out the fridge first.
Spreading on toast is of course fine as is and it doesn’t need to soften first.
You’ll also find the texture of it tends towards crumbly when it’s still hard straight from the fridge, but this doesn’t have any impact on the result once spread. And to avoid this, let it soften a bit first.
Homemade Vegan Butter Q&A
How long does it keep in the fridge? This is of course a fresh homemade product, so while the oils in the vegan butter are long lasting (the base of this is refined coconut oil), other ingredients such as the non-dairy milk, are not.
It keeps for up to 2-weeks in the fridge, though it’s at it’s best for around 10-12 days.
Can I freeze it? Yes, if you’re going to want to use it for longer than 2 weeks then freeze the excess and only keep on hand what you are going to use. When you’re ready to use the frozen portion, just pop it in the fridge where it will thaw and get ready for use.
What can I use instead of canola oil? I found the canola oil to have a very neutral taste and to work well for this, but other options are avocado oil or olive oil. If you are going to use olive oil though then don’t blend the olive oil in. Blend everything else and then stir the olive oil in. Olive oil can tend towards a bitter taste when blended too long.
Can I use extra virgin coconut oil instead of refined coconut oil? Extra virgin coconut oil can be used but the flavor just wasn’t nearly so good when I tried it. It ends up with a coconut flavor. And I like coconut flavor, so it’s not like I had something against that.
The blend of flavors wasn’t as nice and it didn’t taste as buttery as it does when you use refined coconut oil. Also after only around a week in the fridge, it had got a sort of whitish look to it, like lard, rather than like butter. You can definitely try that though if you have an issue with using refined coconut oil, just know that the result is not as good.
What is the nutritional yeast for? It adds buttery flavor. However, it’s only used in a small amount so you can omit it if it’s an ingredient you have an issue with. You will lose some buttery flavor but that’s all.
What is the turmeric used for? The turmeric is just for color. So you can omit it, but it’s great to add it for a more buttery look. Make sure you only use a small pinch though. I tried it with a 1/4 tsp and oh my, the color was luminous yellow, like the color of those highlighter pens!
If you love homemade things, then you will love this homemade vegan butter! It is:
- Creamy
- Buttery
- Spreadable
- Melty
- Great for baking or frying
Use it anywhere you would use a vegan butter! Keep it covered in a glass butter dish in the fridge where it will keep for up to 2-weeks – the italics there are because I tested this all the way up to day 15, and it still tasted okay but there was just something in the taste that was saying, hmmm, maybe this is past its best days!
I would say it has a fridge life of up to 14 days but really it is at its best for around 10-12 days. If you know you won’t use it that fast, then keep around only what you’ll use right away and freeze the rest.
This vegan butter would be great in these recipes:
- Vegan Garlic Bread
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Pound Cake
- Vegan Bread Pudding
- Vegan Apple Crisp
- Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
So what do you think of this vegan butter? Let me know in the comments! And if you make it, let me know how it worked out! And please rate the recipe as this is super helpful.
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Homemade Vegan Butter
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Total Time: 5 mins
- Yield: ~275g/9.7oz Block of Butter
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Creamy and super buttery homemade vegan butter! Easy 7-ingredient recipe that is spreadable, melts fabulously on toast and is great for baking and frying.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (240ml) Refined Coconut Oil (Melted)*
- 2 Tbsp Canola Oil* (See Notes)
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Unsweetened Soy or Almond Milk
- 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tsp Nutritional Yeast
- Small Pinch Turmeric
- 1/2 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Add melted refined coconut oil to the blender jug along with the canola oil.
- Add the apple cider vinegar to the unsweetened soy or almond milk and stir in so that it curdles into buttermilk and then add it in.
- Add the nutritional yeast, small pinch of turmeric and salt.
- Blend very well until smooth.
- Pour out into a butter dish and refrigerate until set.
- Remove from the fridge to thaw for a few minutes if using on fresh bread or creaming with sugar for baking.
Notes
*Must be refined coconut oil not extra virgin coconut oil.
*Avocado oil is a great option to use instead of canola oil. Olive oil also works but bear in mind that high speed blending can cause olive oil to become bitter. If using olive oil, add it in at the end and mix in without blending.
*Lasts up to 2-weeks in refrigerator. If you need it to last longer, freeze the excess and only keep what you will use within 2-weeks in your fridge.
*Make it soft and spreadable: This butter recipe above comes out a lot like a traditional butter in that it’s very firm straight out the fridge and needs to soften first before it becomes spreadable (unless you’re spreading on toast, in which case you’re good to go!). This makes it great for the purposes that a regular butter is good for. However, if you want to use it mostly as a spread (that also works for baking and frying) and want it soft and spreadable straight out of the fridge then adapt the first two ingredients of the recipe as follows: 1/2 cup (120ml) Refined Coconut Oil and 1/2 cup (120ml) Canola Oil or Avocado Oil (OR 1/4 cup (60ml) of each canola oil and avocado oil) and then follow the rest of the recipe exactly as it is. This results in a soft, spreadable vegan butter that still works great for baking and frying. Thanks to one of our readers for experimenting with the recipe and coming up with this adaptation.
- Category: How to
- Method: Blend
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tsp
- Calories: 39
- Sodium: 22mg
- Fat: 4.1g
- Saturated Fat: 3.1g
Keywords: vegan butter
Hello!
I am making this butter right now, only I don’t have the nutritional yeast. I hope that the milk and vinegar make it more flavored and rich/buttery then the other recipe I was using. The other recipe was just a 1:1 ratio of coconut and another oil with pinch of salt. Freeze 20 minutes and take out and whip with mixer. I am pretty sure that you could take out the bowl from the refrigerator with your recipe and whip it for about 3 minutes with electric mixer, and achieve whipped fluffy results that you can then refrigerator, which may help lighten it up?
Can you use vegetable oil instead of canola oil?
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Yes that will be fine. 🙂
Hi Alison, I would really like to try out this recipe but I’m not sure if I have the correct coconut oil. I live in India and the only ones I find are liquid in bottles. Your recipe mentions “melted” and the ones I find here on amazon or in stores don’t look like the one in your link :-/ However, I have found something called coconut butter which is apparently made with coconut milk and can be used as butter substitute. Could this be the correct one?
Thanks a lot in advance! I LOVE your recipes btw, you’re helping me SO SO much on my journey to turn vegan!
Best,
Jenny
Hi Jenny, so glad you like the recipes! Coconut butter is something different and wouldn’t work for this purpose. We have a recipe for homemade coconut butter that you can take a look at and you’ll see what I mean. It is great on its own for various uses but you wouldn’t use it in this recipe. If the coconut oil that you are finding is all liquid then that won’t work either. It needs to be solid at room temperature.
My slight changes/preferences: I used rapeseed oil, 1/8 teaspoon salt, unsweetened soya milk, 2 good pinches of tumeric and 5grms fortified yeast flakes
Otherwise the recipe stayed exactly the same – AND IT IS YUM
Looks like butter, its own special flavour tastes devine, so clever of you to put these ingredients together, very well done. I’m looking forward to seeing your future recipes
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Thanks so much Geraldine!
Your are more than welcome
I do have a question – do you have a flat bread recipe (any type of flat bread) ? I have searched but couldn’t spot any
regards Geraldine
Hi Geraldine, we do have a recipe for vegan naan! 🙂
This is awesome!!! Our 2.5 year old son has some gut issues/allergies/sensitivities we’re trying to work on and we’ve had to tell him “no” to butter on his bread too many times – it was so sad 😢 My mama’s heart has been made lighter now that he can enjoy butter on his bread with the rest of us and it tastes super yummy to boot! Thank you!
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That’s wonderful Tara! I’m so happy to hear that.
I’ve made it, but it turns out a bit sour. I think because of ACV. Can I lessen acv by half?
Yes you can reduce it.
Hi Alison- absolutely yummy 😋
Question – my almond milk did not “curdle” and also I am not a great fan of vinegar of any kind 🤢 is it necessary to add the vinegar?
And then the almond milk and vinegar did not want to “blend” together into the oils so I poured most of it off and did another blend which seemed to work and it still tastes yummy 😊
A. M. A. Z. I. N. G thank you so much for this recipe!!
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You’re so welcome Mira!
Thank you for the great recipe.
Can this butter be used for making vegan buttercream frosting?
Thank you!
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Yes it can! In fact many have said they LOVE it in frostings and it’s just like a regular buttercream. 🙂
I was doubtful that something so simple could be so good, but this blog has quickly become one of my favorites so I just trusted it. Wow! I was so blown away! My carnist roommates said it tastes like butter too. I’m excited to make this monthly in bulk and freeze sticks of it.
No adjustment suggestions. Perfect as is.
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Thanks so much Jared!
I am dying to try this after hearing about it from a friend. One question though, does it HAVE to be refrigerated? I don’t even refrigerate my regular butter (doing this to eliminate it from my families diet), we just keep it in a covered butter dish on the counter.
Thank you!
Hi Drew, I would definitely refrigerate it to set, but after that, as long as the weather is cool, you could keep it on the counter, though you would need to use it up faster than if it was stored in the fridge. If the weather is hot though then it will just be too melty, the way coconut oil is solid at cool temperatures but melts at warm temperatures.
I like the taste but the the ingredients separated. There is a thin layer of soft oily very yellow nutritional yeast on top, a thick layer of hard slightly yellow mainly coconut oil in the middle, and clear yellow liquid(must be the almond milk) on the bottom. Any suggestions on how to get it to look like your photo?
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I would blend it again! Blend it briefly at high speed and then refrigerate right away.
Hi I want to make this vegan buter but Im wondering what I can substiute for the nutritional yeast?
Can I just drop it?
You can just leave it out.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful recipes! ☺️
Can I omit almond milk and use homemade cashew milk instead?
I’m not sure, it hasn’t been tested with cashew milk.
I noticed that in a #1 vegan cookbook (oh she glows) it uses a lot of “cold pressed” grape seed oil. Mmmm. This is readily available wherever they grow grapes for wine in North America rather than going to rain forested tropical climates for palm (no-no) avocado & coconut. It is quite economical in 5 litre jug so asking if you have tried it or thought of experimenting for eco-friendliness?
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