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!
The one place I didn’t love it was using it in a frosting. This is because it gets very soft/melty at room temperature and very hard in the fridge. This is of course because the base is coconut oil and this is what coconut oil does!
Store-bought vegan butters tend to not get super hard in the fridge, and also tend to not get ultra runny in hot temperatures which is why they work better in frostings. So for this reason it isn’t ideal in a frosting and I’m going to stick with the store-bought variety for that. But you definitely can use this for frostings in a pinch.
And for everything else – this vegan butter works great!
So much buttery flavor!
I mentioned above that it has a buttery flavor, well truth be told I have not tasted dairy butter in a lot of years!
But comparing the flavor to vegan buttery spreads on the market, it compares very favorably. It’s 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 more 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
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
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.
*Inspired by Fork and Beans.
- Category: How to, Spread
- Method: Blend
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tsp
- Calories: 39
- Sodium: 22mg
- Fat: 4.1g
- Saturated Fat: 3.1g
Keywords: vegan butter
Ava Lamb says
April 6, 2019 at 10:41 pmThis really tastes like butter! As someone who went vegan recently, I can confirm that this tastes like the real deal. In the recipes I’ve tried so far, it works in baking too!
★★★★★
Alison Andrews says
April 8, 2019 at 2:39 pmYay! Love it, thanks so much for the awesome review Ava! 🙂
Lucy says
April 11, 2019 at 12:32 amI haven’t tried this recipe because I don’t have a blender yet. The link in your recipe goes to Amazon’s Vitamix 5200. Is it necessary to have such a powerfull (expensive) blender? It has 1400 watts. I’ve been looking at the Breville Fresh & Furious, which is 1100 watts and half the price. Is this powerful enough for your recipe? Do you recommend it?
Alison Andrews says
April 11, 2019 at 8:37 amHi Lucy, this recipe in particular doesn’t need a strong blender at all. The ingredients go in as liquid so it’s very easy to blend. We usually recommend a Vitamix just in general because we also make more difficult things like nut cheeses etc regularly. Also a Vitamix is what we have so we know it works well. It’s definitely not a requirement to have a Vitamix, it just depends on what you will be primarily using it for. Vitamix is just good in that you can use it for heavy duty stuff, if you want to. But the Breville might be fine for that too. I would just read the reviews for the Breville and see what kind of things people use it for and see if it will suit your needs. All the best! 🙂
Nancy says
April 15, 2019 at 2:17 amI measured everything in a 4 cup measuring cup and used a whisk to blend. It came out great.
Alison Andrews says
April 15, 2019 at 9:11 amSo glad to hear that! Thanks for sharing Nancy! xo
Madhavi says
April 15, 2019 at 4:49 pmJust tried this recipe today. I am so excited today as I had made my first batch of nut milk (after being lazy for long years) and started looking up the internet for vegan cheese, vegan butter, vegan curd, when I came across your site and this recipe. I just made it, put it in my fridge and I can’t wait to try it! It looks very promising. Thank you so much for posting this recipe.
Alison Andrews says
April 16, 2019 at 9:24 amFantastic! Hope it comes out great! 🙂
madhavi says
April 16, 2019 at 9:30 amThe texture is perfect, just as you described. However, mine does seem to have that coconutty smell. However, it is still a keepsake recipe for me.
★★★★
Jenny says
April 22, 2019 at 3:15 amCould you substitute coconut milk for the almond or soy milk? And is the yeast necessary?
Alison Andrews says
April 22, 2019 at 10:04 amHi Jenny, it might be fine, but coconut milk doesn’t curdle. So it would not be a vegan ‘buttermilk’ but might still be good. The nutritional yeast provides a little of the buttery flavor, but it can be omitted.
Edie Gardner says
April 23, 2019 at 1:35 amU mentioned vegan buttermilk when I was reading about this but did not see any buttermilk in the recipe.
Alison Andrews says
April 23, 2019 at 11:37 amHi Edie, the info is in the instructions, you add the apple cider vinegar to the soy milk or almond milk and let it curdle into vegan buttermilk.
Natalia says
June 7, 2019 at 11:38 pmHi,
How can we know when it turns to buttermilk, and can you tell me aprox. the minutes than we should leave it until it gets buttermilk?
Alison Andrews says
June 8, 2019 at 11:22 amHi Natalia, it curdles almost immediately, if you give it a stir you should notice the curdling effect.
Cindy E says
April 28, 2019 at 6:04 pmHow long should we blend it? I blended for about 8 minutes, but’s it did not become “creamy”. It still seemed to work in the chocolate icing I was making… just not sure if I should have blended for longer.
Alison Andrews says
April 30, 2019 at 6:17 amIt’s just a quick blend really for everything to combine and then it has to set in the fridge.
Yolandi says
May 2, 2019 at 6:41 amHi, what other options of milk alternatives can I use for the vegan buttermilk? I’m not a fan of either Soy (allergic) or Almond Milk. Thanks for the great recipe 🙂
Gwen says
May 2, 2019 at 9:10 pmThis will work great as vegan butter is very expensive in Panama SA. Thanks Gwen
★★★★★
Milehighmj says
May 22, 2019 at 8:37 pmRefined coconut oil.. you mean the kind that is hard at room temperature right? Maybe some fails due to liquid cuz that’s all I have, will pick up the other, am mid recipe LOL (my fault for not reading it more carefully!)
Alison Andrews says
May 23, 2019 at 9:41 amYes definitely! It needs to be the kind that goes solid at room temperature, or if room temperature is hot (like in summer) then goes firm when cooled. This recipe will not work otherwise. All the best! 🙂
Rebecca says
May 23, 2019 at 11:52 pmI can’t believe how ‘buttery’ this recipe is, very impressed!
★★★★★
Alison Andrews says
May 24, 2019 at 9:31 amAwesome! Thanks Rebecca! xo
Diána says
May 28, 2019 at 2:24 pmDear Alison,
Thank you for this recipe! I will definitely make it! I’d like to know that can I use it to make crossiants?
Thank you! ^-^
Alison Andrews says
May 28, 2019 at 4:13 pmIt works great in baking so I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t work with your croissants recipe. All the best! 🙂
esther says
June 1, 2019 at 7:37 pmhey i just made this vegan butter yesterday and left in over night in the fridge. now i found that this liquid separated on the bottom. did i do something wrong?
Alison Andrews says
June 2, 2019 at 11:03 amWas it solid on top and liquid at the bottom? I have never had that happen. Just want to clarify. What happens if you mix it up again (the way you would if a homemade milk separated), is it clumpy or does it come back together? Another option could be to pour off any liquid excess (provided the solid part tastes good and spreads nicely?). Just thinking of what I might do if this happened.
Edie Gardner says
June 1, 2019 at 7:42 pmmine separated too.
Daniel Howard says
June 9, 2019 at 1:18 amHey Alison, I was wondering if I’d be able to substitute oat milk for soya / almond milk?
Thanks
Alison Andrews says
June 10, 2019 at 2:46 pmHi Daniel, I ‘think’ it would be fine!
TG says
June 12, 2019 at 9:03 pmThis sounds easy and tasty but can I make an adjustment? Would grapeseed oil work well instead of canola. I’m trying to avoid plant oils as much as I can.
Alison Andrews says
June 13, 2019 at 7:31 amSure, I think it would be fine! 🙂
Shannon says
June 15, 2019 at 11:28 pmI have been making this recipe for a while now. It’s AMAZING! Best tasting “butter” I have tasted in a while. However, I have a problem with separation. I followed the instructions perfectly and I use a Blentec to blend (quickly). Everything looks perfect, but when I put it in the fridge, it separates (the bottom is more gritty and the top is like the oil). Do you have any suggestions to make it homogeneous?
★★★★★
Alison Andrews says
June 17, 2019 at 9:54 amHi Shannon! So glad you like it! I’m not sure why that happens. I would recommend bringing it out and giving it another stir while it’s setting, so put it into the fridge and let it set for a while and then bring it out and stir and put it back to continue to set. Hopefully that will help! 🙂