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!
It 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 ¼ 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 Is Great In These Recipes:
- Vegan Garlic Bread
- Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Vegan Pound Cake
- Vegan Bread Pudding
- Vegan Apple Crisp
- Vegan Cinnamon Rolls
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Homemade Vegan Butter
Ingredients
- 1 cup Refined Coconut Oil (240ml) Melted*
- 2 Tbsp Canola Oil See Notes*
- ⅓ cup Unsweetened Soy Milk or Almond Milk (80ml)
- 1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 tsp Nutritional Yeast
- 1 Small Pinch Turmeric
- ½ 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. Add the buttermilk to the blender.
- 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.
Video
Notes
- The coconut oil must be refined coconut oil and 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.
- Storing: This lasts up to 2 weeks in the fridge. 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: ½ cup (120ml) Refined Coconut Oil and ½ cup (120ml) Canola Oil or Avocado Oil (OR ¼ 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.
- This recipe makes one 9.7 ounce block (275g) of vegan butter.
Does it matter if the soy milk is refrigerated before adding the apple cider vinegar?
It doesn’t matter at all. Soy milk works great for buttermilk even straight from the fridge.
I presume you use coconut oil because it sets hard in the fridge. Could you use refined olive oil instead? It wouldn’t have the strong flavour of olive oil.
Great recipe. I used oat milk but I think it might have separated as there were pockets of buttery water after it had set. Will probably use almond milk next time.
Hi Phil, yes I think that would work better, oat milk often seems to cause issues.
Can 1 use this butter for cake frosting
Yes you can.
Can you use oat/coconut/macadamia milk instead of soy/almond?
Those options have not been tested and if you read the other comments results have been varied when using different plant milks.
I thank you for this recipe. Have you tried substituting lemon juice for the apple cider vinegar?
Thanks for this wonderful recipe. Where we live it’s not possible to buy vegan butter or vegan ‘dairy’ products, so this is a game changer for us! I made the spreadable version and it’s perfect! Everyone in the family loves it, vegan and non-vegan alike. I also made your vegan cream cheese and your coffee cake this weekend and all get 5stars from us! I love your website and will be trying many more recipes in the coming weeks. Thanks so much for all your experimenting and hard work!
Thank you so much for the wonderful comment Mo! I’m so happy you’ve been finding recipes you love! 🙂
Hi, I’m from India. I’m looking for refined coconut oil, but i cant find it
can we use refined sunflower oil instead?
Refined sunflower oil won’t work but you can use regular coconut oil, though it will have a coconut flavor.
Hi! I always follow and trust your recipes.
I made this recently and used it for icing. After mixing with handmixer, it became too runny for my icing. Any suggestions on what can be done to improve it?
Thanks so much
Hi Rosena, a lot of people have used this recipe for frostings and loved it, but if you were using this in a frosting you would need to be careful not to overbeat it, and put it in the fridge and then beat it again if it was tending to get too soft. Even real butter can break if it gets overbeaten so that would be the most important thing.
Well noted. I’ll give it another try. Thanks!
Hello Alison
Thank you for this and all your wonderful ideas. Can I please use this recipe to make vegan butter for cake frostings? I did try, but the butter melts very fast when the powdered sugar is added to it. Would welcome your advice. Thank you again.
Hi Oshani, we have had a lot of readers use this butter in frostings and love it, and I have also tried it in a frosting and it worked, but it does tend to get soft at room temp and very firm in the fridge, though this is also what tends to happen with real butter. I would just be very careful not to beat it too much, and place it in the fridge for 15 minutes if it is seeming to get too soft while you’re mixing with the other ingredients.
I did the more spreadable version with almond milk. Added xanthan gum to keep it together. I have tried lots of butter alternatives and this is the best so far! Thank you!
Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing Karen!
Hi Karen, How much Xantham gum did you add?
Thank you!
Can I use nutribullet instead of blender? Or can I do it manually?
Thank you for this!
Nutribullet should be fine!
WOW, I didn’t know there was a recipe for vegan butter I could make! I’ve been purchasing various substitutes at the grocery store. A friend told me about your site and there you are with so many fabulous recipes including how to make your own vegan butter!!! I LOVE it. It’s the best of all I’ve tried and will continue to make it in the future!BB
Awesome! Thank you so much Bev!
Hi! Pardon me if this is a stupid question; I’m deeply new to cooking. After mixing the ACV with the soy milk, do you just dump the whole thing into the blender, or will you need to strain it? I look forward to trying this!
You just dump the whole thing into the blender. 🙂
Thank you so much!
The first time I made this as a spreadable butter, it came out perfect! So easy and much cheaper than store bought. I just tried to make again – twice. First try, I just threw everything into my bowl and blended. I know, should follow recipe! So I did on try 2. Both were duds no matter how long I blended. Not one to throw out food, I decided to use a technique for whipped shea butter. Put both batches into the fridge until mostly firm and blend – voila! Perfectly whipped butter!! I tried mixing some flax oil with canola for the health benefits but it gave an odd taste. A big batch to make mistakes but at least I salvaged the butter. Great and simple recipe – thank you!
Thanks so much for sharing your tips Suzie! That’s a great fix. 🙂