Easy Vegan Butter Recipe (2024)

Sure, you can easily find vegan butter in stores—look for popular brands like Earth Balance or Miyoko’s Butter. We have an entire guide dedicated to the vegan butter options available to you. But if you want to step up your game and make a batch of beautiful homemade vegan butter, this recipe by Allison Rivers Samson makes it fast, fun, and easy! You’ll not only impress your friends and family, but you may even find you prefer this blend best.

Why Make Vegan Butter at Home

Why not? Here are a few reasons that we find important:

• Additive-Free and Super Fresh – Your homemade butter will not only be fantastically fresh, but it will be free of the added chemicals in all commercial brands to keep them shelf-stable.
• Pass on the Processed – Making your own butter guarantees that you know exactly what’s in your product.
• Go for Glass – No need for a plastic container or any waste. Glass is easier to clean, and you can use glassware already in your cupboard (aka jam jars). It also makes your butter look better. Zero-waste butter for the win!
• Scale Down Your Salt – You can regulate the amount of salt you add with no trouble at all. Trying to reduce your sodium intake? Add less. Can’t get enough of salty goodness? Add a little more!
• Festive Flavors – You can add any flavors you like including freshly chopped herbs, cayenne for color and spiciness, a punch of black pepper, or even some cinnamon for a sweet spread.

Are you ready to upgrade your every day, tasteless toast to an undeniably awesome, super creamy crispy bread experience?

Ingredient Notes

Unflavored, Refined Coconut Oil – This is sold in a jar at most health food stores. The most common brand is Spectrum. “Virgin” coconut oil will taste like coconut, which is best to use for coconut-flavored dishes. “Refined” coconut oil will have no flavor and is the best for an all-purpose buttery spread.

Sunflower or Safflower Oil – Both oils have a light, neutral flavor profile that contribute a smooth texture without overpowering other flavors.

Non-Dairy Milk – Use plain, unsweetened plant milk such as almond, soy, or oat milk.

Lecithin – This powerful little powder is used to emulsify or combine the ingredients. Although lecithin is most commonly made from soy, sunflower lecithin is becoming more popular. Look for it in the supplement section of health food stores or online. You can find sunflower lecithin powder hereand refined coconut oil here! Both of these ingredients are easily found on Amazon, but it’s worth checking your local health food store first.

How To Make Homemade Vegan Butter

Easy peasy! In your blender add the coconut oil, sunflower oil, plant milk, lecithin powder, and salt, and process for a maximum of 60 seconds. Be careful not to overdo this step. Blending for too long might make the oils separate and that’s something you want to avoid.

Pour your creamy mixture into a chilled container and refrigerate. As soon as your blended butter is firm, it’s ready to spread!

This is a soft, spreadable butter. If you’d like something harder, simply decrease the sunflower or safflower oil and increase the coconut oil. You can start with ¾ cup sunflower or safflower and 1 cup coconut oil, and adjust by the tablespoon until you get your preferred texture. Just make sure that the total of both oils always equals 1¾ cup.

Frequently Asked Questions

How To Use Homemade Vegan Butter

• Savory Spread: Use as you would any butter substitute—spread it onto bread, toast, and crackers. You can also use it as a spread for muffins and bagels.
• Popcorn: Melt the butter and drizzle it over vegan popcorn, then toss with seasonings.
• Buttery Flavor: When you need to add a buttery flavor to roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, or sauces and gravies, use this homemade butter! It goes great with these cauliflower steaks, roasted potatoes and broccoli, and vegan stuffed acorn squash. Pretty much anytime you have a recipe that calls for butter or oil, this vegan butter can be used!
• Tea Time Topping: For those of you who (like me) love tea parties and tiny tea sandwiches, you’ll love having the option of shaping your own butter beauties. Pour your newly mixed butter mixture into a silicone baking mold (candy molds are the best size) before refrigerating. When the mixture is completely cool, gently pop out the adorable butter shapes onto some waxed paper or parchment. Arrange in a single layer in a covered container and store in the fridge. To serve, place these pleasant pats of butter in a pretty glass bowl (chilled) on the table. Voilà!
• Brunch: Place several sumptuous squares of this homemade vegan butter on your perfect, pan-fried pancakes along with mouthwatering maple syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Vegan waffles are also wonderful with this blissful, buttery blend. You can thank us later!

More Amazing Vegan Spreads

• Vegan Nutella
• Baba Ganoush
• Oil-Free Hummus
• Vegan Buffalo Queso
• Roasted Beet Hummus
• 5-Minute Jalapeño Olive Hummus

This recipe was shared with permission from The Dairy Detox. You can find more dairy-free recipes like this in the Dairy Detox Cookbook. Photos by Zhoro Apostolovfor World of Vegan™, all rights reserved.