Once you try this easy homemade vegan butter, you will never want any other vegan margarine or vegan butter alternative again! I call this vegan "butter" because it has a true butter taste. You can make up a batch in minutes and it will save you a ton of money. Don't buy those store-bought brands of margarine that contain palm oil and just don't taste as good, make the very best!
I've been perfecting the recipe over the past few years, testing and retesting ingredients and proportions, and I finally have it down to a science. I call it butter because that is what it tastes like. Earth Balance and other vegan varieties of margarine now taste waxy and fake to me. Even my non-vegan family and friends go crazy over this butter! You can whip up a batch in minutes for about 1/2 the price of soy margarine and 100x better tasting!
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❤️ This recipe is
- simply the most like real butter of anything that you'll try!
- vegan, nut-free, gluten-free, and palm oil-free!
- perfect for melting, spreading, cooking, and baking.
- easy to make in tub or stick form to suit your spreading or baking needs.
🧾 Ingredients and substitutions
- Refined Coconut Oil - for the base of the butter. You need to use coconut oil because it has a melting point of 76°F. This will make your butter solid at room temperature. Use refined coconut oil so it has a neutral taste. Unrefined with have a coconut flavor and will not taste like butter.
- Canola Oil - to make your butter softer and spreadable. You can also use light olive oil or any other neutral-flavored oil, but each different type of oil will change the flavor slightly. I have found that canola oil gives the most buttery flavor.
- Soy Milk - to give your butter a rich creamy flavor and the protein that it needs to gel and set. You can also use Ripple brand milk if you want to make it soy-free.
- Lemon Juice - to curdle the milk. This gives it a richer flavor and also helps it gel up into a buttery consistency. Either fresh squeezed or bottled will work well. You can also use apple cider vinegar instead.
- Salt - for flavor. Leave it out for unsalted butter.
- Soy Lecithin - to make the oil and milk bind together so it doesn't separate after it sits for a while. You can also use sunflower lecithin to make soy-free butter. You can find lecithin at health food stores, vitamin shops, or Amazon. If you don't have this, you can leave it out, but your butter will separate a little, especially if left out at room temperature for too long.
🔪 Helpful tools
- Immersion Blender - aka stick blender. I make this butter so much, I have just drawn lines on my immersion blender cup of where to add the oil to make the process faster.
- Or a Blender - any traditional blender will work too. You may just need to stop it and scrape the edges a few times to get it mixed well.
- Glass Container - to store your butter. I have found that the butter easily absorbs flavors. Plastic or silicone containers give the butter a funny taste. I like to use the glass Snapware containers or mason jars because they are made of glass and have a lid with an airtight seal.
- Butter Mold - You can use anything that you would like as a butter mold, and your butter will take that shape. If you want traditional looking stick butter, you can use a butter mold to easily achieve this.
🌟 Why you need lecithin
Lecithin is an important ingredient if you want your butter to work like those that you would buy from a store. Do you know how oil and water don't mix? Well, lecithin binds the water and fat molecules together and keeps them from separating. It helps the consistency of your butter, but it doesn't change the taste. You can leave it out if you would like, but your butter will separate a little.
Soy lecithin comes in either liquid or granules. The liquid gives it a nice color, but it is sticky and hard to work with. I usually use the granules because it is less messy.
I find the soy lecithin at GNC or The Vitamine Shoppe, but it may be easiest to order it on Amazon. You will only need a small amount in each batch, so it lasts a long time. If you do not want to use soy, you can also use sunflower lecithin instead.
🥄 Instructions
- Measure 1/2 cup of plain soy milk and add the 1/4 tsp lemon juice to it then let it sit.
- Melt coconut oil until it just barely melts and pour it into a blender or immersion blender container.
- Add canola oil, salt, and soy lecithin to the blender.
- Pour the soy milk into the blender once the soy milk and lemon juice sat for about 5 minutes and started to curd.
- Blend on high for 1 minute until it is well mixed.
- Pour into a glass container with a lid.
- Place in the freezer for at least 1/2 hour until it sets firm, then transfer it to the refrigerator.
- Keep in the refrigerator for up to 5-7 days.
👩🏻🍳 Pro tips
Tips about the milk
- I usually use plain soy milk from Aldi, for some reason, I find that it comes out the best. Different brands of soy milk will work up differently depending on their ingredients. I have even found that the butter comes out thicker if I use the last of the soy milk in the bottom of the carton vs. soymilk from a full carton. I have also noticed that the Silk brand comes out a little thicker than other brands. (Whatever brand that you use, just make sure you use plain and not vanilla).
- Measure out the soy milk and add the lemon juice first. This will give it time to start to curdle while you are measuring out the rest of the ingredients.
- Be sure not to add more than 1/4 tsp of lemon juice or it will make your butter more of a mayonnaise consistency.
- If your butter whips up into more of a mayo-like consistency, don't worry. Just freeze the butter solid and then thaw in the fridge and it will be perfect.
Tips about temperature
- Don't overheat your coconut oil. You want it just warm enough to be melted but not hot. This will allow the butter to cool faster which is part of the trick to making it taste good.
- Make sure to cool it in the freezer immediately after the blending. Something magical happens when it cools quickly. The butter will be set up correctly and it even tastes better, so don't skip this step.
✨ Butter sticks vs tub butter
- Tub Butter - The spreadable tub butter version is a great versatile butter equivalent to how you would use Earth Balance. It stays firm, but soft in the fridge, but is spreadable and melts easily.
- Stick Butter - If you want firmer butter that would traditionally come in a stick form like Mikayo or other stick margarine, you will need to adjust the oil ratio. This stick butter is good for baking, making vegan buttercream, or general cooking.
🧈 How to make stick butter
- Increase the coconut oil to 1 cup and reduce the canola oil to 1/2 cup.
- Follow all of the other ingredients and steps the same.
- Pour into butter stick molds to shape your butter if desired.
🥡 Storage
- It keeps well in the fridge for about 5-7 days.
- I like to store it in glass Snapware containers. The glass makes it so no unwanted flavors are absorbed by your butter and the Snapware containers have a good seal to keep out any refrigerator odors.
❄️ Freezing the vegan butter
- You can freeze the vegan butter for up to 3 months. The recipe makes about 3 cups of butter. This is about a week's supply for my family of 4, but it may be too much for you to use up in a week.
- You may want to divide it up into smaller containers and keep some in the freezer until you're ready to use it. The small 4 oz Mason jars work well for keeping small batches. Just be sure to seal the container well so it doesn't absorb smells from the freezer.
❔ How to make it soy-free
- If you need soy-free butter, this recipe also works with other plain plant-based milk. The more protein in the milk, the better the consistency, so oat, pea, or hemp milk will work better. If you use almond or cashew milk, add 1 tsp of nutritional yeast to give it enough protein to set correctly.
- Note: To make it totally soy-free, you will also need to use sunflower lecithin instead of soy lecithin.
💡 Ways to use the butter
Use this vegan butter the same as you would any other vegan margarine. If you want to bake with it or use it for frying, use the stick version. If you want to use it to spread on bread or toast and just for everyday use, use the tub version.
Make butter cabbage and noodles in my vegan Haluski recipe, bake a batch of buttery vegan cheddar bay biscuits, use it to bake cookies like vegan chocolate chip cookies, or whip it up into the best vegan buttercream frosting you will ever eat! This vegan butter also makes the best darn vegan buffalo sauce ever!
This butter works like traditional butter in most recipes so you can even make vegan brown butter from it.
🌟 More homemade vegan staples
I have lots of recipes for homemade vegan staples on my site and a cookbook with over 40 recipes for homemade vegan staples.
- Vegan Mayo
- Vegan Sour Cream
- How to Make Vegan Cheese
- Vegan Ricotta
- Vegan Whipped Cream
- Soy Yogurt
- Tofu Feta Cheese
- Vegan Egg Substitutes
📌 Be sure to follow me on Pinterest for new vegan recipes!
Homemade vegan margarine that tastes like real butter! Made is spreadable tub form or stick butter great for cooking and baking.
- 1/2 cup plain soy milk (or Ripple pea milk for soy-free)
- 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
- 3/4 cup refined coconut oil (or 1 cup for the stick version)
- 3/4 cup canola oil or light olive oil or other neutral-tasting oil (use 1/2 cup for the stick version)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon soy lecithin (optional, but helps it not to separate).
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Measure 1/2 cup of plain soy milk and add 1/4 tsp lemon juice, allow the mixture to sit. Don't stir it, just let it sit and form curds in the milk.
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Microwave coconut oil until it just barely melts (you don't want hot oil). Pour it into a blender or immersion blender container.
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Add 3/4 cup canola oil, 1 tsp salt, and 2 tsp soy lecithin to the blender.
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Pour the soy milk into the blender once the soy milk and lemon juice have sat for about 5 minutes and started to curd.
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Blend on high for 1 minute until it is well mixed.
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Pour into a glass container with a lid or into a butter mold.
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Place in the freezer for at least 1/2 hour until it becomes completely firm then transfer it to the refrigerator. (It is important that it gets very cold quickly to set up correctly.)
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Keep in the refrigerator for up to 5-7 days or the freezer for up to 3 months.
Recipe Video
Tips for perfect vegan butter:
- I usually use plain soy milk from Aldi, for some reason, I find that it comes out the best. Different brands of soy milk will work differently depending on their own ingredients. I have even found that the butter comes out thicker if I use the last of the soy milk in the bottom of the carton vs. soymilk from a full carton. I have also noticed that the Silk brand comes out a little thicker than other brands. (Whatever brand that you use, make sure you use plain and not vanilla flavored).
- Measure out the soy milk and add the lemon juice first. This will start to curdle while you are measuring out the rest of the ingredients.
- Be sure not to add more than 1/4 tsp of lemon juice or it will make your butter more of a mayonnaise consistency.
- Make sure to cool butter in the freezer immediately after blending. Part of the magic happens when it cools quickly.
To make vegan stick butter:
- Increase the coconut oil to 1 cup instead of 3/4 cup and reduce the canola oil to 1/2 cup.
- Follow all of the other ingredients and steps the same.
- Pour into butter stick molds to shape your butter if desired.
How do I make soy-free vegan butter?
- If you need this recipe to be soy-free, other plant-based milk will also work. The more protein in the milk, the better the consistency, so oat, pea, or hemp milk will work better. If you use almond or cashew milk, add 1 tsp of nutritional yeast to give mixture enough protein to set correctly.
- Note- to make it totally soy-free, you will also need to use sunflower lecithin instead of soy lecithin.
*This was originally posted on 5/3/2019. It was updated on 8/26/20 to include new images and an instructional video showing how to make the spreadable vegan butter.
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