Vegan Butter: A Real From-Scratch Recipe (Plus What to Look for in Store-Bought)

The first batch of vegan butter I made looked like something dug out of a crime scene. Grayish. Lumpy. Definitely not the creamy yellow slab I was picturing. I'd used the wrong coconut oil (virgin, with full tropical ambitions) and cold milk straight from the fridge, and I'd blended it for about twelve seconds.

I threw it away, started over, and figured it out. Now I make a batch every couple of weeks. It costs about a dollar fifty and takes ten minutes, and it tastes like actual butter.

Jump to recipe if you're already sold.

First, a hard truth: regular butter is never vegan

This sounds obvious but it trips people up. Butter is churned cream, which is a dairy product derived from cow's milk. That's the whole thing. There's no processing technique or loophole that makes conventional butter plant-based. Ghee? Clarified butter? Cultured butter? All dairy. All off the table.

I mention this because I've had people ask me if "grass-fed" butter counts. It doesn't. Or if imported French butter might somehow be different. It's not. The word "butter" means dairy. Full stop. For a broader look at sneaky animal ingredients, the is it vegan? section on this site is a good starting point.

What you actually need for homemade vegan butter

Here's my hot take: most vegan butter recipes overcomplicate this. You don't need xanthan gum, you don't need cashew cream, you don't need six specialty ingredients. You need fat, a little liquid, acid, and salt.

The non-negotiables in my recipe:

Refined coconut oil. This is the base and the thing that makes butter solid at room temperature. Use refined, not virgin. Virgin coconut oil tastes like you're spreading a pina colada on your toast. Refined is neutral. This matters a lot.

A neutral liquid oil. Sunflower or light avocado oil keeps the butter spreadable straight from the fridge instead of rock-hard. Pure coconut oil alone is too firm until it warms up.

Plant milk with acid. A splash of soy or oat milk, curdled for a minute with apple cider vinegar or lemon juice, gives you a faux buttermilk situation. This is where most of the flavor comes from. Skip it and you'll notice.

Salt. Go generous. Unsalted butter exists but salted butter is better and you know it.

Soy lecithin is optional but recommended. It's an emulsifier, and it keeps your butter looking smooth and consistent rather than slightly marbled. You can find it at most health food stores or online.

How to make it (without messing it up like I did)

The full measurements are in the recipe card below. But here are the two rules that matter:

1. Warm everything up. The coconut oil should be just melted, and the plant milk should be at room temperature. Cold milk hits warm oil and things separate instantly.

2. Blend it properly. You want the whole thing emulsified, not just stirred together. A regular blender on high for a full minute does the job. An immersion blender in a tall jar works too.

Pour it into a mold or small container, refrigerate for two hours, done.

Does it bake well?

Mostly yes. I use this butter in shortbread and cookies regularly and it performs almost identically to the dairy version. In crumbles and pie crusts it's excellent.

For laminated pastry like croissants or rough puff, it needs more patience. This butter is softer than a commercial stick, so you'll need to chill the dough more aggressively between folds. Totally doable, just plan for extra time.

In quick breads, muffins, and cakes that use melted butter, it's a straight 1:1 swap by weight.

What to look for in store-bought vegan butter

Some days you don't want to make butter. Fair.

The store-bought options have genuinely improved in the last few years. When I'm buying, I look for a few things. First, what's the first fat listed? Coconut oil or palm oil means it'll behave like butter. Canola or sunflower oil alone means it'll be more like a soft spread. Second, is there an emulsifier? Sunflower lecithin is the clean one. Third, is there any kind of tang? Lactic acid or apple cider vinegar in the ingredient list means someone thought about flavor, not just texture.

My personal ranking: Miyoko's European Style for spreading on toast (genuinely incredible). Earth Balance Buttery Sticks for baking because they work exactly like dairy sticks and are widely available. Violife is a good budget pick and vegan-certified.

If you're newer to all this, The Vegan Society keeps a plain-language explainer of what actually counts as vegan. Worth a bookmark.

Spreading vs baking: what matters

For spreading, you want a butter that's soft enough to use straight from the fridge. Homemade versions with a higher ratio of liquid oil will win here. Store-bought Miyoko's also nails this.

For baking, you want consistent fat content and something that can cream with sugar or cut into flour properly. Most commercial vegan butters with a solid fat base handle this fine. Homemade works too, especially if you refrigerate the dough an extra 10 minutes before baking.

The one place I wouldn't use homemade vegan butter? Anything that calls for clarified butter or ghee. That's a different conversation. For now, if a recipe says butter, this version has you covered.

If you want to explore more vegan substitutes for kitchen staples, I've covered a lot of ground there.