Updated on November 11th, 2022
If you’re looking for a healthier, more delicious way to add butter to sandwiches, try making a vegan spread. Store-bought spreads are typically fatty, bland, and contain fewer vegetables than they say. A vegan spread can be made using unlimited flavor combinations and contains a hefty vegetable. Simply scrape the flesh of a pumpkin into a mixing bowl, and stir in the remaining ingredients. Assemble the ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.
This vegan butter is healthier than margarine, conventional butter, or much vegan butter, and it’s also made with easy-to-find ingredients from your local store.
Some vegan butter recipes call for a pinch of turmeric powder for color, but I don’t think it’s necessary, and I think the butter tastes better without it.
How to Make Vegan Spread?
Combine 1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk and 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar in a mixing bowl. While you melt the coconut oil, let it settle and curdle.
1 cup melted, warm coconut oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 cup canola oil (olive or avocado oil), and 1/4 cup coconut cream in a mixing bowl. If preferred, add a tiny pinch of turmeric.
Whisk for a few minutes until the mixture is smooth and pale in color. A blender or food processor could also be used here.
Fill butter molds with the mixture – These silicone molds were utilized. You may also just pour it into a couple of glass containers. Place in the refrigerator for an hour or two to solidify and cold.
Why Make Vegan Spread at Home?
You might be thinking, “Why should I create my own vegan butter when I can buy it?”
So here’s the deal: a frequently requested question about my vegan butter-based baked goods is, “Where can I buy vegan butter?” because many countries don’t appear to have a lot of this available.
Or perhaps you don’t like all of the ingredients in the brands that are accessible to you, or perhaps you’re like me and are simply thrilled when you can prepare your own food!
Why Vegan Spread is Not Called Vegan Butter?
In the kitchen, butter is highly flexible. It’s widely used in cooking and baking, but it’s usually made with dairy. Churning milk or cream until the butterfat separates from the buttermilk, leaving a semi-solid state, is how butter is made. It’s commonly produced using cow’s milk, but it can also be made with goat’s or sheep’s milk.
Traditional butter is therefore not considered vegan. Vegan butter brands exist and can be found at online merchants and supermarket stores around the UK, just as vegan milk and cheese products.
Vegan butter is often produced with sunflower oil, coconut oil, or olive oil instead of dairy, and Vegan butter thus mimics margarine more closely. Other animal-free components, such as pecans, almonds, or cashews, can be used depending on the brand. (Palm oil, a contentious component linked to habitat devastation and deforestation, is used in many vegan spreads.) Vegans may wish to stay away from vegan spreads that contain this component.)
What is the Composition of Vegan Butter?
You’ll only need a few simple ingredients for this simple recipe, most of which are likely already in your pantry:
veggie or sunflower oil made from refined coconut oil (or other neutral oil)
milk made from almonds (or other non-dairy alternatives)
salt to taste
turmeric (optional)
Except for turmeric, which can be added to generate the pale golden color of traditional butter, each of these components plays a crucial function in the dairy-free butter recipe, and the recipe would not work without them.
The coconut oil helps the plant-based butter stay solid at room temperature. Coconut oil has a more fantastic melting point than vegetable or olive oil, ensuring that the plant-based butter stays firm and spreadable even when removed from the fridge.
To minimize the coconut (after)taste, I recommend using refined coconut oil. Using extra virgin or cold-pressed coconut oil produces a non-dairy butter with a much richer coconut flavor, which I dislike.
Of course, you can use extra virgin coconut oil if you don’t mind the coconut flavor.
The vegetable or sunflower oil softens the vegan butter, essential if you want to use it right away. You can change the texture or consistency of the butter by adjusting the coconut oil: sunflower oil ratio, with a higher coconut oil proportion resulting in a firmer, harder butter.
The almond (or other non-dairy) milk thickens the dairy-free butter spread by forming an emulsion with the oils as you mix them together.
The salt adds flavor to the vegan butter while acting as a natural preservative.
If you want to make “fancy” vegan spreads, you can include the following ingredients in addition to turmeric:
herbs like rosemary or thyme, garlic or onion powder, spices like cayenne pepper or smoky paprika, olive oil (or other flavored oils)
How do you Make Vegan Butter that is Extra Creamy?
OK, I know I mentioned the combination of coconut oil and vegetable/sunflower oil, non-dairy milk, and gently chilled vegan butter makes it creamy.
But there’s one more trick up my sleeve. If you want an even creamier dairy-free spread, use coconut cream instead of coconut oil.
I wouldn’t advocate using coconut cream to replace more than 1/3 of the coconut oil. Still, anything up to 1/3 will yield a wonderfully creamy vegan butter that tastes amazing when spread on lightly toasted bread.
Is Plant-Based Butter Comparable to Real Butter?
Yes, plant-based butter tastes precisely like traditional butter, and you won’t be able to tell the difference. But, to be honest, it’s a stretch to suggest you can’t tell the difference between zucchini noodles and ordinary pasta.
So, no, plant-based butter tastes nothing like regular butter. Plant-based butter gets its flavor from the oils utilized, much like traditional butter gets its flavor from the milk fat and milk solids.
On the other hand, plant-based butter is luscious, creamy, rich, and fabulous. And, at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
What May Vegan Spread be Used for?
Vegan butter can be used in a variety of ways, just as regular butter:
cooking and frying in baking (for example, in cake sponges or muffins) in frostings and buttercream
In fact, the vegan buttercream frosting created with homemade vegan butter and powdered sugar hold its structure for several hours at room temperature! (I created this vegan frosting with 100 grams of homemade vegan butter and 100 grams of sifted powdered sugar.)
What is the Acidity’s Role in Vegan Butter?
Traditional butter doesn’t have a particularly notable acid profile, and we need to consider acid’s incredibly delicate impact in savory, buttery dishes because we’re making our own butter from scratch. The acid in this scenario serves two purposes:
It’s what causes the proteins in soy milk to curdle, resulting in a coating of savory flavor.
The butter flavor is also improved by the acid.
I landed on 100 percent apple cider vinegar to drive butter flavors after experimenting with different spoonfuls of vinegar and lemon juice. This vinegar has malic and acetic acids, which is a fantastic mix. At first, the malic acid contributes fruity notes, while the acetic acid contributes a volatile cultured butteriness that is immediately detectable in the nose.
One of the issues with malic acid is that it has a harsh, acidic kick that dissipates fast. This rush of acidity maybe a little too much for some who are acid-sensitive. I didn’t find the benefits of coconut vinegar until much later.
Coconut vinegar doesn’t have the same fruitiness as apple cider vinegar, but it has a gentler acid profile that lasts longer. Combining apple cider vinegar and coconut vinegar yielded the ideal balance of subtle fruitiness and a smooth, lingering finish. 100% apple cider vinegar will suffice if you can’t get coconut vinegar. If you’re sensitive to acidity in general, don’t be scared to try lowering the acidity to your liking.
What are Some Popular Brands of Vegan Butter?
Vitalite
You can use Vitalite’s dairy-free butter spread in almost anything—whip it to perfection in a cake or slather it on a slice of toast.
The Spread is gluten- and soya-free and produced using a blend of sustainable oils. The vegan butter is also high in Omega 3 and 6 and Vitamin E, and in addition, it contains 75% less saturated fat than regular butter.
Tesco
Supermarket chain Tesco also sells vegan-friendly spreads under its own brand. Animal products are not used in the Sunflower Spread, Soft Baking Spread, or Light Olive Spread.
Tesco’s Light Olive Spread has a low saturated fat content, while the Soft Baking Spread is ideal for fluffy sponges and cakes.
Flora
Flora’s dairy-free Spread is made with sunflower and rapeseed oils and is excellent for cooking, baking, and spreading. Flora went entirely plant-based last year, removing dairy from its menu.
The vegan Spread is gluten-free and has 67 percent less saturated fat than butter. Original, Light, Buttery, and Dairy-Free are the four flavors available. All four flavors are dairy-free, although due to the company’s supply chain, the Original, Light, and Buttery tastes may include trace amounts of milk.
Asda
Looking for a dairy-free butter to spread on a stack of fluffy pancakes? Asda, a British retail giant, sells a line of vegan butter spreads free of animal-derived components.
Both the olive Spread and the light olive Spread from the chain are vegan-friendly. Artificial colors, flavors, and hydrogenated fat are also absent.
How to Work with Vegan Butter?
I wanted to make sure that this vegan butter could be used in various ways, so I put it in a frying pan with some mushrooms and spring onions, and it turned out perfectly (and deliciously!).
Then I wanted to make sure it was OK for baking, so I creamed it with sugar and used it to make delicious vegan oatmeal cookies!
And, as you can see, I’ve been slathering it on bread and toast and generally savoring it in any way one might savor butter.
It can be used almost anyplace that ordinary dairy butter can be used.
What are Some Successful Tips that can Help to Make Perfect Vegan Spread?
Except for the turmeric, which can be safely left out if you don’t have it because it is only used for color, measure everything precisely and don’t omit or change anything.
Coconut oil that has been refined is required. It’s occasionally referred to as “deodorized.” Unrefined or virgin coconut oil cannot be used since your butter will smell and taste like coconut. Check the label if you’re not sure if yours is safe. It will mention something somewhere. Alternatively, take a sniff and a bite. It hasn’t been refined and isn’t ideal for this recipe if you can smell or taste the coconut.
Make sure the refined coconut oil is liquid but not too hot. Don’t put it in when it’s still hot.
Blend until smooth, but don’t let the liquid butter get too hot while doing so, or it may separate. If the blender begins to warm up, stop for a minute or two before continuing.
Allow it to set completely before using.
Refrigerate any leftovers.
Allow it to soften for a few minutes at room temperature before spreading for maximum creaminess and spreading ease.
If you want to use the recipe for sautéing or frying, leave out the almond flour. The recipe notes contain further information.
Conclusion
Vegan butter is a dairy-free substitute for regular butter.
Vegan butter products have a lower saturated fat content and a more fantastic monounsaturated fat than traditional butter. They may also be more environmentally friendly.
Some brands, however, are more processed than others. As a result, choosing products with fewer refined oils and chemical additives is critical.
Furthermore, some items may be more expensive or harder to come by than ordinary butter.
Overall, Vegan butter is a calorie-dense diet with few essential elements. As a result, it’s recommended to eat these items in moderation and receive most of your calories from healthy, whole foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes.
