Make delicious homemade vegan butter (Save orangutans!)

Standard / by / April 14, 2012 / 43 Comments

Did you hear? Vegan.com and Bryanna Clark Grogan rocked the vegan culinary world last month when they unveiled Bryanna’s Homemade Palm-Oil Free Vegan Buttery Spread.  The funny thing is, I have had a recipe saved since last month; I was listening to an Our Hen House podcast where Jasmin Singer talked about a homemade vegan butter that she used for a cookie recipe. I emailed her immediately and she hunted down the recipe:  How to Make Vegan Butter.

It’s a small vegan world! It turns out that this recipe by Mattie on VeganBaking.net is what Bryanna based her new, buttery spread recipe upon.  Mattie uses coconut oil  and Bryanna uses cocoa butter. Both use soy lecithin but Mattie’s recipe offered granule or liquid options and Bryanna’s recipe only liquid.  I had coconut oil + soy lecithin granules in the cupboard so I knew which recipe I needed to use!

Why make homemade vegan butter when it’s so easy to buy at the store?

One word:  orangutans.

Please take a moment to watch this beautiful video, which introduces you to orangutans, describes the impact of palm oil production on them and the organization that works to help them.

I’ve been anxious to find a vegan butter option, without palm oil, that is easy to make, melts, and tastes good. I found it:  How to Make Vegan Butter.

Seven ingredients = homemade vegan butter!

Essentially two steps later and you’re pouring a very creamy mixture into a mold.

An hour later, out of the freezer.

Slides out of the mold easily.

Slices beautifully!

Melts on toast!

Perfect in mashed sweet potatoes.

Perfect on mashed sweet potatoes.

Pressure Cooker Mashed Sweet Potatoes

by JL goes Vegan: Food & Fitness with a side of Kale


Ingredients (Serves 2)

  • 1 cup water
  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • Splash of almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
  • Dab of vegan butter (use homemade!)
  • Pinch of salt

Instructions

  1. Place a steam basket in the pressure cooker and water. Bring water to a boil.
  2. Wash and quarter the sweet potatoes. I left the skin on the potatoes.
  3. Cover the pressure cooker and bring to pressure. Cook at pressure for 6 minutes. Allow for a natural release.
  4. Remove the pressure cooker lid, away from you.
  5. You will see that the skin on the potatoes will peel off with no effort at all.
  6. Add almond milk, salt and vegan butter.
  7. Use a wire potato masher to mash to desired consistency (I like some chunks).
  8. Serve with a slab of vegan butter.

I haven’t baked with it yet – because I don’t bake all that much! But I have a few things I want to try so I’ll keep you posted.

I doubled this recipe and, as Mattie indicates in the recipe notes, you can store this for one month in an air tight container in the refrigerator (or in a plastic bag in the freezer for a year).

I don’t see the need to buy a vegan margarine with palm oil again. This recipe is so quick and delicious.

Have you made a homemade vegan butter recipe? 
What are your thoughts on palm oil production?

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43 thoughts on “Make delicious homemade vegan butter (Save orangutans!)”

  4. I was touched by the video. Now I know how palm oil affected the wildlife, the orangutans.  I love sweet potatoes but not yet tried to make homemade vegan butter and I want to make one. I will be more aware of what I buy. 
    Thanks  for sharing. =)

  5. This is fantastic! Thank you for sharing this alternative version. I should make a bunch for all the vegans in my family. It would be great to eliminate any reliance on palm oil.

  6. I just ran to the kitchen to see if my vegan margarine has palm oil in it – luckily it doesn’t, but this sounds and looks like a great alternative for those that do! Looks heavenly on those mashed potatoes.

  7. What an incredible video. Thank you for sharing your alternative to destructive palm oil. We should also urge Earth Balance to change their ingredients.

    1.  I agree, Nicole. I know they make statements on their site they they are only using sustainable palm oil but I question how that is possible. It would be great if they could find an alternative.

  8. I saw Bryanna’s recipe and am dying to try it!  Your photos look amazing.  I made a homemade vegan butter a few years ago and haven’t had it since because it contains nutritional yeast (one of only 3 main ingredients–so I think it would be missed if I took it out!!).  I’m going to try it again, though, since I am now adding back a few of those types of ingredients to my diet. I’m also intrigued by Bryanna’s–curious as to what the lecithin does. Must give that one a try, too!  Now I’m craving mashed sweet potatoes. 😀

    1. I’m going to try Bryanna’s, too. Believe or not I was cleaning out a pantry shelf today and discovered that I have cocoa butter – goodness, I impulsively bought it after taking a raw cooking class and thought I would actually make candy (ha!)  I also found the cutest small rose shaped silicone mold – looks like my next butter batch will be adorable! 🙂

  10. I can’t wait to make this butter!!!  Thank you for sharing!!!
    ~Rebecca @ All-American Vegetarian

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  12. Since hearing the podcast, I’ve been avoiding purchasing vegan butter. I know EB claims theirs is sustainable, but I don’t really know what “sustainable” means as far as the fate of orangutans!

    1.  Exactly – a lot of people have sent me EB’s official statement but I simply don’t know what it means, in a tangible way.

      1. if you get their organic variety, they get that palm from brazil, so it’s totally not impacting orangutans.  (maybe some other animal, but not orangutans.  but really, anything that is grown for humans is grown on land somewhere. some animal is losing out somehow.)

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  19. make sure you do not buy the ” enriched ” soy milk version of soy dream. If you look at the ingredient list you will notice “Vitamin A Palmitate” this is derived from palm oil. so to be truly palm oil free do not use products containing vitamin A plamitate, which unfortunately is nearly all soy milk products and ALL commercially available almond milk (i have been on a very long hunt for palm free almond milk so if anyone knows of one please let me know!) soy palm oil free options include the original soy dream or WestSoy (not their soy slender products though) and Pacific (the original soy only)….

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        1. I think the silicone trays do make a big difference, @VegHousewife:disqus but looks are over-rated – it’s taste that matters! By the way, I used a different recipe recently, Bryanna’s and I got impatient and took it out of the freezer too soon. It wasn’t as pretty, as a result, so I mashed it into a small, wide mouth jar and it looks like a tub of butter. Perfect!

  22. You should patent the recipe and mass produce it for the vegan market. Then take part of the profits to fund orangutans rescues.

  23. We need more compassionate people who will awake those who are asleep – those who are blindly following what the corrupted system imposes, those who are apathetic towards animals and nature suffering. Dear JL, THANK YOU!

  24. I love this recipe but I cannot consume oils. Can this butter be made without oil, like with coconut milk or something?

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