This cultured vegan butter, inspired by Miyoko’s cultured plant-based butter, is great for spreading, cooking, and baking. It’s entirely vegan (dairy-free), gluten-free (grain-free), and soy-free.
If you live in North America, you have most likely come across Miyoko’s butter “made from plants”. Miyoko has a few different products mimicking dairy, but her European-style cultured vegan butter and the European-style cultured unsalted vegan butter are probably the most popular.
The unique thing about Miyoko’s butter is the simple ingredient list. The main ingredients are coconut oil, cultured cashew milk, sunflower seed oil, sunflower lecithin, and salt. No palm oil, no soy, no protein isolates, no flavors, no colors. (None of the ingredients commonly found in the popular vegan buttery spread Earth balance).
Because Miyoko’s butter is cultured, it has a unique, slightly tangy, buttermilk-y flavor. The texture is similar to regular butter, but it’s firmer and crumblier when cold and goes soft quicker at room temperature. This makes sense since the main ingredient is coconut oil. The fact that the butter comes in blocks, like real butter, is also a nice touch.
The only downside is the price. Compared to the aforementioned Earth balance, Miyoko’s cultured butter costs twice as much. It’s also not as widely available. The good news is that you can make your own vegan cultured butter using the same ingredients Miyoko does.
Tips for Making Cultured Vegan Butter
Ingredients
The list of ingredients for this cultured vegan butter is identical to Miyoko’s butter ingredients:
- Coconut oil: there are several types of coconut oil currently on the market – virgin coconut oil (coconut-y flavor and aroma, colorless), refined coconut oil (neutral flavor and aroma, colorless), and coconut oil with butter flavor (buttery flavor and aroma, yellow color). I went with the coconut oil with butter flavor (the butter flavor is a blend of sunflower, coconut, and mint), but Miyoko uses refined coconut oil, which is why her butter is white as opposed to yellow.
- Cashews: regular butter is a dairy-product commonly made from milk or cream. To get the same creamy texture, Miyoko uses cashews, which blend into a perfectly smooth cashew cream/milk.
- Probiotics: to culture the cashew cream, you’ll need live bacteria. Miyoko doesn’t specify, which bacterial strains she uses for her cultured butter, but I imagine that lactic acid bacteria, specifically streptococcus lactis or lactobacillus bulgaricus, will be the most important ones.
- Sunflower oil: I have tried making vegan butter with just coconut oil, but the texture was slightly too crumbly. Any neutral-tasting oils, such as sunflower oil, helps to mitigate that and ensures that the butter spreads nicely.
- Sunflower lecithin: an emulsifier is absolutely crucial to ensure that the coconut oil doesn’t separate from the cashew cream. The main role of emulsifiers is to act as a border between two immiscible liquids such as oil and water, allowing them to create stable emulsions. Liquid lecithin is ideal (it blends better), but powdered lecithin works too.
- Salt: whether you are making unsalted or salted butter, I recommend adding a little bit salt either way. Cashews are naturally slightly sweet and the salt counteracts that sweetness.
How to Make Cultured Vegan Butter
Making homemade cultured butter is not difficult at all. It just requires a little bit of time.
- Soak the cashews. Add the cashews into a medium bowl, cover them with water, and soak them for at least 8 hours (or overnight) so they soften up and are easy to blend. When the cashews are done soaking, drain the water and rinse the cashews thoroughly.
- Blend the cashews. Add the soaked cashews into a high-speed blender together with water and blend until completely smooth.
- Add the live cultures. Pour the cashew milk into a sterilized glass bowl and add the live cultures. Using sterilized non-metal utensils, stir the live cultures into the cashew milk. Metal self-sterilizes, i.e., it kills bacteria, including the good bacteria. so avoid metal bowls and utensils. Make sure the probiotics are well mixed in so the good bacteria are evenly spread throughout the milk.
- Let the milk culture. Cover the bowl with the cashew milk with a piece of cheesecloth, and let the cashew milk culture at a consistent temperature for a few hours. The time will depend on the strength of the probiotics, the number of strains the probiotics contain, and the temperature at which the milk is culturing. I used 50 billion probiotic capsules with 20 different bacterial strains, and let the milk culture at 77°F/25°C for 12 hours. You can let the milk culture for up to 18 hours, depending on how strong you want the tangy flavor to be.
- Blend. Add the cultured cashew milk, melted coconut oil, sunflower oil, sunflower lecithin, and salt into a blender and blend until just combined. Don’t blend the mixture for too long. If it heats up too much, it may split.
- Chill. Pour the liquid butter into silicone ice cube tray (or a butter mold) and freeze/refrigerate it right away.
How to Serve Cultured Vegan Butter
This cultured vegan butter behaves very similarly to traditional dairy butter and is suitable for many culinary and baking applications. The only major difference is that you need to let the butter soften at room temperature for a few minutes so it spreads and slices easily.
As far as using the butter, you can spread it on a toast, stir it into mashed potatoes (that recipe is in my cookbook), let it melt on a straight-out-of-the-grill corn on the cob, drizzle it over popcorn, use it in baked goods including scones, cakes, pies, and cookies, or whip it into frosting.
How to Store Plant-Based Butter
- To refrigerate: transfer the butter into an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 7 days.
- To freeze: transfer the butter into an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Butter Recipes
There are so many different styles of butter nowadays – regular, cultured, churned, clarified… if you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like this classic dairy-free butter recipe:
- Dairy-free butter: if you don’t have time to make cultured butter, try this non-cultured version of vegan butter. It’s just as rich and creamy.
If you try any of these recipes, please, leave a comment and rate the recipe below. It always means a lot when you do.
Cultured Vegan Butter
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup cashews , soaked*
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 probiotic capsule **
- 1 1/4 cups butter-flavored coconut oil , melted***
- 1/4 cup sunflower oil
- 1 tsp. liquid sunflower lecithin ****
- 1/2 tsp. salt , or to taste
Instructions
- Blend the cashews. Add the soaked cashews into a high-speed blender together with water and blend until completely smooth. You will end up with thick cashew milk/cashew cream.
- Add the live cultures. Pour the cashew milk into a sterilized glass bowl and add the live cultures. Using sterilized non-metal utensils, stir the live cultures into the cashew milk. Metal self-sterilizes, i.e., it kills bacteria, including the good bacteria. so avoid metal bowls and utensils. Make sure the probiotics are well mixed in so the good bacteria are evenly spread throughout the milk.
- Let the cashews milk culture. Cover the bowl with the cashew milk with a piece of cheesecloth, and let the cashew milk culture at a consistent temperature for a few hours. The time will depend on the strength of the probiotics, the number of strains the probiotics contain, and the temperature at which the milk is culturing. I used 50 billion probiotic capsules with 20 different bacterial strains, and let the milk culture at 77°F/25°C for 12 hours. You can let the milk culture for up to 18 hours, depending on how strong you want the tangy flavor to be.
- Blend. Add the cultured cashew milk, melted coconut oil, sunflower oil, sunflower lecithin, and salt into a blender and blend until just combined. Don't blend the mixture for too long. If it heats up too much, it might split.
- Chill. Pour the liquid butter into silicone ice cube tray (or a butter mold) and freeze it until firm, 1-2 hours. Then transfer to a refrigerator to set completely.
- Store. Transfer the butter into an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 7 days. For longer term storage, freeze for up to 3 months.
Recipe Notes
Loved the video 🙂 Can I ask what probiotic capsules do you use?? Name and the brand will be super helpful. Can’t wait to make it 🙂
For sure. I just linked to the probiotics in the recipe box. The name is NewRhythm Probiotics 50 Billion CFU 20 Strains.
Petra, thank you for the lovely recipe! This is my third time making it & it always comes out nicely. It’s so great to have the option to make Miyoko’s vs. buying it, because it is a little pricey.
That’s awesome! So happy to hear that, Cheryl. Thank you so much for the feedback!
Wonderful! I even think it’s better than the original. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe 🙂
I’m so glad you like it, Marta. I really appreciate the feedback and rating!❤️
Can you please link probiotics from iherb? thank you
May I ask what brand of lecithin you use? Also is there a big difference between using liquid or granules? Thanks so much!
Hi Melissa – there are three main forms of lecithin – granulated, powdered, and liquid. Granulated lecithin is the hardest to dissolve. Liquid sunflower lecithin doesn’t need to be dissolved, which is great, but sometimes the dark brown color doesn’t work in all recipes. I prefer powdered sunflower lecithin because it dissolves easily and is light in color. You can use any form though. One thing to note is that liquid and powdered lecithin are more concentrated than granulated. The sunflower lecithin I am using right now is by Foods Alive.
This recipe rocks!!!! Question thought. I froze my butter in an extra large ice cube tray. I noticed that the bottom was a bit grainy and the top has a thin layer of coconut oil. I remixed it together and it turned out great. Did I not blend it long enough?
HI Susy – thank you for the kind feedback! Did you use lecithin for the recipe? The lecithin is what will help the oil and water create a stable emulsion.
Yes, I used a liquid one. I was afraid of over blending since you cautioned against it. Once properly blended, should it look completely smooth and creamy?
Yes! It will be completely smooth. Was it smooth and creamy when you finished blending it (before freezing)?
It was a tiny bit grainy. About how long do you blend yours for?
Hi Susy – so, mine is never grainy. It’s completely smooth, similar to cashew cream. Would you be able to tell where the graininess was coming from? Insufficiently blended cashews? Coconut oil not melted? I blend it until just combined. You definitely want to force the oil and water to mix. But since it’s just liquid ingredients at the end, it shouldn’t take more than 20 seconds. As long as the mixture is not heating up, you can blend it for longer. I have a high-speed blender – Vitamix, which is pretty powerful. Standard blenders might need more time.
Hats off.. I think you nailed this recipe! I just made it and now I’m obsessed! Have you done a cost comparison of making your version vs buying Miyoko’s?
Thank you Tiffany! I am so happy you liked the recipe. Unfortunately, I have not done a cost comparison. I think it will vary depending on whether you get your ingredients in bulk (I do) or not. Also, Miyoko’s butter is available predominently in North America, so, this recipe is a great option for those who otherwise wouldn’t have access to it.
Just a thought. Does the metal blade of blender kill the good bacteria? I question this too when I use fermented seeds and nuts and yogurt in protein drinks I make.
Hi John – a great question. I used to be worried about it too – if you look at some of my older videos for yogurt, I always added the live bacteria after I blend the nuts. However, considering the butter does culture, the good bacteria have to survive even the blending process. I have experimented with this with yogurt as well and the blade does not seem to interact with the cultures. You can always err on the side of caution though and add the probiotics after blending.
Hi(:
Is this butter suitable for baking? (Browning, streusels, flaky dough, croissants, cake decorating etc). Also, have you tried Miyoko’s recipe for plain, non-cultured butter? Is it any good/different from this one?
Thanks!
Hi Nathaniel – I have used this butter in baked goods – cakes, cookies, pies (I have not tried croissants), frosting, and buttercream. You can brown the butter as well, but you have to be careful not to burn it. I have had Miyokos butter from the store but never tried her recipe.
Aloha,
As someone that has been slowly getting plastics out of my life, I now have an older Vitamix 4000 blender that is stainless steel. So can I blend al the ingredients first, then pour the completed mixture into a glass bowl and then stir in the probiotics to let it sit for 12 hours? Will this ruin it?
Thanks so much!
Hi – yes, definitely! As long as the probiotics don’t come into contact with metal (which they won’t if you don’t blend them in the stainless steel container), it will be just fine 🙂
Aloha Petra,
Thanks so much for the fast reply! Everything is blended and I just added the probiotic to a sterilized glass bowl and stirred it in with a sterilized glass straw. It is supposed to be in the mid to high 80’s today here on Maui, so I will let it sit for the 12 hours. Will keep you apprised on how this “blend all ingredients at once and then add the probiotic” experiment comes out.
Mahalo!
Aloha Petra,
So I did the experiment. Blended everything but the probiotic and then added the probiotic and let it sit for 12 to 13 hours before freezing.
The flavor came out great. I love it. However, the texture did not. It separated at some point while it was sitting. I am not sure which ingredient caused this. I also wonder if the probiotic did not multiply like it usually would because I did it that way. Hard to tell.
I might just have to get a glass blender for making this recipe from now on.
Maybe I will do one more experiment in the future without adding a couple of the things and hand stirring them in at the end.
Thanks again for all you do.
Is there an alternative to the sunflower oil….not that keen on that ingredient.
Hi Antonia – you can use any neutral oil you like (e.g., grapeseed oil, canola oil, etc.)