7 Best Vegan Butter Brands
When you follow a vegan lifestyle, there can be a lot of things that people simply assume you miss out on.
The obvious one is meat, but vegans actually avoid any animal product, which means they avoid dairy and any food that might contain an animal byproduct. Some even go the extra mile with things like makeup and other products as well.
Technology and information sharing have come a long way and more and more people are becoming aware of products that are full of animal byproducts.
This has led to the need to come up with alternatives that are suitable for thousands of things.
So, what are the best vegan butter brands? The best vegan butter brands are 100% certified vegan, contain no GMOs, and are made of organic ingredients. But most importantly, they should spread like butter, melt like butter, and taste like butter.
Much like other products out there, some brands have found unique ways to reproduce dairy products without the aid of animal products.
One of those items is butter. There are a lot of great vegan butter options and brands out there and some brands even have multiple options to choose from. Whether you’ll be spreading it, cooking it, or baking it, there’s a perfect vegan version out there for you.
In this guide, we will share with you the 7 best vegan butter options on the market. All of these have great flavor and work very well as a vegan substitute to traditional butter.
You might even decide you like them better than traditional butter if you give them a try!
Choosing The Best Vegan Butter
Before we set you loose on these butter options, let’s take a moment to consider what you might want to look for when you’re choosing vegan butter.
Just like other alternative foods, not all vegan butter will be made equal. Different brands or flavors use different items to create their butter. You might see butter made with avocado oil, olive oil, palm oil, or any oil under the sun.
Check out this quick guide of things to consider before you choose your vegan butter.
1. Ingredients
It’s always a good idea to check your ingredients. We mentioned above that there can be several different ways to make vegan butter.
They can use different flavors or different oils to create a buttery stick option, so it’s up to you to determine if there is a specific flavor or oil that you really want to have compared to others.
You may also want to cut certain oils out of your diet for health, allergies, or environmental reasons. For example, palm oil has been a controversial ingredient recently due to its impact on deforestation.
If you’ve never tried any of the vegan butter varieties, you may have to taste some and decide what you like the best.
You might have a preference in your mind as well so just pay attention to the options, if this is something that could potentially matter to you.
Watching the ingredients is also a good way to know if what you are consuming is or is not really vegan-friendly. If it’s labeled as vegan, it most likely is, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to double check the labels.
2. Type Of Butter
The next thing to consider is the type of butter you are after. For vegan butter, the most common is stick butter but they do also have spreads. Some brands have whipped butter that you can use as a spread so you aren’t just limited to sticks.
This is just another thought to keep in mind because they will potentially have slightly different textures or be best for different uses.
The sticks can be used for just about anything you need them for, but the whipped options or spreads sometimes are best for either cooking or spreading on bread, since they really were designed to be a spreadable option.
Some options may work better than others for spreading vs. baking or cooking.
3. What To Watch For
While we’re on the list of things to look for, if you want to keep it healthy, you may want to intentionally look for certain ingredients or even avoid certain ingredients.
For example, a lot of food products are known to contain trans fats. While U.S. producers cannot have artificial trans fats in foods that are FDA-approved, foods produced elsewhere might contain it so you should look for it on the label.
Another thing is the use of palm oil. Palm oil is not a bad ingredient but the way that palm oil is harvested is actually pretty harmful to the ecosystem, so many people have started avoiding products with palm oil in them.
If you purchase an item with palm oil, try looking for sustainable palm oil that is certified as such. This is a much better choice.
The problem is that when you look for options online, they can be hard to find without palm oil. However, it’s simply something to be aware of so you can try to at least maintain your footprint in some way.
The 7 Best Vegan Butter Options
We’ve talked a little bit about picking out vegan butter but now let’s talk about the best options. You will find that there are quite a few options out there.
There are multiple brands and some brands even have multiple types, flavors, and options to choose from.
There is pretty much a little something for everyone out there and we’ve done our best to narrow it down while still sharing some variety with you.
Below, you will find our top picks for the 7 best vegan butter options.
| Rank | Product | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Earth Balance Buttery Sticks | Vegetable oil mix, 6 packs of 4 sticks |
| 2. | Smart Balance Original Buttery Spread | Vegetable oil blend, spreadable, soft |
| 3. | Miyoko’s Creamery Organic Vegan Butter | Premium quality, organic coconut oil blend |
| 4. | Melt Organic Butter Spread | 12 pack, organic, coconut oil, spread |
| 5. | Nutiva Organic Plant-Based Ghee | Coconut/avocado oil blend, organic |
| 6. | Earth Balance Buttery Spread | Olive oil blend, non-GMO |
| 7. | I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter | Olive oil blend, Omega 3s, low calorie |
1. Earth Balance Buttery Sticks
This particular option from Earth Balance is produced in buttery sticks.
With 6 packs of 4 sticks, it’ll last you quite some time!
These buttery sticks are vegan as well as gluten-free, lactose-free, and non-hydrogenated. These buttery sticks contain 0g trans-fat but do contain Omega 3s.
These buttery sticks are made with expeller-pressed vegetable oil, which is a mix of palm, canola, soybean, flax, and olive oils.
Earth Balance butter has been a longstanding vegan butter with little competition and it’s typically readily available for purchase at most grocery stores as well.
Key Features:
- Similar to margarine or butter
- Comes in buttery sticks
- 0g trans-fat and non-GMO product
- Longstanding vegan butter option
- Rich in Omega 3s
2. Smart Balance Original Buttery Spread
Smart Balance original is another butter that has been around forever and it’s a vegan-friendly option as well.
This particular option is very comparable to butter and margarine, which is perhaps why it is a popular choice.
It’s a butter spread so you can use it for cooking or you can use it as a spread, whatever you prefer.
Smart Balance is made of a vegetable oil blend (canola, palm, and olive) and has really great flavor without all the junk in it that most people are looking to avoid. And, it’s rich in Omega 3s!
This spreadable butter sometimes gets just a little bit hard in the fridge but it typically softens pretty quickly at room temperature.
Unfortunately, if you’re watching the palm oil characteristic, Smart Balance’s downfall is that it does contain palm oil, so this may not be for you if you’re looking for a palm-oil free option.
Key Features:
- Buttery spread with great flavor
- Rich in Omega 3s
- Very easy to work with
- Tastes very similar to regular butter
- Easy to find at the grocery store
3. Miyoko’s Creamery Organic Vegan Butter
Check Current Price On Miyokos.com
This next option is a cultured vegan butter with a European twist. It’s absolutely divine but it is definitely a premium butter selection.
With this listing, you get a 6-pack of 8-ounce blocks of butter. These come to you in small blocks, almost like a cream cheese block might be if you’ve seen those or purchased those before.
Made with coconut oil, cultured cashew milk, and sunflower oil, Miyoko’s vegan butter is both cultured and churned and the end result is creamy and flavorful. It’s a USDA organic product that is free of cholesterol, lactose, GMOs, hormones, gluten, and soy. This is also a palm oil free butter!
This comes in a block but it’s easy to melt, spread, bake, or cook with. It comes 100% from plants and also includes just a hint of sea salt to really perfect the flavor. This spread is made from cashew and coconut oil so that is something to be mindful of if nut allergies could be an issue.
Key Features:
- Made 100% from plants
- Just a touch of sea salt
- Cultured and churned for creamy perfection
- Free of unwanted ingredients, including palm oil
- USDA organic certification
4. Melt Organic Butter Spread
This next option has the slogan “say goodbye to butter,” which is pretty fitting in the case where butter and things like dairy or other additives are to be avoided.
This is a buttery spread and it is a vegan option. It’s completely dairy-free and it is also a non-GMO and USDA organic product.
This buttery spread is made in the United States entirely from plant sources. Their oil comes from virgin coconut oil so you don’t have to worry about the palm oil factor on this selection.
This buttery spread uses fruit and plant based oils to bring you a creamy spread. This one is rich in flavor and it doesn’t typically get hard in the fridge (or not overly hard like some options).
This is a spread but you can use it for cooking and baking without any problems as well.
Key Features:
- Made with oils from fruits and plants only
- Does not contain palm oil
- Vegan butter that has rich flavor
- Made to be rich and creamy
- Can be used for any type of use
- Bakes and melts like butter
5. Nutiva Organic Plant-Based Ghee
Some people have turned completely away from using butter and use items like ghee, which is a butter alternative.
Ghee is a great option and in this case, it is a vegan-friendly choice that is both organic and dairy-free. It’s made with coconut and avocado oils.
This ghee is certified USDA organic and it is also verified as a non-GMO product. The ingredients include refined expeller-pressed coconut oil, avocado oil, vegan ghee flavor, turmeric extract, and annatto extract.
You can use this best for cooking. You might be able to use it slightly as a spread but it works better for melting and cooking. This is the perfect alternative for cooking with butter, particularly cooking with high heat, like up to 450°F.
Key Features:
- Ghee is a great alternative to butter
- Works really well for cooking, especially at higher temperatures
- USDA organic selection
- Made mostly with coconut and avocado oils
- Can be used for cooking, baking, or as a spread
6. Earth Balance Buttery Spread
If you like the idea of Earth Balance’s solutions but you don’t want the buttery sticks, take a look at their spreads.
This particular spread is made with olive oil but they also have a really great whipped spread that is perfect for spreading on breakfast foods because it has that whipped and creamy texture.
This spread from Earth Balance is non-GMO and it is also soy free. The ingredients contain things like an oil blend, water, and then a few minor additions like salt, pea protein, and sunflower lecithin.
The oil blend does contain palm fruit and there is no evidence as to whether or not that is a sustainable palm extract or not. On the downside, while this is vegan, it does have lactic added to it so it is not necessarily considered lactos-free.
Key Features:
- Spread option from a reliable brand
- Made with olive oil
- Perfect for a spread but can be used for cooking
- Great flavor
7. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter – Olive Oil
Finally, we leave you with the classic butter phenomenon “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter,” with a twist.
This is again not butter but it is made with simple ingredients like olive oil and it has no animal products, making it a vegan-friendly solution.
This butter is loaded with Omega 3s, so it’s really a pretty great choice all around.
The ingredients list is simple with things like soybean oil, palm oil, olive oil, salt, soy, and natural flavor. It’s a low calorie butter and it comes to you as a spread so you can use it for a spread or for cooking needs.
We do want to note that this does contain palm kernel and palm oil. There are no indications that these are sustainable, so that could be a negative factor.
Key Features:
- A popular butter brand
- Simple buttery spread with plant-based ingredients
- Uses olive oil for a healthier approach
- No trans-fat and reduced saturated fat
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