Last week, I blogged about making vegan spreads using beneficial fats and oils and avoiding health damaging processed fats/oils, which have been through chemical hydrogenation to make spreads like margarine. 

To mimic butter in a vegan spread, you first need milk solids, fats/oils and water in the right ratios.  It would therefore make sense finding a recipe with the ratios already worked out and then tweaking it to taste and healthy requirements. I chose a recipe by Miyoko Schinner, an artisan vegan/vegetarian cook and food writer, which seemed straight forward and easy to do. The only change I made was an addition of around half a teaspoon of turmeric for colour, flavour and its active components like curcumin.

For this recipe I made a creamy homemade cashew milk made using 1 cup of pre-soaked cashews blended with 2 cups of water and then strained. I also used a deodorised organic coconut oil, which is neutral tasting however if you want the flavours of coconut to come through then by all means use virgin coconut oil.

In a previous experiment, I used avocado oil, which has the plus point of being predominantly monounsaturated and more stable than polyunsaturated oils. However I felt the avocado oil had a more pronounced flavour which came through in my vegan butter. I then thought about using macadamia nut oil, which is also predominantly monounsaturated and has a milder taste but I couldn't get hold of any for this experiment. So I have opted for unrefined cold pressed sunflower oil, which should create a more neutral-tasting butter.

Lecithin helps to mix the fats with the water components and the addition of apple cider and salt adds flavour to the butter.

You will need a blender to mix everything up properly.

Ingredients

1 cup refined coconut oil
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (Used cashew milk)
1/4 cup a mild tasting oil (Used sunflower oil, would have liked to use macadamia nut oil)
1.5 tsp lecithin granules or 2 tsp of liquid lecithin
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt (optional)
1/2 tsp turmeric (optional)

Method

1. I melted the coconut oil and left it to cool to room temperature
2. I then blended my cashew milk with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar
   
3. Next I added 1.5 teaspoon of lecithin granules and 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and gave it a good blend.
   
4. Then I added 1 cup of coconut and 1/4 cup of sunflower oil to the mixture and blended until it was well mixed through.
   
5. The creamy mixture was then poured into a clean jar and left in the fridge to firm up.
   
   I also stirred the butter up whilst it was partially hardened to ensure there was no settling of the turmeric.

The yellow colour from turmeric was a different shade to butter and maybe I would reduce it to 1/4 teaspoon as well in my next experiment. I thought about experimenting with carrot juice or saffron but that's a for another day.

I think it looks great and tastes fabulous too! A great recipe from Miyoko Schinner.

All I need to do now is try it out with friends, family and the folk at The Hub Cafe.