Margarine: 3 ways to make your own vegan butter

Margarine is a butter alternative. It’s not made with milk but has plants as the main ingredients, this makes most of the margarines vegan. It can’t be called butter as butter has to have at least 80% milk fat in it, but margarine tastes the same and you can use it for the same things as you’d use butter. Besides it’s better for you than butter as it has less saturated fats and is higher in Vitamin D. I’m a big fan of margarine as it’s more sustainable, better for the animals and for your health.

Did you know you can easily make your own margarine? I love making margarine variations, especially in summer as it’s great on bread when you’re having a salad or a vegetarian/vegan barbecue party. On this page I’m sharing 3 ways to make your own vegan butter. For all recipes you can use margarine from the supermarket (most of the Becel products are margarine, so 100% vegan), but I’m also sharing a recipe on this page to make your own margarine from scratch. You can use this basic margarine recipe to make the other 3 recipes, or you can use store bought margarine to make them.

Basic recipe Margarine

For all recipes mentioned below you can use store bought margarine, but did you know you can make margarine from scratch yourself? It’s really cool to make your own vegan butter, and you’ll know it’s an honest and natural product!

To make your own margarine you’ll need:
* 2 tablespoons of coconut oil
* 3 tablespoons of liquid oil (anything goes; olive oil, sunflower oil, rice oil, etcetera)
* 1/4 teaspoon mustard powder
* 1 teaspoon carrot juice
* a few drops of lemon juice

Put the coconut oil in a bowl and let it melt au bain-marie.
Fill a large bowl with ice cubes and water. The exact amounts don’t mind as long as the water is really cold.
Put the liquid oil in a small bowl and put it on top of the ice water. Start stirring straight away.
Add the carrot juice and mustard powder and keep on stirring till you’ve got a cream. Add the melted oil and stir until you’ve got the right substance.
You can always take it off the ice water for a bit when it gets too hard to stir.

You can use this homemade margarine as you would with any other margarine or butter, and you can use it as a base for the recipes mentioned below.

Chive Margarine

With just a few ingredients you can make a very delicious margarine. I only used margarine, chives and a clove of garlic for this vegan butter. Just a slice of bread and this chives margarine is all you need for a tasty starter, side dish or lunch.
I used:
* 100 grams margarine
* 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
* a handful of fresh chives, finely chopped

Make sure the margarine is on room temperature. I often place the package on the kitchen counter for 15 minutes to make it soft. Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir with a spoon until mixed. Put it in a smaller bowl of your choice and put it in the fridge to set.
You can save the homemade margarine in the fridge for about 3 weeks.

Orange Paprika Margarine

This orange paprika margarine will add a touch of color to your table! Orange is the national color of the Netherlands, so it’s also great to make when the national soccer team is playing like this month during the women’s soccer World Cup. But it also makes a great spread for King’s Day or any other day of the year!

For this orange paprika spread you’ll need:
* 200 grams margarine
* 1 orange paprika
* 1 teaspoon of sriracha sauce

Make sure the margarine is on room temperature. Cut the orange paprika and remove the seeds. Put the paprika pieces in a blender and blend until a puree has formed. Mix the paprika puree with the margarine. Stir in the sriracha sauce.
With these quantities you’ll have a rather large portion. Did you know that you can also save margarine in the freezer? Just wrap it up tightly and you can save it up to 2 months in the freezer.

Parsley-Truffle Margarine

Want to go all fancy with your margarine? No problem! This parsley truffle margarine is taking your ordinary vegan butter to the next level.

For this parsley-truffle margarine you’ll need:
* 150 grams margarine at room temperature
* a handful of fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped
* 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
* 2 teaspoons of truffle oil
* pepper and salt to taste (don’t add too much)

Use a mixing bowl to mix all the ingredients. You can taste a bit with a teaspoon to see if you like the flavor. Otherwise you can always add a bit more from one of the ingredients.

Click here for all my healthy recipes.

This blog post was made in cooperation with Becel, but all opinions and recipes are my own. They had no say on the content that I published.

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