I never thought the day would come when I’d be making a video about vegan butter. If you
watch this channel, you know that I am not a vegan butter sort of person. I am an omnivore
all the way. But in some classes, I do cook for people who are vegan and the one ingredient
that I always miss terribly in those situations is not meat, but butter. Olive oil is fabulous.
It’s my default fat, but in some cases butter tastes better. Say I am trying to finish a
bowl of buckwheat or beans or pasta. Olive oil tastes green to me. It’s grassy and
vegetal, while the butter is mellow and sweet and ah, you know. I don’t have words to
describe butter. There is really nothing like it.
So I was looking for a butter substitute that would work as a finishing touch in dishes
that are heavy on fiber. People who like that sort of thing, call it earthy and people who
hate it call it carboardy. Well, I am glad to report that I found just the thing. It
was inspired by the leftover oil I had from making the crispy shallot garnish. Yes, the
very one I just made a video about. That oil smelled so sweet, but savory at the same time,
it reminded me of butter. So I decided to take it to the next step and give it more
body, and more nutty, sweet, fermented flavor that I love so much about butter. I toasted
some pinenuts -- the sweetest most mellow nut in the world -- added some white miso
for its yeasty complexity and pureed it all with shallot oil.
I gave it to my kids to try on plain pasta and they swore it was pasta with butter. I
tried it with buckwheat, farro, and beans and it was delicious. It actually reminded
me more of duck fat than butter. I don’t know if it would fool me into thinking it
was actually butter, but it provided similar benefits. Obviously, this is not a replacement
for butter when it comes to baking and it’s not something you can spread of bread, but
in cooking it is very tasty. So, let me show you how to make it and then I’ll tell you
about some store bought alternatives as well.
Let’s set a pan over medium heat, add 50 grams of pine nuts and cook them shaking the
pan occasionally until the nuts start to brown and look like this. This will take about 5
minutes. As soon as they are done, remove them from the pan so that they don’t burn.
Cool the pinenuts. Put the shallot oil (I have about a cup and a third left over from
crispy shallots), the pine nuts, and 40 grams of miso into a blender and puree until perfectly
silky. The amounts are not very important here. You can eyeball everything. That’s
what I did until I had to make a recipe for you. Pour into a jar and store in the fridge
indefinitely. Eventually this mixture will separate so make sure to stir it before using
and I would suggest using it up within a month for best flavor.
So, once I made “vegan butter”, I got curious about what butter substitutes are
available for purchase. And what’s in them? Am I the only crazy person who had that nut
idea? Turns out not. The luxury brand of vegan butter called Miyoko uses nuts as well. They
use cashews. I also noticed “cultures” on their ingredients list. I am guessing that
serves a similar purpose to miso, but is probably closer to the cultures found in butter. To
make their butter solid and spreadable they used coconut oil. How was it? Surprisingly
close to real butter. If I was vegan, this is the brand I would use. A few drawbacks
of this brand is that It is very expensive and has higher saturated fat than real butter
does, but how you weigh those pros and cons is up to you. Coconut oil either cures everything
that ails you or is pure poison depending on which source you read.
I have also tried earth balance european style vegan butter that seems to be more widely
available than Miyoko. It doesn’t contain any coconut oil, so it’s low in saturated
fat. Too bad it tastes as horrible as margarine. This is kind of what I expected from a vegan
butter, but Miyoko was a pleasant surprise.
I am really excited that I can now make reasonable suggestions to my students who can’t have
much salt (here is a video on that) or who choose not to eat animal products for ethical
or environmental reasons.
We love to judge others for their food choices. I mean come on, I am no different. I am as
judgy as the next person. I don’t mean to be, but I am human just like you. And I find
that forcing yourself to cook with restrictions I am not used to can foster not only understanding,
but also creativity. I don’t do that all the time, but I think it’s a good thing
to do on occasion. And here is a question for you. Have you ever tried an alternative
food that pleasantly surprised you? What was it? I have a feeling everyone will say impossible
burger. Let me know in the comments and maybe I’ll try it too.
Here are more thought provoking videos for you to check out, and if you are ever in the
Boston area, maybe I’ll see you in one of my classes.