Raw Vegan Garlic Butter

Worried about having too many vampires hanging around on Halloween?

Fortify yourself with this raw vegan garlic butter, and nobody will come within miles of you. For weeks.

Great for defending the whole family against unwanted bloodsuckers…

Ok, so maybe that’s not exactly highest on your list of “must do” priorities.

But what about enjoying a delicious vegan alternative to garlic butter, that’s made entirely from unprocessed foods?

You can spread it on slices of your favourite bread stick, and roast it in the oven, for an authentic vegan garlic bread experience, that goes perfectly with homemade pizza.

Authentic, that is, except for the bright green colour.

You might have to do a bit of sales job with your family on that one.

Mashed alien spread? Swamp slime? Dinosaur snot?

Sorry, that’s not making it sound very appealing is it?

Trust me, once you’ve tasted this raw vegan garlic butter, the colour won’t matter any more.

Because you’ll be too busy enjoying the flavours rolling over your taste buds and tickling your fancy.

This is garlic butter taken to a whole new level of yum.

Ready to dive in?

Tips

• You can use any variety of avocado for this garlic butter, but some might work better than others. My favourite varieties are Hass, Reed and Sharwill, because they’re creamy and rich. Some other varieties can be a little watery, which I’m not a big fan of, so just keep in mind that they might not work as well in this raw vegan garlic butter substitute recipe.
• You can use any type of fresh garlic in this recipe. I’ve used both white garlic and Russian garlic, and although they vary in flavour intensity, it’s really just a question of adjusting the amount until the garlic taste is as strong as you want it to be.
• Make sure your garlic is well minced before adding it to the mashed avocado. The last thing you want is a big chunk of raw garlic (unless you like eating raw garlic) in your garlic butter. The garlic flavour will be more than strong enough without having to eat actual pieces of garlic.
• I tend to use flat-leaf parsley in my raw vegan garlic butter, but once again, it really doesn’t matter. Use whatever parsley you have access to. I also get lazy sometimes and chop mine very roughly so I end up with big pieces of parsley in my butter. It doesn’t affect the taste at all, but it can make the butter harder to spread.
• You could also use other fresh herbs in this raw vegan garlic butter if you wanted to, like basil, dill, oregano, chives or rosemary. I haven’t tried anything other than parsley, but you could get pretty creative if you wanted to.
• Although the coconut oil is optional, I do highly recommend adding it to your raw vegan garlic butter. I’ve made it both with and without the coconut oil, and although it does work without it, it lacks a little of the buttery mouth feel and doesn’t melt into your bread stick as well (if that’s how you’re using it). You don’t need to add very much, but even a little makes a big difference to the “buttery” experience.
• To avoid the coconut oil hardening up when you add to the mix, try to use avocadoes that are at room temperature, rather than straight from the fridge. This gives the oil the chance to get thoroughly mixed through before it cools down.
• This raw vegan garlic butter is another of my very forgiving recipes. It’s pretty hard to get it wrong, so just throw the ingredients together, without being super-precise on quantities, and I’m sure it will turn out delicious every time. That’s exactly what I do!
• Of course you don’t need to spread this on a bread stick and bake it in the oven. You can use it in lots of different ways, including as a spread in sandwiches or wraps, as a topping for baked potatoes or roasted veggies, to finish off pasta dishes (raw or cooked) or as a dip. Keep in mind that the raw garlic flavour is pretty strong, so a little goes a long way.

My inspiration

We’ve been making pizza as our Saturday night “treat” for months, and garlic bread is the perfect accompaniment.

We tried finding vegan garlic bread at our local independent supermarket, with no luck, and although we bought some “ready to cook” garlic bread a couple of times for the kids, I just didn’t want to keep feeding them butter.

We’ve always talked about how great avocado is as a butter substitute – we use it like butter in sandwiches – so I got creative one weekend and pulled together this recipe.

I played with the amounts of garlic and parsley and coconut oil until it gave us the right flavour and mouth feel, and we were all set.

Happily, my kids are more than willing to eat this version, enjoying just as much, if not more, than the store-bought version.

Another win for plant-fed families!

Resources

If you’re interesting in learning more about avocado varieties, here’s some places to get started:

• Avocados @ Sustainable Gardening Australia
• Avocado Varieties @ California Avocado

And have a delicious day.

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