Soft Homemade Vegan Dinner Rolls (easy!)

posted by Britt Berlin on Mar 29, 2021 (last updated Aug 13, 2023) 9 comments »

This is the easiest recipe to make homemade vegan dinner rolls that are actually soft, “buttery,” and perfectly fluffy! Just 5 ingredients, and honestly, no one will know this dinner rolls recipe are made with no eggs and are dairy free! The best side dish for any dinner or holiday meal like Thanksgiving!

Why you’ll love these homemade vegan dinner rolls

No holiday is complete without some homemade dinner rolls, in my opinion, and this vegan version is about to become your new go-to classic vegan dinner roll recipe.

These vegan dinner rolls are the epitome of fluffy, tender, light, and melt-in-your-mouth. In fact, you’d never know that ease dinner rolls are eggless and dairy free. Trust me, my entire family absolutely loved them and now requests them for our holiday gatherings.

Actually, since these vegan dinner rolls don’t call for eggs, they’re actually even easier than an easy classic dinner roll recipe. Seriously, we’re using only 5 simple plant based ingredients that you probably already have in your cupboard, whether you’re vegan or not.

These vegan buns are perfect straight out of the oven with a smear of vegan butter and/or fruit jam or a delicious herbed spread. The perfect side dish for any dinner party!

Ingredients

These vegan dinner rolls are incredibly simple in ingredients. In fact, you only need 5 simple ingredients:

Dairy-free milk: You can use your favorite: mine is oat milk. Other . You can also use almond milk, soy milk, or coconut milk. Or you can make your own oat milk.
Activated yeast: you can use activated yeast or rapid rise yeast here, but the directions down in the recipe care are for activated yeast. Rapid rise will speed up the process. I go over this more in depth in the below sections.
Flour: I used all-purpose flour here, and these vegan dinner rolls came out amazing. No bread flour, nor any specialty flour. You can use bread flour, but please know that if all purpose flour is all you have, these vegan rolls will still be amazingly fluffy, light and tender.
Vegan butter: for these rolls, you’ll need to use room temperature vegan butter. It shouldn’t be cold to the touch when going into your dinner roll dough. You can use coconut oil if you’d like, but the best results will be from vegan butter. I recommend the unsalted Miyoko’s vegan butter, then adding our sea salt after we’ve started the dough, as sometimes salt inhibits the rise of the dough if you use too much.
Maple syrup: dinner rolls are notorious for just a slight hint of sweetness, so we’re using a touch of maple syrup to really bring out the flavor.
Sea salt: Just a pinch to round out the flavor!

How to make vegan dinner rolls

You’ll be shocked at how easy these vegan dinner rolls are to make. The full recipe instructions, along with ingredient measurements, are found down below in the recipe card. However, let’s go over the basics here!

You can make these easy dinner rolls in either a stand mixer or by hand. I’ve made my bread by hand for years, and only recently got a stand mixer. Sometimes, I still make my bread by hand, and I’ve tested these vegan dinner rolls by hand. They work wonderfully.

Here’s an overview of how we make these easy vegan dinner rolls:

Prep: It’s so important to first gather and weigh your ingredients. For the best and most perfectly fluffy dinner rolls, I recommend using a kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients. I find it’s easiest that I’ve gathered everything before even blooming the yeast. This helps to create a more stream-lined process!
Activated the yeast: Like other vegan bread recipes, this is a simple process of heating the dairy free milk to 110F and adding a bit of flour and yeast to the mixture. I go over tips to understand whether or not your yeast is activated in the recipe card below, so be sure to read the full instructions before beginning.
Make the dough: Again, you can use a stand mixer with a dough hook or mix by hand. You’ll combine the vegan butter and maple syrup with the yeast mixture, then add in the flour a little at a time until you get a shaggy dough. Knead the dough lightly then it’s time for the first rise!
First proof & shaping: Allow the dough to double in size in a greased bowl (I use olive oil). After the first dough rise, you’ll punch down the dough and divide the dough into 12-16 dinner rolls. I use a scale to get the most even measurements. On my scale, I measured the dinner rolls between 58-60 grams each for 16 dinner rolls. Then roll them into dinner roll balls on a floured surface, and place them in the baking dish for a second rise. Here’s a great tutorial on how to properly shape dinner rolls.
Second rise: While the dinner rolls are resting, you can preheat the oven. After the oven is preheated, lightly brush the dinner rolls with vegan butter and maple syrup (this creates an “egg wash” that’s similar to classic dinner rolls) and bake the rolls until golden brown on top.

vegan dinner rolls dough without the butter

vegan dinner rolls kneaded with vegan butter

You’ll yield the most fluffy, light, melt-in-your-mouth pull apart dinner rolls ever! Seriously, no one will know that these dinner rolls are vegan!

Can I prepare these dinner rolls ahead of time?

Yes, you can absolutely prepare these vegan buns ahead of time. Make the dough up until you’re about to bake them. Then cover the rolls and place them in the fridge for up to 1 day. When you’re ready to bake them, simply place the casserole dish into the oven and bake for the required time.

Dry active yeast vs. Instant yeast

I have written the recipe using dry active yeast. For my gluten vegan bread recipes, I always use dry active yeast (sometimes instant yeast if it’s all I have on hand). For my gluten-free vegan bread recipes, I use instant yeast, as it’s much stronger in helping gluten-free bread to rise.

Can you use instant yeast to make these vegan dinner rolls? Absolutely you can. However, instead of activating the instant yeast, you’ll simply whisk it into the dry mixture. Still warm the milk, as warmth helps the yeast to grow, whether it’s a warm place or the warm ingredients.

Recipe tips & tricks to make these dinner rolls amazing

Activate your yeast properly:

This you’ll be able to tell from the very beginning. If you realize your yeast isn’t properly bloomed, then don’t proceed forward and start again. If it’s not properly bloomed from the get-go, then it won’t yield very good vegan dinner rolls. Here is a great article on how to check if your yeast is properly activated.

Basically, you want to look for foam starting to form on the top of the dairy-free milk, and the mixture will give off a yeast-like smell (almost similar to beer!).

Use a thin dish towel for the first and second rises:

Did you know that too thick of a dish towel covering the bowl will actually prevent your dough from rising? I’ve learned this throughout the years of teaching myself how to bake bread, and talk about it at length in my vegan brioche bread recipe. Yeast actually needs a bit of oxygen to get the aerobic reaction moving that will convert the carbohydrates into carbon dioxide and thus create a rise in our doughs.

Too thick of a dish towel, and you’ll cut your dough off from vital oxygen that it needs to rise. The towel in general is actually just to create a warm environment for the bread while still allowing oxygen to flow through.

Want vegan dinner rolls that are even more flavorful?

Then I highly recommend making my garlic and herb vegan dinner rolls! They’re full of fresh rosemary, thyme, and garlic. Or you can use your own favorite herbs! The perfect dinner rolls for vegan Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas Eve!

Gather all of your ingredients and properly measure them before beginning:

It’s imperative that you’re measuring and weighing out your ingredients prior to beginning. This will save you so much time while making the dinner bread dough, and it will also make sure that you’re not making any mistakes in weighing too much or too little of one ingredient.

For the best results, I recommend using a scale to weigh and measure the ingredients. However, if you spoon and level the flour into cups, you will come very close to accurate.

Dough isn’t rising? Here are some tips:

If your dough isn’t rising, but you’re certain that the yeast is properly activated, here are a few suggestions to get that bread moving:

Dampen your dish towel in warm water and place the bowl back into a warm area. Sometimes our dough needs a bit more moisture to get going. Dampening a clean dish towel that’s thin can help with this.
If your oven doesn’t have a bread proof setting and it’s the middle of winter: preheat your oven to 100F or even 150F then turn the oven off. Turn on the oven light, and place the bowl in the oven. This will help keep the warm air in the oven, while also not baking the bread.
Give the dough more time: if it’s in the winter, sometimes my dough takes as long as an hour and 45 minutes to fully rise. In the summer, I can put it outside in a safe area, and it will double in 35-45 minutes. Our environment and the time during the year that we’re making these dinner rolls is such a big factor in the rise time of the bread.

These vegan dinner rolls are absolutely perfect for any holiday celebration, such as Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays, dinner parties, and more. They’re absolutely perfect with a smear of vegan butter and berry jam, or any delicious savory spread you have!

If you make them, be sure to leave a comment down below, as well as a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others may find this recipe!

As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there!

Happy dinner roll making!

Watch how to make vegan dinner rolls:

Please note: the recipe in the recipe card varies slightly from the recipe in the video. However, the method is fairly equal. Please follow the recipe in the recipe card for the best results.

Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!

If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!