Easy Yeast Rolls for Beginners (Vegan)

Made with just a few simple ingredients, these vegan dinner rolls are fabulous and golden brown. You're going to love this easy bread recipe because it's made from scratch and simple.

I love making bread from scratch and dinner rolls are a pretty big hit around here whenever I whip up a fresh batch. These are the BEST vegan dinner rolls because they're tall, fluffy, soft, and slightly chewy. Everything you could want in a perfect dinner roll.

Also, if you're not vegan and don't mind some butter spread on your fresh baked rolls, check out my Copycat Texas Roadhouse Butter recipe, it pairs wonderfully with these!

Why This Recipe Works

1. They're allergen friendly. What makes them better is that because they're vegan yeast rolls, this means by default that they are dairy free and eggless dinner rolls too. Perfect for those with allergies or simply those who don't want to run to the store for another dozen eggs.
2. They taste like regular dinner rolls. Serve these tasty vegan rolls to friends and family, and I bet no one will notice the few missing ingredients either. My family hasn't noticed yet. 😉
3. We only need 5 ingredients! Flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and oil. If you count water as an added ingredient, then we actually need 6 ingredients.

Jump to:

• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🍽 Equipment Needed
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🍴 Recipe Tips
• 💭 FAQs
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

🥘 Ingredients

Flour- You will need all-purpose flour or bread flour for the gluten structure and base in this recipe. Bread flour will give it a softer texture, stronger crumb, and a slightly better flavor as well, but all purpose flour works just fine.

Yeast- Use some yeast to get the dough to expand and rise. I like to use active dry yeast, but instant will work fine.

Salt- This is a natural flavor enhancer.

Water- Use warm water that is about 110F to activate the yeast. If your water is too cold, the yeast won't activate and if it is too hot, it will kill the yeast.

Vegetable oil- You will need some oils to give the bread some necessary fats.

Sugar- Add in some granulated sugar to feed the yeast.

For the exact amounts needed, please see the recipe card below.

🍽 Equipment Needed

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• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Spoons
• Mixing Bowl
• 8x8 Baking Dish

🔪 Instructions

Check out how to make vegan dinner rolls with these simple step-by-step instructions:

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, yeast, and salt.

Make a well in the center and add to it the sugar, oil, and water.

Stir to combine.

Knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Feed it more flour as needed to get it no longer sticky. You will need about 1 additional cup of flour but this amount will vary.

Place in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour in a warm place.

Punch down and divide into 9 equal sized rolls. Shape them out into smooth topped balls and place them into a greased 8x8 or 9x9 square baking dish.

Cover again and let rise until doubled in size. About another hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and bake your dinner rolls for 15 minutes or until tops are lightly golden.

Brush top with vegan butter spread or olive oil immediately after removing from the oven for that nice golden color.

🍴 Recipe Tips

Because we make this vegan dinner rolls recipe with active dry yeast you should make sure that a few things happen to make this recipe go more smoothly.

1. Do not use old or expired yeast. We will not be proofing the yeast in this recipe in the traditional way (letting it bloom in water) so if you have any reservations about your yeast being good or old, buy a new packet with a far-out expiration date just to be safe.
2. Do not use too hot or too cold of water. The ideal temperature is 110 degrees F which is a roughly the warmth used when washing your hands. Any warmer and you will kill the yeast before it ever got a chance to work and any colder and the yeast won't proof the dough correctly and you may have dense bread. A food thermometer is great for checking the temp when in doubt.

While the recipe card states that it may take an hour for the dough to proof and double in size please keep in mind that this is a rough estimate and it can truly vary depending on many different things. My dough has often doubled in size in about 30 minutes thanks to Florida summer weather.

Want to use a bread maker? See the recipe card below for the vegan dinner roll bread machine recipe.

🍞 How to Knead Bread Dough

Kneading your dough with an electric mixer using dough hooks is simple and easy, but my favorite method is to do it by hand because you're far less likely to overwork the dough when doing it this way.

Knead the dough by hand by placing it onto a floured surface and using two hands to roll it out into an oval, pull back half, so it's sandwiched together, and repeat.

Smoosh the dough as you roll it back out into an oval, and bring it back. Every few times, rotate the dough about 90 degrees so that you can get all of the dough worked into the process.

When the dough is smooth and elastic, it's finished. This takes about 10 minutes by hand, faster if you're quick, but there are a few good ways to tell when you are finished.

1. The dough should not tear easily. This means that if you stretch a chunk of the dough between your fingers, it doesn't tear apart like paper and creates jagged edges.
2. The dough should be elastic. You should be able to poke the ball of kneaded dough with your finger and watch the dough quickly try to bounce back and fill in the hole you made.

🥖 How Long to Proof Dough

The time needed to proof dough truly varies from person to person. It depends upon the weather, climate, wind drafts, temperature of ingredients, age of the yeast, and more.

On average, it can take anywhere between 1 hour to 3 hours for the dough to proof properly, but some people can see it happen in as little as 30 minutes.

The goal is not waiting to a specific time but instead looking for a specific response from the dough. We want the dough to be doubled in size, and whether that takes one hour or more, we shouldn't jump straight into the next step before completing this one.

You should expect that it will take about 1 hour for your dough to double in size and proof, but here are some tips for getting it there.

• Cover the bowl of dough with greased plastic wrap. This helps to prevent the dough from drying out and helps to trap the heat. The cooking spray on the plastic wrap helps to prevent it from sticking to the dough.
• Store it in a warm location. I like to preheat my oven to 200 degrees F for 2 minutes and then turn it off. Then I place the bowl in the oven and let it rise until doubled.

Other locations to place your dough include:

• Inside your closed microwave
• Inside a closed oven with just the oven light turned on
• On a hot and sunny day, your kitchen's countertop can work well too

💭 FAQs

More great vegan recipes to try

• Vegan Hamburger Buns
• Spiced Vegan Apple Bundt Cake
• Easy One Bowl Vegan Banana Bread with Applesauce
• Simple Dairy Free White Bread

📖 Recipe