Toasted Sunflower Seed Butter

Sunflower seed butter is kind of like the food equivilent of a comic book superhero to those who can’t have nuts. It swoops in….. looking, acting, and pretty much tasting like an amazing nut butter in all of its delicious glory….but without a trace of nuts to be found in the batch. Is it so? Is it possible? Yes, yes it is friends. Here, I bring to you…… Toasted Sunflower Seed Butter.

Not to toot my own horn, but this stuff is the bee’s knees. For real. You won’t even miss nut butter once you get your hands on a batch of this stuff.

With nut allergies being so prevalent these days, many schools are not implementing nut-free policies on the food brought through their doors. Since PB&J sandwiches have been *the* go-to lunch box staple for, I don’t know, about 100 years….people started to freak out a bit as to what to put in school lunches. So, some brilliant person (not me) got the killer idea to make a butter out of something that wasn’t a nut. Sunflower seeds.

It looked like a nut butter. It acted like a nut butter. Heck, it even pretty much tasted like a nut butter. But it wasn’t a nut butter. It was sunflower seed butter. 

Sunflower seed butter is not a new thing. In fact, its been around for so long that there are whole companies dedicated to making JUST sunflower seed butter. Awesome, right? Um….kinda.

People often ask me for sunflower seed butter recommendations, it was a bit tricky finding a brand I felt good about suggesting. Too much added sugar in most of them had me cringing, yet I also understood people’s need for a nut-free spread option in everyday life.

So, I did what I do. I went back to the basics and I made my own! This Toasted Sunflower Seed Butter has a wonderful nutty aroma and flavor (but without the nuts) and has the smallest amount of natural sweetener and coconut oil added to keep it as healthy as possible. Its perfect for sandwiches, baking, dipping carrot sticks & apple slices into or whatever else your little heart can dream up. 

Eat it with ease and joy!

Makes about 1 1/4 cup of Toasted Sunflower Seed Butter

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups raw hulled sunflower seed
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
• 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup, or to taste (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine sunflower seeds and salt in a bowl. Stir a few times to combine.

2. Toast in a single layer in baking sheets for 10-15 minutes at 350F. You’ll know they are done when they start to turn a slight golden color and they have a nutty aroma. Allow the seeds to cool for about 15 minutes before processing.

3. Once cooled a bit, add toasted seeds to your food processor and run until they have a crumbly texture.

4. Scrape down the sides of the food processor and add the coconut oil and maple syrup/honey. Run again, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. 

5. After a few minutes, the crumbles will start to form a ball. The end is near, my friends! The ball will then break down into the butter.

6. Once the ball has broken down to reveal your lovely sunflower seed butter, you can stop there and have “chunky” style butter or scrape down the bowl again and keep running until your desired consistency as achieved. If the butter is too thick for your liking, add 1/4 tablespoon more of coconut oil at a time until your have the texture you like. DO NOT add water instead of oil, as it will cause the butter to seize up. 

7. Move your sunflower seed butter to an air tight container and store in the fridge. It will last for months and should be spreadable, even when chilled!

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