Homemade Sunflower Butter Recipe

All 3 of my kids are serious peanut butter lovers. Ryan dips apples in peanut butter, Parker loves pretzels filled with peanut butter, and Jack has a PB&J nearly every day. When they started school and we were told that peanut butter was not allowed because of allergies, I panicked. What would I send for lunches?!?! We’ve come up with some creative options over the years, but all three of them have really missed those peanut butter favorites.

There are a lot of different substitutes we can use – almond butter, cashew butter, to name a few. But each one is substantially more expensive than peanut butter. The substitute that the kids and I both agree tastes the closest to peanut butter is sunflower, or sun, butter. I found plain, unroasted sunflower seeds in the bulk section at our local market and tried my hand at making my own sun butter. The difference in cost of plain sunflower seeds and roasted sunflower seeds is minimal, but the roasted sunflower seeds had twice as much fat as the plain. I’m guessing because they were roasted in canola oil. Also, I’ve read in several recipes that roasted the seeds in the oven, as opposed to toasting them in the oven, dries out the seeds so you end up having to add a lot of extra oil.

Heat a pan for a few minutes then add your seeds, I usually use about 3 cups. I like to use my cast iron pan, it makes the toasted flavor stronger.

As the seeds toast you can start to smell them and them crackle. Stir every 15-20 seconds for even toasting.

Toast for 5-7 minutes depending on how many you have. Stop when most of the seeds are a tan or brown color, no longer grey.

Let the seeds cool a bit and then add them to your food processor. I used my Nutri Ninja Nutri Bowl DUO, which is my new favorite kitchen appliance! I use it for smoothies, to make salsa, and more.

Begin processing the seeds. Once they resemble a fine powder, you may want to add your oil but don’t! Keep processing until the seeds, they will release their own oils and will eventually start to become creamy – about 5 minutes. Once the mixture looks creamy, and almost shiny you can add your additional ingredients.

I added 1 Tbsp of honey and 1/4 tsp of salt, along with olive oil. The amount of oil depends on how creamy you like your butter. I would guess I added about 1/4 cup.

You can use the sun butter just as you would peanut butter. We dip apples in it and make sun butter and jelly sandwiches. I’m going to try to make sun butter cookies next, doesn’t that sound yummy?

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