One thing that I cannot get enough of lately: sunflower seed butter. I love the Trader Joe's brand, but have also started making my own. I've been enjoying a spoonful of this unsweetened Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter with a bit of extra dark chocolate. It absolutely satisfies that sweet'n salty craving and constitutes a healthy dessert.

Sunflower seed butter is a great nut butter alternative. It can be used in place of nut butter and/or peanut butter in many recipes. Better yet, it's less expensive!

Benefits of Making Your Own Seed Butter

Making your own seed, nut, coconut or peanut butter is extremely easy. So, I urge you to try it yourself if you haven't. Literally, all you need is a good quality food processor (THIS is what I have), some nuts, seeds, dried coconut or peanuts and a little patience.

Some benefits to making butters at home vs. buying them in store include:

Homemade is often cheaper
It's fresh
Top quality ingredients - you have control over what you put in it
You can experiment with different flavor combinations

Ingredients in Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter

My recipe for Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter is only 2 ingredients and doesn't contain any added sugar or sweeteners. It is Paleo, Vegan and allergy friendly.

The only two ingredients:

raw sunflower seeds
salt

Now, the salt is optional, but highly recommended. Salt really brings out the flavor in this seed butter.

How to Make Roasted Sunflower Seed Butter

This simple recipe consists of roasting raw sunflower seeds, then adding them to a food processor and blending. After a few minutes of processing, you'll have a creamy, nut free, buttery spread.

To make sunflower seed butter, first preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Next, spread the raw sunflower seeds on a baking sheet. Bake them in the oven for 10 minutes.

Then, remove the roasted sunflower seeds and let them cool to room temperature.

After cooling, add them to your food processor, along with the salt, and blend until smooth. You'll need to stop to scrape the sides every so often and then continue blending.

Do I have to Roast the Sunflower Seeds?

You can make sunflower seed butter without roasting the sunflower seeds. However, baking them brings out a sweeter, buttery flavor.

Also, I recommend baking them yourself instead of buying roasted sunflower seeds because:

raw is cheaper
roasted sunflower seeds are often salted and baked in unhealthy oil

What to Eat with Sunflower Seed Butter

There are so many ways to enjoy sunflower seed butter. Pretty much any way you can eat almond or peanut butter you can eat this salty seed butter.

I love using it in baked goods as a nut-free option, spreading it on apples and rice cakes, adding it to smoothies or simply grabbing a spoonful straight from the jar.

Enjoy!