Homemade Sunbutter

I remember when I was a little girl in Elementary School, sitting at the allergy-free table all alone, and I would smell that strong scent of peanut butter as soon as one of my classmates, sitting at a table on the other side of the room, whipped out their fresh PB&J.

For the longest time, I would smell that scent and think it was worst smell in the universe. Something about it was just rancid, and I was glad that I was at a table far away from anyone eating something that beared the stench.

Maybe it was because I am allergic to peanuts, but for some reason, I just could not stand the smell of peanut butter. Now that I’m older and have been around it more, I don’t have the same disgust-reflex that I use to, although my allergy to peanuts still remains.

It’s unfortunate, because there are so many great recipes that involve peanut butter and ways to utilize it that I always would miss out on because of my allergy.

I have since found a great alternative to peanut butter, which is sunbutter! Unlike peanut butter, I LOVE sunbutter. I eat it by the spoonful sometimes, which is probably not great for me, but I do it anyways. I have been told by people who like peanut butter that sunbutter tastes almost identical to peanut butter, it’s just slightly more oily.

You can buy sunbutter in stores, for example Trader Joe’s has a great inexpensive brand (I like the unsweetened version), but I find that it tastes best and has the best consistency when it’s homemade. It’s also way cheaper to pay for a bag of sunflower seeds then it is to buy a jar of it.

Without further ado, here is my recipe for Homemade Sunbutter:

What You’ll Need

This is a 16 ounce bag of roasted and salted sunflower seed from Trader Joe’s for just $2.29. I haven’t found other brands that are as cheap and don’t have any cross-contamination allergen warnings. Whichever brand you choose though, the key is to get roasted and salted for the best flavor.

I’m using a Vitamix for my blender and it works fantastic, but it should be doable in other types of high-powered blenders, as long as you have some sort of a plunger to effectively grind it down.

Directions

Pour about 3/4 the bag of sunflower seeds into the blender.
Turn it on low, while stirring the seeds and pressing them down with the plunger.
Slowly crank the blender up to high.
Blend until most of the seeds are blended.

Once the seeds are mostly blended, add in the rest of the bag.
Continue to blend on high while pressing and stirring with the plunger.
1. You will hear a different noise that sounds like the seeds are being strongly blended and they will begin to turn in the blender without you stirring once you get a good suction on the blender with your plunger.

Continue to blend until the seeds are all effectively ground (about 3-5 minutes).

I personally like it when my sunbutter has some underground seeds in it, so I stop blending earlier, but if you prefer smooth sunbutter, then closer to 5 or 7 minutes is probably ideal.

And viola! It’s all set. Remove the fresh sunbutter into a wide-mouth container and store for when you’re ready to use it. Fingers work great for cleaning off any sunbutter you can’t reach with a spatula, consider it your reward for a job well done.

Enjoy!