Sew Creative’s Nut Free Sunflower Seed Butter Recipe

When I was a kid I think I ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every single day for my school lunch. Now that Bean has started kindergarten, The Hubs and I are struggling trying to figure out what to put in our picky eater’s lunch box. Our girl doesn’t like lunch meat and her school is a nut free zone. Bye, bye peanut butter! What’s a mom to do? Why create a Nut Free Sunflower Seed Butter Recipe of course!

Last week when I went to Bean’s classroom I confirmed with the teacher that sunflower seeds would be ok for a “butter” since they are seeds, not nuts. I headed off to Costco expecting to find a variety of nut free butters but all they had was peanut butter and almond butter, so I was left to make my own.

It is DELICIOUS! Lick the container out good. I know that you will love it. So take 10 minutes, whip up a batch and let me know what you think.

Nut Free Sunflower Seed Butter Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups of sunflower seeds
• 8 tablespoons of olive oil (or your favorite oil)
• 4 tablespoons of maple syrup (or your choice of sweetener)

Directions:

1. Pour 2 cups of sunflower seeds into a frying pan set on medium heat. Lightly toast your sunflower seeds until they are warm, fragrant and releasing some of their oil. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and toss, coating the sunflower seeds evenly.

2. Transfer the sunflower seeds to the bowl of your food processor. Start grinding your sunflower seeds, stopping on occasion to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Total grinding time will be about 10 minutes.

3. Grind, grind and grind some more. When your sunflower seed mixture gets to about this consistency add your sweetener. I put in 4 tablespoons of maple syrup. You can add more or less sweetener depending on how sweet you like your butter. Continue grinding.

4. Your ground nuts will eventually get very fine and when you press down on it with a spoon it will almost look like a dough like in the photo above. At this point, and at this point only do you want to start adding your oil. Do not add your oil when you still have chunky seeds or you will not get a smooth texture.

5. Slowly start drizzling oil into the feed tube of your food processor while you continue to grind the seeds. Add oil until you get the desired consistency for your sunflower seed butter. I added 7 tablespoons of oil.

6. Transfer to a mason jar or container, cover and store in the fridge. Serve the same way that you would serve peanut butter- On toast, bagels, sandwiches, with apples or bananas or just straight off a spoon. 😉

I would love to hear what you think of my Nut Free Sunflower Seed Recipe. For other great recipe ideas subscribe via email to Sew Creative, follow us on twitter, visit us on Pinterest and visit our Food and Recipe section.

Tell me… Are your kids picky eaters? What kinds of things do you pack in their lunches? Are they peanut butter and jelly fans? Is your work or your kid’s school a nut free environments?

As usual if you try our recipe we’d love to hear from you with your thoughts!