Homemade Sunbutter Recipe

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What Is Sunbutter?

If you’ve got kids in school, you’ve probably heard of sunflower seed butter, a.k.a. sunbutter! It’s a safe, and yummy, alternative to peanut butter for those who have peanut allergies. With peanut and treenut allergies being so prevalent, many schools prefer or even require parents to avoid sending peanut butter to school and instead, use sunbutter.

Sunbutter is like any other nut or seed butter that is made by processing the nuts or seeds until smooth. Some brands and homemade recipes have an added sweetener, but that is optional. Sunbutter also is a good source of protein, making it a great substitute for peanut butter.

Usually, when I decide to go the DIY/homemade route for a staple in our home, it’s because of toxins or added preservatives that store-bought versions so often contain. Most store-bought sunbutter, however, contains only sunflower seeds, salt, and sugar.

So why would you make your own sunbutter?

There are 2 reasons I decided to try homemade sunbutter.

#1 I don’t like that I can only find sunbutter in plastic jars.

#2 I pay nearly $7 per jar of sunbutter at the store! That adds up quick!

Since sunbutter from the store lists only three ingredients, I figured it was worth a try to make it myself.

And as it turns out, homemade sunbutter is as easy to make as I guessed. I do not have a lot of extra time on my hands, so if I think it’s easy enough, it probably is. Just sayin’.

All you need for this sunbutter recipe is roasted and salted hulled sunflower seeds, sugar (or your preferred alternative sweetener), and a food processor. That is ALL!

What Kind of Sunflower Seeds to Use for Sunbutter

For homemade sunbutter, you need some hulled sunflower seeds. I buy mine in the bulk section of Sprouts, my local natural food market.

If you’ve been googling how to make your own sunbutter, you’ve probably seen some recipes say that you should use raw, hulled sunflower seeds, roast them in the oven, and then add salt to the recipe. The first time I made sunbutter, I did it that way, and while it worked fine, the whole process was just a bit too time-consuming for me.

So I decided to just try using already salted and roasted hulled sunflower seeds. This way was much simpler since you can skip the roasting step and you don’t have to add salt to the recipe. In fact, I found the resulting sunbutter to be much creamier than when I used the raw seeds. Easier, quicker, creamier…that’s the method I have stuck with and that I am sharing here in this post.

Is Homemade Sunbutter Cheaper Than Store Bought?

When I buy sunflower seed butter at the store, I typically pay between $6 and $7 for one plastic jar. 2 1/2 cups of sunflower seeds purchased in the bulk section of my local natural food store costs me less than $3.00! If you happen to go through a lot of the stuff like my household does, this is a really easy way to save a boatload of money!

Homemade Sunflower Seed Butter is Zero Waste!

A jar of store-bought sunflower seed butter, while recyclable, is a pain to recycle because of how sticky and oily sunbutter is. It takes some elbow grease to get the residual off so that it can even be recycled! Plus, recycling is really the last “R” I want to resort to.

Instead, by buying your own hulled seeds in bulk and reusing a glass jar for your homemade sunbutter, you can create a zero-waste kitchen staple! Nice!

How To Make Your Own Sunflower Seed Butter

Ingredients & Tools

• roasted & salted hulled sunflower seeds
• sugar, agave syrup, or honey
• food processor

First, you pour about 2 1/2 cups of roasted, salted hulled sunflower seeds into your food processor. Pulse a few times and then turn that baby on and let it go. Below is the process broken down by time. Of course, all food processors will be a little different, but this is how it goes with my Cuisinart. I process mine for a total of 10 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides a couple times.

The science nerd in me recorded my observations listed by time.

Running Time (minutes)	Notes
1 :00	getting clumpy and sticking around the bottom of bowl
2:00	some has formed a ball; more is sticking to the sides
2:30	beginning to look creamier & smoother
3:00	mostly smooth; some larger pieces still
5:00	smooth & creamy; this is when I took the photo below. Add your sugar/sweetener now
10:00	sunbutter is completely smooth and ready to go in a jar!

Do your kids go through a ton of sunbutter like mine do?! If so, you should definitely try making your own!