Ever since my trip to Trader Joe’s, I’ve had something on my mind.  It involves this:

That’d be the makings for Sunflower Seed Butter!

Sunflower seed butter is just what you’d expect: ground up sunflower seeds that make a thick, buttery spread.  I’ve never tried sunflower seed butter before, and I’ve definitely never attempted to make my own nut butter, but after seeing sunflower butter turn up on several blogs I read, as well as lots of recipes for homemade nut butter, I decided to give it a go!  Although it requires a little babysitting, it’s actually really easy!

Honey Roasted Sunflower Seed Butter

1/2 c. roasted salted sunflower seeds

1/2 T. clover honey

2 tsp. vegetable oil

Pour the sunflower seeds into the bowl of your food processor.

Let ‘er rip!

After about a minute, you should have pretty fine crumbs.  Keep processing!

About 2 mintues in, you start to get a little paste forming.

Another minute or so later, you’ll have a rough nut butter going on.  It should be starting to stick to the sides of the processor, and you’ll have to scrape it down periodically to keep everything ‘a mixin’! 

With the processor running, add in the vegetable oil and give it another minute or so.  Hey!  It looks like real nut butter!

Honey time! 

Random fact:  did you know “Melissa” means “honeybee” in Greek? 

Whir it around for another minute or so and you’ve got Honey Roasted Sunflower Seed Butter!

This has that great natural peanut butter consistency–a little grainy from the little bits of ground up sunflower seeds, but smoothed out by the silky honey.  If you wanted it to be a little creamier (more on the path of commercial peanut butter), you could just add more oil. 

I can’t wait to have a HRSSB & J sandwich!