Before you decide to make this cardamom spice sunbutter, here’s a few words of caution: do not attempt if you are not patient! No joke! This was my first time making any sort of homemade sunbutter and it takes WAY longer than making nut butter. Holy cow, it was a good 30 minutes of back and forth blending and scraping the sides down. It might have even been longer! I couldn’t believe it, because nut butters come together in a flash, but not sunflower seed butter.
With that said, be sure to allow yourself enough time and don’t expect it to come together in a pinch. In the end, it’s worth it because you have homemade sunbutter and saved money by making it yourself. Plus, it’s fun to play with flavor varieties, as I did here.
Also, if you don’t care for cardamom, feel free to omit it.
Enjoy!
Cardamom Spice Sunbutter
Ingredients:
- 2 cups raw sunflower seeds
- 1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- 4 pitted medjool dates, or more if desired for extra sweetness
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cardamom
- Sea salt to taste
- 1-2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
Directions:
- In a food processor, combine the sunflower seeds, coconut and dates. Blend until well ground into flour. Scrape down sides and continue to process.
- Add the vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom and sea salt and continue to process, scraping the sides down as needed. Keep processing and scraping – back and forth, back and forth.
- Then, add the coconut oil and continue to process. Continue to blend and scrape. Taste and adjust spices and sweetness as desired.
- Once desired consistency is reached, pour into jars and store in the refrigerator. Before using, remove from fridge and let sit on the counter for a bit to soften and come closer to room temperature. It firms up quite a bit when cold.
*Note: You can make your sunbutter to be thick like a paste or creamy and runny, which takes more blending. Just watch out, so you don’t overheat your food processor! It takes A LOT of time.
Oh my gosh. This looks so AWESOME! Even with a touch of dried orange peel…ooooohhh. I’ve made cardamom spiced biscotti with almond flour before, using orange peel. It was delicious. Can you imagine the two together????????
Whoa, that sounds fabulous! This is one of the reasons why I appreciate you…so creative and intuitive when it comes to flavor pairings! I need to come to more of your food classes 😉
Creative, intuitive, and downright CRAZY!!! 🙂
Yeah!! A stellar combo, if you ask me!
That looks great! My food processor actually overheated and exploded a few weeks ago making date bars. ARG. Still waiting on buying a new one, lots of expenses thanks to surgery!
Ha, yeah, I did that with my old mini food processor! I made it work WAY too hard and pushed my luck a bit too far. It’s safer now that I have a big one, but blending for that long still takes its toll.
Hope you’re recovering well and sorry to hear about those darn medical expenses. Surgery is not cheap!
This looks and sounds amazing! I don’t eat a lot of seeds, but am thinking I might have to make this one 🙂 It would be soooooooo good on paleo pancakes or waffles! Any idea how long it will keep? And do you store it in a pantry or refrigerate? And I’m with Craving4More-orange is always one of my favorite added flavors!!!
I mention how to store it in the directions (see #4) 😉 If you’re going to use it up pretty quickly though, it’s probably fine to store in the cupboard. It’ll store in the fridge for a while, just like nut butter, but obviously it’s much more perishable if unrefrigerated. If you don’t keep it cold, I’d use it within 5-7 days.
I don’t eat many seeds other, but do consume occasional sunflower seed butter instead of nut butter. It’s so good and yes, delish on grain-free pancakes!