Roasted Sunflower Honey Butter

A few years ago, I spent a somewhat awkward year living in Dearborn, Michigan while attending university there. I loved attending classes, seeing the diversity, bustling through the city, and going on impromptu adventures to Detroit. This doesn't sound awkward in the least, but my failing health due to undiagnosed gluten issues complicated everyday activities to the max.

Life in Dearborn became amazing almost overnight after I was finally diagnosed and began my gluten-free journey. One of the first things I learned to love during this time was Sunflower Seed Butter. Granted, I was purchasing it pre-made back then due to being a time starved student. But that didn't remove any of the tasty magical quality of it for me. I remember staring out the kitchen window and childishly dipping my silver spoon time and time again into the sweet seed butter; something I used to do with peanut butter back in my early youth.

Nowadays, I opt for making my own Sunflower Seed buttter for several reasons. I find that many kinds of these butters are produced on shared equipment with soy. After contacting many of these companies, I've been advised that they can't rule out the potential for cross contamination--red flag! Another reason is I love to control how much salt and sugar goes into the butter myself. I am a food purest, and I think most foods contain enough natural taste and sweetness to ward off the addition of processed sugars. While I added honey to my homemade version, it was only a slight drizzle for taste and complemented the warm roasted flavor of the sunflower seeds. To me, food tastes better when I put in the extra effort to make it myself.

Roasted Sunflower Honey Butter

(Naturally free of Gluten, Soy, Peanuts, Dairy, Processed Sugar, & Legumes)

• 2 cups Raw Sunflower Seeds
• 4-5 tablespoons Virgin Coconut Oil (I use Artisana brand)
• 1 tsp Salt, or to taste
• 1/2 tsp  Vanilla bean paste or Pure Vanilla Extract (McCormick brand is gluten free)
• A drizzle of Raw Local Honey (to taste, more or less)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread raw sunflower seeds evenly over a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes. Toss them around about halfway through to ensure even roasting.

Place the roasted seeds in a food processor with the salt, vanilla bean paste (scraped from the inside of a vanilla bean) or vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of coconut oil. Process the mixture for about a minute, then continue to add the rest of the coconut oil while the processor is running. Adding more or less oil to reach the desired consistency might be needed. Add in the drizzle of honey last. Scrape down the sides of the processor a few times to make sure all the seeds are ground down to a creamy butter.

Enjoy with a childish air, and a silver spoon.

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