Peanut butter was a staple for me growing up – I loved it and have missed it a lot since out house went peanut free. Then I discovered Free Nut Butter, made by Eskal. It is an amazing substitute, made from roasted sunflower seeds.

Sadly there has been some difficulties with supply in Australia recently. It is back in stock in some places, but it is difficult to find and now costs between $11-$12 for a jar – eek!

We use it a lot in our house as the base for nut free satay, cookies, ice cream and just in sandwiches and on fruit etc. The new price was becoming quite prohibitive, so I decided to have a go at making my own, guesstimating the quantities and ingredients from the list on an old jar and was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked!

I have done this in my food processor, a borrowed Thermomix and my Bellini – The food processor wasn’t able to get a smooth butter, but worked well to give a crunchy spread.

• 550g sunflower seeds, dry roasted*

Optional additions:

• 1/2-1 tbsp coconut sugar or maple syrup (depending on your sweet tooth)
• 3/4 tsp flaked salt

Roast the seeds. I do this on a lined baking tray under the grill in my oven. Watch them very carefully. They only take a few minutes. Mix and turn the seeds and return them to the oven (a couple of times if necessary) so that they seeds are golden brown all over. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

Place seeds in machine and blitz on speed 10 for 20 secs.

Scrape down sides then add sugar and salt if you’re using them.

Blitz in speed 10 for about 40 secs, stopping once to scrape down sides.

Continue to blitz on speed 8 at 30 sec intervals until you get desired consistency. I did another 90 seconds this time.

This makes a large jar, about double the quantity of the jars in store.

*to add some variety to your butter, you can swap out 100g of the sunflower seeds for equal weight of other seeds you enjoy. I like 60g pumpkin seeds and 40g hemp seeds.

Store in an airtight jar for up to a month.

Enjoy 🙂