Place your sunflower seeds on a parchment lined baking sheet and put in the oven for about 10 minutes at 300. You want to watch them closely because you don’t want them to burn! Just toasted enough to let the oils release to give this a nice toasty flavour. You can, of course, omit this step if you’re lazy and or don’t want a roasted flavour
Place the sunflower seeds ina high speed blender or food processer, and process until a thick paste forms. You may need to scrape the sides down periodically. Stop before a full-on buttery consistency has formed, and add in your spices. Then your maple syrup and coconut oil 1 tbsp at a time.
I recommend doing this one tbsp at a time so you can guage the sweetness, and consistency that you want. I personally love a runny nut butter, so I added quite a bit of coconut oil.
Taste the spices and adjust to your desired liking as well. Adding more cinnamon to balance vata and kapha, less to pacify pitta, and perhaps more cardamom from a pitta perspective.
This recipe will require that you likely scrape down the blender or food processor several times. If you’re using a vitamix (like I did) you’ll want to use a tamper as well.
Recipe Notes
Note: you need to use a minimum of 2 cups of sunflower seeds or else they won’t grind down to a butter consistency.