Easy Homemade Pumpkin Seed Butter

Homemade Pumpkin Seed Butter is literally one of my favorite foods. It's a fantastic nut-free spread with deep, rich flavor, is surprisingly loaded of nutrition and it's a breeze to make.

It's a super flexible recipe that works wonderfully in pretty much any recipe that calls for nut butter and you can customize it with many tasty variations. Let's dig in to everything good about PSB. I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do.

Pumpkin seed butter has a deep rich flavor with a nutritional profile that's different than many nuts and seeds so it's a great addition to your diet. And if you're watching your oxalate intake, it's basically one of the only nuts or seeds you can eat on the low oxalate diet.

Unfortunately, it's also crazy expensive. I've seen it in stores for more than $2 per ounce!

That's one great reason why you need this DIY Pumpkin Seed Butter recipe. It's easy to make at home with a good high speed blender, and the homemade version definitely tastes way better than store-bought.

Pumpkin Seed Nutritional Information

Pumpkin seeds are very high in zinc, so they provide a nice balance to the other nut and seed butters, which tend to be high in copper. Combining pumpkin seed butter with other nut or seed butters in recipes will help to create a better copper-zinc balance.

Pumpkin seeds are also really high in iron.

Pumpkin seeds are also allergy-friendly since they're naturally gluten-free, nut-free, egg-free, and soy-free.

Nutritionally, the darker seeds are considered better, but you might prefer lighter seeds like these for the taste.

Regardless, it's best to soak and dry your nuts and seeds for the best flavor and nutrition by reducing antinutrients. Most jarred pumpkin seed butter is referred to as “sprouted”, which means that the company has soaked and dried their seeds.

Should You Soak, Sprout, or Roast the Seeds?

When making any seed or nut butter, it's best to either soak and dry your seeds or nuts or roast them. I prefer to soak and dry my seeds and nuts to keep them raw and make them lighter tasting. There is some concern that roasting can damage the polyunsaturated fats in nuts and seeds, leading to free radicals.

Another benefit of sprouting vs. roasting is that you'll already have some salt on the seeds from the soaking process, so there's no need to add more.

To make the butter, put the soaked or roasted seeds in a food processor or blender and pulse or blend until you get your desired consistency. You may have to scrape the sides of your blender or processor a few times.

Which Is Better for Making Pumpkin Seed Butter, a Blender or Food Processor?

A good pumpkin seed butter starts with a either a good food processor or blender.

Blender Tips

I love my Vitamix.

Early on in our marriage, I resisted investing in a Vitamix since it cost a lot and we weren't making a lot of money. However, it's been one of the BEST things I ever bought for our whole food kitchen.

You can grind up to 6 cups of seeds at a time in the Vitamix, plus there are so many other great uses for this machine.

Making seed butter in a high speed blender is super fast and easy. Use the tamper (or other) tool to guide the seeds into the blades, resting if needed.

Food Processor Tips

However, a good food processor like this one works great as well.

There are all kinds of instructions on the internet about how long to process the seeds for in a food processor. It really depends on the size of the food processor, how many seeds you are processing, and the power of the motor.

Whatever processor you use, make sure to pause the processing several times to let the motor rest.

Recipe Tips

• Sweetener Tips: Add a little bit of your sweetener of choice if you want but it's not really necessary. Anything will work: coconut sugar, honey, maple syrup, a little stevia extract or monk/erythritol blend.
• Smoothness: You can make your seed butter to your liking, but if your pumpkin seed butter is too dry, you can add a little oil (light olive oil or avocado oil) to make it smoother: up to 2 tablespoons or so for each 4 cups of seeds.
• Raw vs Not Raw: Any high-speed blender makes seed butter pretty hot, so really it can't be raw. If you want a truly raw butter, the food processor is the way to go making sure to take breaks to prevent overheating.
• Overheat Warning: Do not overheat your food processor or blender. It can take up to ten minutes to get a properly blended seed butter in a food processor, so take breaks as needed for the machine to cool down.
• Color Variations: As mentioned, I am using heirloom seeds now and my pumpkin seed butter is quite dark. The images in this post show that different seeds yield different colors of seed butter, and how you process them and whether you roast them or not will affect the color as well.
• Time and Money Saving Cleaning Tip: After making your pumpkin seed butter in a high-speed blender, you can make dairy-free milk in it to save on clean up time. Just add the nut, seed, or grain to the blender, add some water, and make the milk. Your dairy-free milk will have a greenish hue, but your blender will be mostly clean!

Variations

Try adding the following to your pumpkin seed butter for more ways to enjoy it.

• vanilla and some sweetener for a nice added touch.
• cocoa, cacao, or carob plus some sweetener. Add more for a deeper chocolatey taste.
• cinnamon plus sweetener for some warm spice profile.
• coconut shreds added before blending bring coconut flavor to the seed butter.
• flax and/or chia seeds for added crunch.

Add a splash of vanilla, some sweetener, and cinnamon. How about cocoa or some shredded coconut? Chocolate syrup? Flax or chia seeds. The possibilities are endless.

Ways to Serve

• I keep containers of Pumpkin Seed Butter, DIY Almond Butter, and Sunflower Seed Butter on hand at all times for snacking and no-bake goodies. It makes for at-the-ready snacks and like Homemade Protein Bars, Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Bites, and Almond Joy Bars in no time.
• Pumpkin Seed Butter tastes great on toast (it's great on this Focaccia Flax Bread), crackers, or as a spread for apples, pears, or bananas.
• You can also spread pumpkin seed butter on celery, use it instead of peanut butter in a PB&J, or add a couple of tablespoons to your smoothies.
• Stir it into oatmeal or other hot cereals like Cream of Rice.
• Substitute pumpkin seed butter for almond butter for a fun twist on these Sugar-free Almond Butter Cups or stir it into pesto.
• One of my favorite ways to use this is to mix some PSB with some low-carb raw honey, but coconut sugar or low-carb sweetener taste great too.

How to Store

You should be able to store the homemade seed butter at room temperature for up to 2 weeks, in the fridge for up to 2 months, and you can even freeze it for quite a while if you use freezer containers.

You can even store it on the shelf for a few weeks, if desired.

Where to Buy Pumpkin Seeds

Of course, if you're really into being a heavy duty DIYer, you can buy a pumpkin, scoop out the seeds (also known as pepitas), roast them, shell them and make your pumpkin seed butter from pumpkin seeds you've harvested yourself. There is a certain satisfaction in that process, I'm sure, but it's a LOT of work.

I personally buy my seeds (in bulk to save money) and skip the fuss.

Heirloom pepitas can be almost black in color! They make a curiously dark color of pumpkin seed butter with a deeper flavor. You can get these same Stony Brook Heirloom Pumpkin Seeds on their site or on Amazon.

Here is a bit more information about both their organic and IPM (integrated pest management) grown seeds, in addition to links where you can purchase them.

However you choose to use “PSB”, I hope you love it like I do and that there's none of the “hate” part in your house!