Easy Homemade Pumpkin Seed Butter

Homemade pumpkin seed butter is literally one of my favorite foods. It’s creamy, rich, and easy to make at home.

I usually add a little sweetener to balance the naturally earthy flavor, and once you do, it’s hard to stop eating it. Use it as a spread, in recipes, or like I often do, eat it right off the spoon.

Pumpkin seed butter has 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.

Its flavor is naturally earthy, however, so I like to add a little sweetener to balance it. You can absolutely leave it unsweetened if you prefer.

One problem with store-bought pumpkin seed butter is that it's crazy expensive. I've seen it in stores for more than $2 per ounce!

Enter this DIY Pumpkin Seed Butter recipe. It's so easy to make at home with a good high speed blender or a food processor, 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 contrast to 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: Any sweetener will work: coconut sugar, honey, maple syrup, a little stevia extract or monk/erythritol blend or even xylitol or allulose (don't use xylitol if you have dogs in the house). If using stevia, start with a very small amount (about 1/32 teaspoon) and adjust to taste. Brands vary in strength.
• Smoothness: You can make your seed butter as smooth and creamy or as crunchy as you like If it's 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: I've used both regular and heirloom pumpkin seeds for this pumpkin seed butter. The color of your butter will vary based on the type of seed and whether you roast them first or not, and if you use coconut sugar that will affect the color some 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 (like coconut 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. Add more for a deeper chocolatey taste.
• cinnamon for a warm spiced flavor.
• coconut shreds.
• flax, chia seeds, and or carob nibs or 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.

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

If you're really into DIY, you can start from scratch—scooping seeds from a pumpkin, roasting, shelling, and processing them yourself.

It’s definitely satisfying… but also a lot of work.

I personally prefer to buy pumpkin seeds in bulk and keep things simple—but not all pumpkin seeds are the same.

Most pumpkin seeds sold in stores (even organic ones) are:

• imported
• mechanically dehulled
• and processed in bulk

For better flavor and quality, I like using U.S.-grown heirloom pumpkin seeds from a small farm in New York. These are naturally hull-less (so they don’t require mechanical processing) and are therefore handled more carefully than typical bulk seeds.

They’re sometimes darker—almost black—and make a richer, deeper-flavored pumpkin seed butter.

You can find these Stony Brook heirloom pumpkin seeds on their site or occasionally on Amazon (availability varies).

If those aren’t available, standard pepitas will still work—you’ll just get have a lighter color and milder flavor.

Note that the pumpkin seed butter in these images was made from standard pepitas.

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!