Roasted Pumpkin Seed Butter is an allergen-free alternative to nut butters. Homemade pumpkin seed butter is so easy to make if you have a good blender. Use it as a nutty, creamy spread on Vegan Toast, substitute it for peanut butter in Peanut Butter Cookies, or blend it into a breakfast smoothie.
What You’ll Need
A few important notes on the ingredients in this Roasted Pumpkin Seed Butter recipe:
Pumpkin Seeds: Make sure to use hulled or shelled pumpkin seeds, meaning the outer shell has been removed. They should be an olive green colour. You can usually find them at the regular grocery store. But if not, check your local bulk food stores You can also buy them online. Compared to buying storebought pumpkin seed butter, it’s way cheaper to make at home no matter where you buy the seeds.
If you buy raw pumpkin seeds, you’ll have to roast them first. (Don’t worry, it’s easy; see the instructions below.) But you can also buy pre-roasted pumpkin seeds instead.
My favourite option is Bassé Organic Pumpkin Seeds from Costco, because they are already shelled, roasted, and salted! It saves me a lot of time because all I need to do is pour the seeds straight from the bag into the blender. Flavourful roasted pumpkin seed butter in literally less than five minutes.
Did you know: Pumpkin seeds are also called pepita, but technically, not all pumpkin seeds are pepitas. Pepitas are specifically the seeds from oilseed pumpkins, which have no hulls. One popular oilseed pumpkin variety is the Styrian pumpkin. Since they have no shell, pepitas are a great candidate for making pumpkin seed butter.
Sugar and Salt: Optional to enhance the flavour. They make it taste more full-bodied and help bring out the natural flavours of the pumpkin seeds. But I have to say, pure pumpkin seed butter already tastes pretty damn good. So feel free to omit sugar and salt if you want to use whole foods only.
For a full list of ingredients and quantities, refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Flavour Variations
- Matcha: Matcha and pumpkin seeds pair deliciously well together. Blend in 1 tbsp of matcha powder for every 1 cup of roasted pepitas for a pretty green pumpkin seed butter that tastes just as good as it looks.
- Chocolate Pumpkin Seed Butter: Blend in 1 to 2 tbsp of cocoa powder depending on how chocolatey you want it to be. You can also increase the sugar to make it more like a storebought chocolate spread.
- Mixed Seed Butter: Substitute half of the pumpkin seeds with sunflower seeds to add some variety to the flavour.
- Mixed Nut Butter: Or take it a step further and throw in even more nut and seed varieties. For example, I’ve made a copycat of Costco’s Kirkland Signature Mixed Nut Butter which uses cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, and flax seeds. Just blend it all together until smooth. It’s incredibly delicious, and it’s packed with nutrients, to boot!
Equipment
Either a Vitamix or a Blendtec will work best for this recipe. They are very powerful blenders that are designed to be able to grind hard nuts and seeds. I have tested this with both machines.
If I had to pick, I would go with Vitamix. They are the best-suited for making pumpkin seed butter because:
- The blender has the motor power needed to grind whole seeds into a creamy paste.
- All Vitamix blenders come with a tamper, which is a rod that allows you to push the seeds down into the blades while the blender is running.
Blendtec is also powerful enough to make pumpkin seed butter, but it doesn’t come with a tamper. However, you can buy third-party tampers that are designed for the Blendtec. Without a tamper, I had to keep stopping the blender to scrape the seeds into the bottom of the jar so they could catch on the blades. Very cumbersome.
As an alternative, if you don’t want to use a tamper: Blendtec also sells a smaller jar called the Twister Jar, which is specifically designed for thick blends like nut and seed butters. This jar makes blending pepita butter a breeze. But you will need to scale down the ingredients for this recipe by two-thirds because of the smaller size.
Instructions with Process Shots
If you are using raw pumpkin seeds, follow below instructions to roast them before grinding into butter. If you’re starting with pre-roasted seeds, skip down to the blending instructions.
How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds
Spread raw pumpkin seeds on a baking pan and roast them in a preheated oven at 350 °F (175 °C) for 12–15 minutes. Pumpkin seeds are ready when they turn a darker shade of green and some may look light brown. Start checking at the 12-minute mark. It’s better to pull them out sooner rather than later; you don’t want burnt tasting pumpkin seed butter!
The exact roasting time depends on several factors, such as:
- Actual oven temperature (which can vary quite a bit from the displayed temperature)
- Type of roasting pan (the seeds will brown quicker on darker pans compared to lighter-coloured ones)
- Whether the pan is lined with aluminum foil or parchment, or neither (seeds that are baked on foil or directly on the pan will roast faster than on parchment)
That’s why it’s important to check frequently because every kitchen is a little different.
Blending Pumpkin Seed Butter
Add pumpkin seeds (and salt and sugar, if using) to a Vitamix blender and blend on the highest speed setting for 2 to 3 minutes. Use the tamper to continuously push down the seeds until they are all fully blended.
Here’s what the pumpkin seed butter looks like at each stage of the process:
Tip: The pumpkin seed butter should be fully smooth and creamy by the end of 3 minutes. If it’s not fully blended at this point, let your blender take a break and cool down for half an hour before resuming. Read the Recipe FAQs below for some possible reasons why your pumpkin seeds are not turning into butter.
Scoop the pumpkin seed butter into jars. If it looks clumpy, move the jar back and forth quickly on a flat surface and the butter will settle into a smooth consistency.
Storage Tips
Fridge: Refrigerate roasted pumpkin seed butter for 3–6 months in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Homemade seed butter contains no preservatives, and the fats may go rancid quickly at room temperature. (It won’t be unsafe to eat, but it will taste “off.”) Keep it in the fridge to ensure it stays fresh for longer.
Freezer: Pumpkin seed butter lasts indefinitely in the freezer as long as it stays in an airtight container.
What to Make with Pumpkin Seed Butter
- You can use pumpkin seed butter to make the vegan “egg” mixture in Vegan Avgolemono.
- Fill these Peanut Butter Stuffed Dates with pumpkin seed butter instead of peanut butter.
- I use pumpkin seed butter in my Chocolate Matcha Protein Shake recipe.
- With its mild and creamy flavour, pumpkin seed butter is perfect for making Vegan Brookie Pie.
- Drizzle some pepita butter over Chocolate Banana Chia Pudding.
Recipe FAQs
Pumpkin seed butter is green because pumpkin seeds have a natural green color. Even when the seeds are roasted and processed into butter, the green hue is retained. The vibrant green color is a result of the chlorophyll and other plant pigments present in the seeds. Some pumpkin seed varieties are more green than others which is why one jar of pumpkin seed butter may look slightly different to another.
Like all nut and seed butters, pumpkin seed butter is rich, creamy, nutty, and overall super satisfying. But don’t expect it to taste the same as peanut butter. Roasted pumpkin seed butter has a very earthy flavour.
Yes, like many nut and seed butters, pumpkin seed butter will eventually go bad. Over time, the oils in the pumpkin seeds will go rancid and acquire an off flavour. At this point, it won’t actually be unsafe to eat (though it may cause you digestive issues), but it will definitely taste unpleasant.
Yes. The sugar and salt are added to mimic the taste of commercial seed butters. They make it taste a bit better and help bring out the natural flavours of the pumpkin seeds. If you really don’t want to add any sugar or salt, feel free to omit them.
This could be down to a few factors:
Your blender may not be powerful enough. (I’ve made this successfully in both a Vitamix and Blendtec, but other brands might have more difficulty.)
You need to blend for a longer time. In my experience, seed butters take longer to process than nut butters like peanut butter. Not sure why. Maybe the smaller size of each seed means blenders need more time to chop them up and release the oils.
Your pumpkin seeds are too old. Older seeds are dried-up and it’s harder to get them to release all their oils.
More Nut and Seed Butters
Recipe Card
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Roasted Pumpkin Seed Butter
Use Imperial/Metric buttons below to toggle between volume vs weight measurements. I recommend weighing out your ingredients for best results.
Equipment
Ingredients
- 4 cups roasted pumpkin seeds you can use pre-roasted pumpkin seeds, or for roasting instructions see Note 1
- 1 tsp fine salt or 1/2 tbsp kosher salt *optional
- 2 tbsp brown sugar *optional
Instructions
- Add pumpkin seeds (and salt and sugar, if using) to a blender.
- Blend on high speed for 2 to 3 minutes, using the tamper to continuously push down the seeds until they are all fully blended.
- Scoop the pumpkin seed butter into jars. If it looks clumpy, move the jar back and forth quickly on a flat surface and the butter will settle into a smooth consistency.
Notes
- How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds: Spread raw pumpkin seeds on a baking pan and roast in a preheated oven at 350 °F (175 °C) for 12–15 minutes. Pumpkin seeds are ready when they’ve turned a very light golden brown. Start checking at the 12-minute mark. It’s better to pull them out sooner rather than later; you don’t want burnt tasting pumpkin seed butter! The exact roasting time depends on several factors, such as:
- Actual oven temperature (which can vary quite a bit from the displayed temperature)
- Type of roasting pan (the seeds will brown quicker on darker pans compared to lighter-coloured ones)
- Whether the pan is lined with aluminum foil or parchment, or neither (seeds that are baked on foil or directly on the pan will roast faster than on parchment)
- Blending Time: Your pumpkin seed butter should be fully smooth and creamy by the end of 3 minutes. If it’s still not fully blended at this point, let your blender take a break and cool down for half an hour before resuming.
I was surprised by how good this tasted! Not quite the same as peanut butter (I need an allergy safe alternative to bring to kiddo’s school) but it does the job. If only it wasn’t so green :p
Thanks for the review Gianna and glad you enjoyed the taste of pumpkin seed butter. I quite like the green colour but I can see why your kid might not 😀