Sunflower seed flour makes a wonderful low carb, nut-free replacement for almond flour. It’s easy to make your own at home and save money! Great for those with nut allergies.
A lot of readers ask me for nut-free alternatives for many of my recipes. While some things can be made with coconut flour easily enough, other recipes cannot. What is a nut-free keto dieter to do?
Sunflower seed flour to the rescue! I have found that it’s the best one-to-one replacement for almond flour, and it’s incredibly easy to make your own at home.
All you need is a coffee grinder, a sieve, and some sunflower seeds. And about 5 minutes of your time. Yep it’s that easy!
Why make Sunflower Seed Flour at home?
So many keto baked goods are based on almond flour. But many people who choose the keto diet have additional allergies and intolerances, and this leaves them with few good, healthy flour alternatives.
While coconut flour can make some pretty great nut-free keto treats, it’s not always a great replacement for almond flour. They behave so differently that the whole recipe needs to be completely changed. More eggs, more oil, more liquid, etc. It isn’t an easy substitution and it may or may not work out very well.
Whereas a seed meal like sunflower seed flour can be used as a direct replacement for almond flour in most recipes.
I used to purchase Gerbs Sunflower Seed Meal on Amazon, but it’s on the pricy side and sometimes they don’t carry it. Whereas the seeds themselves are readily available and usually inexpensive. A 4-pack of Bob’s Red Mill sunflower seeds is only $11.39! Bob’s Red Mill Natural Raw Sunflower Seeds, 20-Ounce Packages (Pack of 4)
When I made my favourite Rosemary Parmesan Keto Crackers, I saw how easy it was to get a fine grind with my coffee grinder. But the trick was to get out the bigger seed pieces so all that remains is the finely ground flour. A little sifting in a sieve with relatively large holes solved that. You don’t want too fine a sieve mesh, because the flour won’t go through, but something with a bit of a more open weave works beautifully.
How to use Sunflower Seed Flour
I do have some special tips for using this nut-free keto flour in place of almond flour.
- It can be a 1:1 replacement, but you may find you need a tiny bit more of it to get the right consistency. Keto batters are typically thicker than conventional batter, so just add a bit more of the nut-free flour until your batter is scoopable but not pourable.
- Sunflower seeds are a bit higher carb than almonds, so your flour will be as well. But not significantly so. I’d say each serving will be about 1g higher in carbohydrates than something made with almond flour.
- If you have severe nut allergies, please please please make sure that the sunflower seeds you purchase are not processed in a facility that also processes nuts.
- The funny green reaction: If you’ve never baked with sunflower seed meal before, you might be startled to see that some of your baked goods turn greenish as they cool. This is a reaction between the chlorophyll in sunflower seeds and your leavening agents (baking soda or baking powder). Not to worry, there are ways around this!
- This reaction can be offset using some acid, such as lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. About 1 tablespoon will be enough for most recipes.
- If you’re making something with chocolate, such as nut-free chocolate cupcakes, the dark brown of the cocoa or chocolate will cover the green, so no need to add any acid.
See how finely ground this is?
What to make with Sunflower Seed Flour
So what do you do with all your newly ground sunflower seed flour? You get baking, of course! It makes a great allergen-free replacement for almond flour, and I have quite a few sunflower seed flour recipes already. Check out all these great recipe ideas!
Keto Mini Chocolate Muffins (these are made with pumpkin seed meal but can easily be made with sunflower seed flour instead.
Keto Chocolate Cream Cheese Muffins
Sunbutter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Sunflower seed flour makes a low carb, nut-free replacement for almond flour. It's easy to make your own at home and save money! Great for those with nut allergies.
- Raw sunflower seeds (I used Bob's Red Mill)
- Coffee Grinder
- Open-mesh sieve the holes need to be big enough for the flour to fall through
- Medium Bowl
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Set an open mesh sieve over a medium bowl.
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Pour 1 cup of sunflower seeds into your coffee grinder and grind for 10 to 20 seconds. Don't grind too long, or you may end up with sunflower seed butter.
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Pour ground seeds into sieve and shake vigorously, then return remaining seed pieces back into coffee grinder. Repeat until almost all the sunflower seeds are finely ground.
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1 cup of seeds makes approximately 1 1/4 cups flour.
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Store in an airtight bag or container in the fridge or freezer.
Recipe Video
Make 5 servings. Each serving has 2.44 g NET CARBS.
Food energy: 165kcal
Total fat: 14.55g
Calories from fat: 130
Cholesterol: --
Carbohydrate: 5.52g
Total dietary fiber: 3.08g
Protein: 4.61g
Lin says
I love videos for recipes so thanks for your efforts!
allison says
Loved it!! I like the way you do it cause last time I got more of a “butter” using my big blender. I see now go smaller will be the way to go!
Dot says
Thank yOu. Great video. Would this be used the same way as regular white flour to cook with or bake. I can use this to bread chicken cutlets and in meatballs? If i were to bake a cake how would this be different in the recipe then white flour?
Sorry for all the questions.
Dot
Carolyn says
No, it definitely can’t be used to replace white flour 1 for 1. Check out my information on baking with almond flour (which will apply to sunflower seed flour as well). It can be used for breading and in meatballs, though. https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/2013/02/low-carb-basics-baking-with-almond-flour.html If you are looking for cake recipes, look for a low carb cake recipe with almond flour and then you can use the sunflower seed flour in its place.
Kathy says
Interesting that in the paragraphs above,you say it can be substituted 1 to 1 in most recipes…..
Carolyn says
I think you are misunderstanding. This question was about replacing WHEAT flour. In the post itself, I talk about using sunflower seed flour to replace ALMOND flour.
Patricia Carey says
I just bought unsalted roasted sunflower seeds. Are they ok to use or did the roasting remove all the benefits?
Carolyn says
It didn’t remove benefits but it’s going to be overcooked when you bake with it because it’s already roasted.
victoria candiotti says
Very nice. Thank you for sharing.
Pam says
Great job, looking forward to more in the future.
Sarah G says
The video was awesome! I hope you do more for this visual learner!
Sarah G says
Oh yes, what coffee grinder do you use? And sieve too.
Carolyn says
It’s a Cuisinart one. I think it was $25 or so?
Sarah G says
Ok, will look for it. I have a sieve but I’m afraid the holes are really too big. I’ll try it though.
Carolyn @ Cabot says
Nice job with the video, looking forward to more!~Carolyn @ Cabot
Carolyn says
Thanks, Carolyn
Diana says
Great video! Since having a kidney stone last year, I was told not to eat almonds (or dark green leafy vegetables, sigh…) but sunflowers are acceptable. Thanks for showing how easy it is to make the flour!
Carolyn says
wonderful! Hope you find the sunflower flour useful.
Roseann Fiore says
I’m having kidney stone problems too. I’ve been so disappointed to have to give up almonds and almond flour.
I feel your pain on the dark green leafy vegetables, too.
I can’t wait to try to make this flour and use it in my favorite recipes!
Cher says
Hi Roseann, I has stage 3 kidney issues according to the dr. s but listened to other dr. s on Youtude videos talk about detoxing the kidneys. Mine was due to medications clogging up and trying to harm my kidneys. Thank God I caught it on time and detoxed flushing out my kidneys. The horrible smell and color was ugh but when I returned to the specialist a few months later my test results showing remarkable looking kidneys! Just boil some 99 cent parsley in water and store the jug in the refrigerator to drink a cup once a day to flush out your kidneys. Just a handful of parsley tho to much will sting like fire lol. Add fresh lemon and a sweetner like 100% raw honey with a cup of warm parsley water every morning. You can also add raw ginger and taw raw turmeric root grated up. You can find that at some grocery stores in the veggie dept on top shelves! Hope all clears up for you. Just remember the smell and color is a good thing because that shows the toxins are being removed. Hope this is ok to post. I just want to help people by telling them what worked for me! God Bless!
DelicateFlowah says
I’m wondering how I’m going to spend all the money I save by not using almond flour as much. Thank you for the great video!
Jo says
I noticed you used a cup of seeds, how much flour did that produce? Thanks for the great video!
Carolyn says
It says in the recipe itself that it makes about 1 1/4 cups flour.
linda says
This was fun. Where did you get your sieve?
Carolyn says
I think it’s Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Cheri bithell says
Nice work. Thank you for making the effort to help people eat well.
Uchenna Umeh says
Gee thank you!!
Been looking for some low carb “flour” for making fufu!!!
Jennifer Schewe says
Have you tried to make fufu with it yet? My friend is looking for a low carb fufu substitute.
Lindsay says
How do you prevent things from turning green? I know that cooking the sunflower seeds activates the chlorophyll in the seeds. I have had my things turn very green. They taste fine but are unappetizing.
Carolyn says
You offset with a tbsp of acid…either lemon juice or apple cider vinegar. It’s more of a reaction between the baking powder and the sunflower seeds but the acid helps. If you happen to be making a chocolate something or other, you don’t need to worry about it because the dark colour covers the green.
Cici says
I mistakenly bought sesame flour instead of sunflower!! Amazon wants a ridiculous amount of money to return it, so I’m going to have to use it! Have you ever used it? Hoping I can sub as nut free replacement to almond flour. Thoughts?
Martine says
is there a difference if almond flour is substituted? Does it taste the same ?
Carolyn says
No, it doesn’t taste quite the same. Definitely a sunflower thing going on with the sunflower flour.
Beth says
Can a food processor be used for the sunflower flour? I don’t have a coffee grinder. But, what kind would you suggest if I did purchase a coffee grinder?
Carolyn says
You might not get it quite as fine in a food processor but if you try, add more than 1 cup seeds because a processor won’t be able to catch and grind a lesser amount. Try doing 2 to 3 cups.
B says
The seeds you linked are processed with peanuts and tree nuts. Have you seen any sunflower seeds that aren’t? I am going to look this week but I was just curious if you have used any other brands?
Carolyn says
Actually yes, the brand Gerbs is entirely allergen free and I used to use their sunflower seed flour but of course, we don’t have nut allergies in our house so it’s not an issue. https://amzn.to/2HCPoTl
Jennifer Ball says
Thank you for posting this. My daughter is allergic to all tree nuts so this looks like a great low carb alternative. Looking forward to trying this out.
Carolyn says
Just make sure to get sunflower seeds that aren’t processed on facilities that use nuts. I know a company called Gerbs sells entirely allergy free ones.
Lisa says
Are the seeds roasted or unroasted? Thanks!
Carolyn says
Unroasted, always. Otherwise they are over-cooked during baking.
Lynn W says
Thanks for the information about using sunflower seeds instead of almonds and also adding an acid to diminish the green color. I used sumflower seed butter for a recipe instead of almond butter and the bars were quite green! Almonds are also very high in oxalates which I need to avoid due to kidney stones. Sunflower seeds are a low oxalate seed so now I can try baking a few things that used almond flour.
Penny says
Thank you so much for this information!! Does this work for your almond flour breads too?
Carolyn says
It should… but they will automatically have a greyish tinge because of the natural color of the seeds.
Katie says
Loved this! It came out amazing!
Laura Reese says
My family loved this. It turned out great. Thanks for your directions.
sharon a kamin says
could I make noodles with this that call for almond flour,
Carolyn says
I should think so.
Darcy says
I have a few questions:
1. Do you grind the whole seed, or only the inner kernels?
2. About how much flour do you get, say, per cup of seeds?
3. Do you have a good multi-loaf bread recipe using sunflower seed flower?
4. I don’t grind my own coffee–don’t even have a grinder. Will a blender or food processor work okay for this?
Carolyn says
The inner kernels. If you watch the video, you will see. The recipe states 1 1/4 cup flour (right at the top). And yes, I do have a great recipe with it but it’s in my cookbook The Everyday Ketogenic Kitchen. Again, what the video as it tells you why a grinder is best.
Dylan says
If there is a recipe that doesn’t use baking powder and/or baking soda, will there still be a green colour forming during baking when using sunflower seed flour?
Carolyn says
No, it won’t if you don’t use baking powder or baking soda.
Sara says
I find the sunflower flour breaks apart when baking. I cannot use almond flour and I am trying to get away from gluten free flour. How can I make it stick together??
Carolyn says
I am not sure what you mean by “breaks apart”? My recipes don’t do that…
Sue says
Would a old type flour sifter work for the fine mesh sifter you mentioned for this recipe?
Carolyn says
It might but I worry it will be too fine… worth a try.