For those looking for peanut free sunflower seeds, see http://www.peanutfreeplanet.com/peanut_free_sunflower_seeds_s/43.htm

Pesto is meant to be eaten in very small quantities. No worries about the fats! Now, where did you get the dairy free Parm?

Actually, I think the point of this recipe is that if you like traditional foods, there are many ways to modify a recipe so that it suits you. I get already shelled sunflower seeds at my health food stores for almost no cost - salted or unsalted, roasted or raw. You can use any kind of oil that want...if you don't like olive oil, you can use coconut or hemp (nice green color), or (heaven forbid) off the shelf loaded with GMOs vegetable oil. You can use garlic or asafoetida or nothing. You can cut the amount of seeds in half. If you eat cheese you can add Parmesan (traditional) or if you prefer you can use nutritional yeast. A quarter cup is a very generous portion of pesto but since my doctor limits me to one cup of cooked pasta, I find that a tablespoon or two is plenty of pesto - reducing fat to 7.5 or 15 grams...of healthy fat, which we all need. Lighten up. I made it, used a smaller portion on my pasta and used some more the next day instead of mayo on my sandwich - big fat juicy summer tomato. It's a good recipe.

You can't eat the shells of sunflowers. If you want to use them because they're cheaper, you're going to have to spend a LONG time opening all of them to get out the tiny seed.

Sunflower seeds are peanut free. For the purest seeds, I'd go to a natural foods store or a health store to buy them and you can ask to make sure they weren't grown in a field next to peanuts for possible cross-contamination. Otherwise, there's not a connection between sunflowers and peanuts.

I also agree that 30 g fat for 1/4 cup is a lot of fat, even if some of it is "good" fat from the seeds. This recipe could be made healthier by omitting the coconut oil and using all extra virgin olive oil, though the fat amount might be the same, at least it wouldn't be saturated fat.

Also a typo in the recipe -- glove of garlic should be clove of garlic. Not one of LW's best thought-out recipes overall.

Can you use UNSHELLED sunflower seeds also?

I would like to know where I can get sunflower seeds that are peanut free.

The above review is not based on all the facts. Yes, hydrogenated coconut oil is bad for you. Hydrogenated anything is, and the reviewer fails to make that point. Read this instead: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/coconut-oil-benefits_b_821453.html. Living Without, keep up the great work! Cynthia, BSN, RN

Why on earth would living without push coconut oil as an ingredient in any recipe? Coconut oil is high in saturated fat, it has more saturated fat than butter or lard. One tablespoon of coconut oil has 117 calories & 13.6 grams of fat. Good god.. The nonesense thats come out about the saturated fat in coconut oil being a good saturated fat, is utter nonesense. Shame on living without for falling for that. The only so called "proof" you'll ever find that coconut oil is good for you, is from sellers of coconut oil, second party dealers of coconut oil & nutcase health sites that have no idea about proper nutrition at all, they simply want to sell supliments or oils to the gullible public who believe in this crap. Do a quick check of the websites that proclaim coconut oil is the healthiest oil you can put in your body. You'll find every one of them are as has been said. Sellers of coconut oil, second party dealers in coconut oil, and quacks who proclaim to be actual doctors.

An article living without editors should take some time to read.

Study showed saturated fat in coconut oil impaired anti-inflammatory ability of HDL cholesterol

Researchers from the Heart Research Institute in Australia studied the body response from eating meals containing good fats versus bad fats. Participants were fed with meals prepared with either coconut oil (high in "bad" saturated fats) or safflower oil (high in "good" polyunsaturated fats). After only 3 hours, researchers found the participants fed with the coconut meal high in saturated fat had a significantly reduced blood flow due to arteries' reduced ability to expand. After 6 hours, researchers found that the good high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol's anti-inflammatory properties had decreased after the saturated coconut meal, but improved after the polyunsaturated safflower meal. The results of this study were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in August 2006.

30 grams of fat in 1/4 cup? That's more fat than I eat in a day.