Sunflower Seeds as Food

Sunflower seeds contain large amounts of healthy fat acids and can be enjoyed fresh or used in bread and dishes.  They are very popular in candy in deserts and many sunflower lovers make their own brine to spice up the taste of the sunflower seed.  Creating your own brine is easy if you follow the simple steps outlined below.  The first humans that enjoyed tasty sunflower seeds were the Native Americans.  They even used them to cook and bake cakes; sunflower seeds were grounded into a nutritious flour that could be used for a wide range of dishes.

If you want to try making your own sunflower seed brine you should begin by washing the seeds.  Place your sunflower seeds in a large bowl filled with cold water and stir them around until dirt accumulate at the bottom of the bowl and any dust particles float up to the surface.

If you prefer sunflower seeds without shells, you don’t have to make any brine.  The brine is only a way to add taste to sunflowers without having to remove the shells.  With shell-less sunflower seeds, you can simply add salt and spices directly to the sunflower seeds. If you coat the shell-less seeds with cooking spray or vegetable oil, salt and spices will stick better to the kernels.  Sunflower oil is of course a good choice here.

The next step is to roast your sunflower seeds.  This is not mandatory, but roasted seeds can be stored much longer than fresh ones.  If you plan to eat your seeds soon, you can skip this stage.  The easiest way of roasting sunflower seeds is to spread them out on a plate in a single layer. Heat to oven to approximately 275 degrees Celsius and place the plate in the oven.  After roughly 10 minutes the seeds will be finished. It is important to keep an eye on the seeds since they can turn dark rapidly if left to long in the oven.

When you have let the sunflower seed cooled down they are ready to be immersed in seed brine.  The brine described below is suitable for roasted sunflower seeds as well as non-roasted ones.  This basic recipe will create moderately salted sunflower seeds and you can easily add your own spices to the brine to create your own favourite sunflower seeds.

Tacky Farmer Girl has 15 Mammoth Russian Sunflowers growing .. stay tuned as we wait to harvest and roast our seeds and make our own sunflower butter!