Making your own lightly pickled sunflower seeds
I have made pickled sunflower seeds before from scratch. I have boiled the seeds I harvested from the sunflowers that are ready out in the back yard.
And have added:
1/2 C white vinegar
1/8 C salt
1/2 Tbsp. pickling seasoning
2 C water
2 C raw sunflower seeds
Now, put them in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute and reduce to simmer for 2 hours.
Drain seeds and spread out on cookie sheet lined with paper towels to dry (sometimes I cheat and heat the oven to warm – and dry them on a cookie sheet in the oven to speed things up a bit).
Note: drying them will take a long time – like a couple days if you air dry them and a good half day if you oven dry them.
Once dry – heat the oven to 300 F and roast them for about 30 minutes – making sure to check them and stir them at these minute intervals: 20:5.
The seeds should be dry with a very slight toasted appearance. If they are not – keep them in the oven for longer – making sure to check them every 5 to 10 minutes depending on how quickly they are roasting. It is more important that they are dry than they actually look toasted. If you overcook them they taste horrible.
These are not the same as the kind you get in the store. These are my own special recipe. More of a very light salt and vinegar with a little pickling spice thrown in than an actual pickle flavor.
***If you want a good dill pickle flavor – you could try saving the brine from a big jar of pickles and boiling the seeds in that. Then just dry and roast them as above.
If you wish to make REGULAR SALTED SUNFLOWER SEEDS:
Use the same quantities as above, but leave out the vinegar and pickling seasoning. If you like heavily salted, increase the quantity of salt to 1/4 cup or more. -Birdy
