Sunflower Seeds

Good Afternoon,

Long time reader of F&D, first time poster.

ETA: Not sure how to include the two images in this post - please let me know. You can still see pictures at the links below. Thanks.

I have always enjoyed chewing sunflower seeds, ever since my days in little league dugouts. As I got older, I stopped chewing them because all the big brands are so salty and eating any decent amount in a sitting would just make me feel bad.

Cut to about a year ago, I'm in a gas station and I see a new brand of sunflower seeds called Chinook out of Texas. They advertised low sodium sunflower seeds that promised no sandpaper tongue. I've been chewing them ever since (I work from home and they are my afternoon snack most days.) Great flavors at a small fraction of the sodium that David and Bigs put in theirs.

Wifey planted some huge sunflowers this spring. The one on the left in the picture was over 12 feet tall before it started drooping:

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She told me I should roast the seeds and I have now done my first two batches. Each sunflower provided enough seeds to fit across a half baking sheet.

First batch I made was trial, so I just used some cajun seasoning on them. They were good, but I wasn't happy with the amount of roast on the seeds. The youtuber I watched said 250 for about an hour. I think he had a convection oven though. Mine were fine but just didn't have that good roasted flavor.

For the second batch, I split the seeds between two quarter sheets and used Cavender's on one pan and mitmita on the second. I discovered the mitmita from a shrimp dish at Addis in New Orleans a few months ago, and thought it would be perfect for a sunflower seed flavor. You can look up the flavor of it if you're unfamiliar, but it is a spicy and citrusy seasoning blend. I adjusted my timing by checking on the seeds every 15 minutes after the first hour and then raising temp to 300 for the last 15 minutes. I was very happy with that result.

The Cavender's flavored seeds are really good, but I found the mitmita to be far too spicy. I ended up finding a good balance of 60/40 mix of Cavender's and mitmita, respectively, and love the mix now. I think for the next batch, I will just season an entire batch with that amount of each.

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Does anyone else have experience with roasting sunflower seeds? Any advice to share? Flavor ideas? I am enjoying having this unexpected little project.