Roasting and salting your own sunflower seeds allows you to control the level of salt.
Roasted, salted sunflower seeds have a nearly addictive quality that belies the messiness of dealing with the shells. If you are fortunate to have your own sunflowers growing in your garden, you can salt and roast the seeds yourself for a terrific snack at virtually no cost. However, buying plain seeds in bulk and roasting them at home can also save money and allow you to control the amount of salt on the seeds.
Instructions
1. Make a salt solution with 1 quart of water and 1/4 cup of salt. This will accommodate approximately 2 cups of seeds. For larger quantities of seeds, make 2 quarts of solution.
2. Put the seeds in a glass or stainless steel bowl and cover them with the salt solution. Allow them to sit unrefrigerated overnight.
3. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
4. Drain the water from the seeds. You may want to pour the water through a mesh strainer instead of a colander, as the holes on most standard colanders are large enough that your salted seeds would sail right through into the sink.
5. Pour the drained seeds out onto a cookie sheet and pat them dry with a paper or cloth towel. When the seeds turn a golden brown color, they are done roasting.
6. Pull the out of the oven and allow the seeds to cool before storing.
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