Oli
Oli
Resident eejit. Radio4, kitchen dancing, owning recipe books to read not follow
Mar 6, 2016 2 min read

Salad topping seeds

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I had an excellent salt beef sandwich down at Cookhouse this week and it came with a well dressed salad topped with a toasted seed mix. A few years ago I used to throw toasted nuts and seeds onto everything but when the jar ran low I didn’t ever get round to replacing them. The salty, crunchy bite they bring to salads, sandwiches, soups and even pasta dishes is very satifying. I think I originally got the idea from a tiny tub of mixed spices and nuts I got from (the much missed) Love Your Larder

Thus prompted to make a fresh jar, and happening to stumble upon reasonably prices sunflower and pumpkin seeds in Byker Morrisons (home to so many good ingrediants), I made a fresh batch this morning.

It’s a very adaptable recipe, add in your own chopped nuts, spices (cumin is good) and other flavours. Liquid Smoke makes an interesting addition.

You will need

  • Nuts, seeds and spices. I used only sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds this time.
  • A tablespoon of soy
  • A tablespoon of hot sauce (I used Encona Cajun )
  • A large non-stick frying pan (can also be done in the oven)

Do

  1. Mix everything and dump it into the cold pan, mix well and spreading evenly
  2. Start on a low heat, wait until the steam stops rising, stir, repeat.
  3. Once you stop getting steam every time you stir you’ve driven off all the moisure you added, now it’s time to roast the mix.
  4. Keep stirring and occationally tossing the pan until you’ve got to the desired level of “done”. In my case this is when I see the first few pumpkin seeds catching and hear the odd one popping.
  5. Spread the mix out onto something to cool on, like a sheet of newspaper. If you’re confident you caught the mix eary enough leave in the pan to cool, just not on the hot ring.
  6. Decant and store in an air tight jar.

Result

Just a little salty (from the soy), crunchy, morish. Sling them on salads, in fajita or steal from the jar before going to bed.

Cokhouse's excellent salt beef.  Seeds hidden by slab of sour dough Ready to come out of the pan