Herb & Garlic Sunflower Seed Spread

This delightful dip is adapted from a Polish recipe in Michal Korkosz's Fresh from Poland: New Vegetarian Cooking from the Old Country. The recipe doesn't try to be a totally convincing nut (or in this case seed) cheese - rather it is a far more rustic, delicious savoury dip that will equally tickle your tastebuds. I've added grounding rosemary & garlic to broaden the umami potential, making for a fantastic multipurpose dip/sandwich filler.

Ingredients

• 1 cup (135g) sunflower seeds, boiled 15 minutes OR soaked for minimum 3 hours
• 1/3 cup (73g) light-flavoured vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
• ½ lemon, juiced
• generous pinch of salt
• generous grind pepper
• large big handful parsley, finely chopped
• small handful dill, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 sprig rosemary, ‘leaves’ removed & finely chopped
• 1 heaped tsp minced garlic (1 large clove)

Method

1. Boil your sunflower seeds for 15 minutes, or soak them for a minimum of 3 hours. Drain, rinse thoroughly and let them cool to room temperature if you’ve boiled them.
2. Add the cool & dry sunflower seeds to a high-powered blender, along with the vegetable oil, mustard, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Blend until the mixture reaches a thick hummus-like consistency. Scrape the mixture out of the blender into a bowl and mix in the chopped herbs.
3. In a small saucepan, add the olive oil, rosemary and garlic. Gently heat, swirling constantly until the garlic is smelling incredibly and you can see it’s just starting to golden. Add the oil mixture to the spread and mix through. Refrigerate to cool, and serve on bread, crackers, sandwiches, whatever you desire.