Toasting Sunflower Seeds

I made this awesome recipe earlier this week, and decided to go ahead and toast the Sunflower Seeds that the recipe called for. 

I had some raw seeds, and usually they work, because I'm either cooking or baking with them, so they get toasted or roasted or...

But the recipe I was making was going to be served cold, so I wanted to amp up the flavor profile by lightly toasting the seeds.

And it was so simple. 

Pour the recipe amount, in my case a half cup of seeds in a single layer across the bottom of a good sturdy pan.

Turn the heat up to medium high and start heating the seeds.  As soon as they start to turn color, which only takes a couple of minutes, pick up the pan and shake it a little or stir to turn the seeds around a little.

Then turn off the heat and leave the seeds in the pan, stirring every minute or so.  The residual heat from the pan will continue to toast them, but you have less chance of them burning.   Pour the seeds onto a flat pan as soon as they turn golden in color to cool  and they are ready to use. 

Toasting the seeds adds a nice dimension to any recipe calling for sunflower seeds.

If you want to do this for snacking purposes, which I've done, lightly spray the seeds with a good cooking spray and then salt them, lightly.  You don't need a lot of either one.