This recipe was based on my memories from when I attended Cégep in a small town outside of Montreal in the '80's. There was a great vegetarian restaurant that I used to go to where they had huge sandwiches; you could get them with hummus, or sunflower seed paté, slices of tomato and enormous mounds of alfalfa sprouts, which were never my favourite, but the paté was. 

Fast-forward to living in Vancouver and buying similar packages of sunflower seed pate, and me thinking how much better (and cheaper) it would be to just make it. So I scoured the interwebs and got a recipe, riffed on it a bit and here we are. It's a cost-effective, and delicious paté that can be slathered on toast, chunked and put on salad, or part of a charcuterie board. It's so easy to make and super adaptable. See *Optional Ingredients below for the variations aplenty on this. If you have other great ideas, send them along to be added to the list.

 Ingredients

  • 1 cup raw sunflower seeds, (can also sub other nuts instead...1/2 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup sunflower seeds is a great mix.)
  • 2 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat flour or spelt flour
  • 3 TBSP nutritional yeast
  • 1/2 onion roughly chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 TBSP soy sauce, use GF Tamari if preferred
  • 1 TBSP apple cider vinegar
  • 1 sprig of fresh thyme, leaves stripped off stem (or 1 tsp dried thyme)
  • 1 sprig fresh oregano, leaves stripped off stem (or 1 tsp dried oregano)
  • 1 tsp salt (or more, to taste)
  • Additional flavours can be 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • Black pepper
  • Sesame seeds for topping

Directions

  • Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Oil and then line a loaf tin with parchment for easy removal.
  • Place all ingredients except the topping into a food processor and blend until everything is homogenized, but not a paste.
  • Spoon into prepared loaf tin and smooth out as best you can. Top with sprinkles of sesame seeds.
  • Bake for 40 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 5-10 minutes before you try to turn it out of the pan. Can be served warm or cold.


*Optional ingredients - these can be added when mixing all ingredients together in the processor. You can use any of the ingredients below to explore different flavour profiles

  • Sauté one cup of mushrooms 
  • 1 carrot shredded
  • Sun-dried tomatoes in oil- use 1/8 cup
  • Sun-dried olives - use 1/4 cup
  • You can add a TBSP of tomato paste
  • 1/2 tsp each of toasted and ground cumin and coriander seeds