We’ve never given much thought to doing anything with a sunflower other than harvesting its seeds or admiring its beauty mid-summer.

But, apparently, you can cook them! And your dinner guests are bound to marvel at your creativity when you serve them up a big, roasted sunflower head.

The Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company based in Mansfield, Missouri, posted a how-to video in early August that’s been shared thousands of times.

Plenty of people love sunflower seeds, after all, but they’ve never eaten them straight from the flower like corn on the cob – until now.

The key to success here, since you are only eating the seeds, is to pick the sunflower at the right time – that is, when the seeds have formed but the shells are still soft.

Are you interested in learning how to cook your sunflowers?

Here’s the set of instructions they provided!

1. Remove all the petals from your sunflower.

Granted, this makes it less pretty, but they’ll simply burn on the grill. They are edible, however, if bitter. Some people like to save them to add to salads in small amounts. As long as you haven’t sprayed with pesticides, go ahead and try one to see if you like it.

2. Remove the other parts of the flower as well – anything that’s not seeds, really.

Yes, it’s a bit of a mess, but it’s totally worth it!

3. Now, coat your sunflower head in oil.

Everyone has their preferences for oils. The recipe in the video used the oil from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, which is a creative way to add some extra flavor!

4. It’s time to cook! So place your sunflower face-down onto a grill heated to medium.

5. Next, cover it with a heat-safe bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes.

That’s it! It’s cooked after just a handful of minutes on the grill.

6. If you’d like, you can add toppings.

In the video recipe, they added the sun-dried tomatoes that were in the jar with the oil and sprinkled some fresh basil on top.

7. It’s finally time to eat!

Hey, we never said you were going to look elegant while you ate it, we only said it would be delicious.

Baker Creek used the Mammoth Grey variety of sunflower, but they said in the comments that any large variety should do. And while they weren’t sure about how the flowers might keep (in case you wanted to harvest them one day and cook them another), they did say that you can expect much of the taste to come from the toppings you put on it.

While sunflower seeds aren’t known as the healthiest snack (partly because they often come oversalted), they can be a source of polyunsaturated fat in moderation, especially if they’re eaten in place of saturated and trans fats (in other words, if you choose them over a less healthy snack).

Did you know you could also eat sunflower blooms?

These flowers are more edible than we had imagined!

Just like a squash blossom, you can simply pluck the bud before it flowers and fry them up! Their taste has been compared to artichokes.

Be sure to scroll down below to see the recipe in action.

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Source: Facebook – Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, Gardening Know-How