Sunflower seeds substitutes

The best substitute in essentially every recipe, and stocked next to the sunflower seeds in most shops. Buy the flat green hulled kind, and toast them in a dry pan until they puff and pop.

Best for

salads, granola, seeded breads, muffins and quick breads, trail mix, grain bowls, school-safe nut-free baking

Very close, and both are nut-free, so this is the swap that keeps a school-safe recipe school-safe. Pepitas are a shade greener and more mineral tasting where sunflower seeds are grassy and slightly sweet, and they are a touch chewier and softer under the tooth rather than crisply snapping. In a green salad or a granola the difference is barely noticeable. In a pale bread or a light dressing the green colour shows.

The most likely thing to already be in the cupboard, and a fine swap wherever nut allergies are not the reason you are looking. Chop them small, since a whole almond is much bigger than a sunflower kernel.

Best for

granola, salads, crumble and streusel toppings, trail mix, energy bars

Harder, drier and much snappier, so a salad gets a sharp crunch rather than a soft one, and the flavour is clean and distinctly almond rather than grassy. That is usually a small improvement in a sweet granola and a small loss in a savoury salad, where sunflower seeds fade politely into the background and almonds announce themselves. Obviously not an option in a nut-free context.

Cheap, in most kitchens already, and excellent on bread and in dressings. Toast them in a dry pan for two or three minutes until they smell nutty, and stir constantly because they burn quickly.

Best for

seeded bread toppings, salads and slaws, Asian-inspired dishes, crackers and flatbreads, sprinkling over roasted vegetables

Far stronger and more aromatic per spoonful than sunflower seeds, which is why the quantity drops, and much smaller, so you get a fine crunchy dust rather than distinct bites. That changes texture significantly: sesame coats things, sunflower seeds sit in them. Note also that sesame is now treated as a major allergen in the United States, so it is not a safe swap if you are cooking around allergies.

Both are soft oily nuts, which makes them a better textural match for sunflower seeds than almonds are. Toast for eight minutes at 180C and chop small.

Best for

granola, banana bread and muffins, salads with fruit or cheese, oatmeal toppings

The soft yielding crunch is right, and the oiliness is right, which means baked goods come out with a similar richness. What changes is flavour weight: walnuts bring a bitter tannic edge and pecans bring a caramel sweetness, and both are stronger personalities than a sunflower seed. In a savoury salad or a seeded bread, that shifts the dish rather than filling a gap.

Nut-free, seed-based and mild, and increasingly easy to find in supermarkets. Use them raw, since they do not really toast.

Best for

smoothies, yogurt and oatmeal toppings, sprinkling over salads, adding richness to dressings

Be clear about what this swap does and does not do. The flavour is genuinely close, soft and grassy and nutty, and hemp hearts are a good nut-free choice. But they have essentially no crunch at all, being soft and slightly creamy, so if the reason sunflower seeds are in your recipe is texture, this substitution fails completely. Excellent in a dressing or stirred into porridge, pointless as a salad topping.

The nut-free and seed-free option when allergies rule out both. Roast drained chickpeas at 200C for thirty minutes until they rattle, or toast panko in a little oil until golden.

Best for

salads, grain bowls, soup toppings, nut-free and seed-free crunch

Both give real crunch and cost almost nothing, which is the point. Neither gives you fat or nuttiness, so a granola bound partly by the oil in the seeds will come out drier and you may want an extra spoonful of oil. Both also lose their crunch fast once dressed, panko within a couple of minutes and chickpeas within about half an hour, so scatter them on at the table rather than tossing them through.