Have you heard of grilled sunflower heads? They started taking off last summer on TikTok and they’ve come back even stronger this year. When they first made their way onto the platform, people were divided, but since then people have been putting their own spin on the vegan dish.
To make grilled sunflower heads, farmers and homesteaders snip of the heads of the tall sunflowers growing in their gardens, peeling the leaves away. They then drench them in olive oil and spices like salt, pepper, paprika, thyme, and onion powder before putting them face down on the grill.
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♬ original sound – Redleaf Ranch
While it’s taking off on TikTok, the grilled sunflower heads have been around for a bit. A restaurant called Apteka in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania started featuring it as a special on their menu back in 2018. The chef Tomasz Skowronski, told Delish the flower dish goes back to his roots in Poland. “In the countryside, it’s really common to see people eating whole heads of sunflower that are fully mature. Kids will be sitting on a fence picking and eating it, or you’ll have guys drinking a beer and eating it.”
That’s when he decided to serve something similar in the restaurant and the menu item went viral after chef Andrew Zimmern visited and wrote it was “insanely good” in an Instagram caption.
Have you tried grilled sunflower heads? What did you think of this new food trend?
