In the first place, this was Celine’s (of have cake, will travel) idea. She got this spread sent a couple of times and told us on her blog how good it was. By coincidence I found this spread a couple of weeks later, sold at a booth on the main station in Stuttgart. I bought some and it was even better than Celine had told us! Good, expensive and hard to get. These spreads are based on sunflower seeds and oil and their taste, in my opinion, is not so far away from some kinds of cream cheese that I used to buy in pre-vegan times.
After Celine posted about the spread, I had a closer look at the shelves of my organic food store and found out that they had the same kind of spreads. It was another brand but the price was nearly the same, which means: too expensive. And that is exactly the reason why I never had a closer look at them before. I changed my mind after Celine posted about sunflower spreads and was hooked. She mentioned that she wanted to make her own and I thought, why not. So, yeah, I stole her idea. That’s me, the idea stealer.

To make this spread, you just need to prepare a base made of sunflower seeds, sunflower oil (canola, olive, walnut is fine too), water, salt, pepper and lemon juice. If you have made yourbase, there are infinite possibilities of seasonings and flavours that you can use. I will start by giving you the recipe for the spread base and then add some variations. And, if you don’t like the idea of a sunflower seed spread, there will also be a tofu version.

Basic Sunflower Seed Spread:
30 g /1 oz. /3 Tbsp. sunflower seeds
45 ml / 3 Tbsp. sunflower (or other) vegetable oil
2 Tbsp. water
1 -2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. salt
pepper

Combine everything in a food processor and process until smooth. Your spread should have a white colour.

Tomato Bell Pepper Spread:
add to base and process in a food processor:
2 dried tomatoes, cut into very small pieces
1 roasted bell pepper (yellow or red)
1 roasted bulb of garlic
and process until smooth
To roast the pepper: preheat oven to 200°C (400°), cut the pepper into four pieces, place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast the pepper until the skin is burned. Place the pepper in a bowl and cover (e.g. with a large plate). Wait until the pepper is cooled. Now you can easily remove the skin.
To roast a bulb of garlic: cut of the upper fourth of the bulb, place bulb on some aluminium foil (I know, but it’s just a small piece), sprinkle with olive oil, wrap in foil and roast until tender (around 20 min). Let cool and squeeze the garlic out of it’s skin.

Bell Pepper Chili:
add to base and process in a food processor:
1 bulb roasted garlic
3 dried tomatoes, soaked and cut into small pieces
1 roasted bell pepper, skin removed
1-2 Tbsp. basil, chopped
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 small hot chili pepper

Tomato, Basil, Pumpkin Seed and Olive :
prepare the base using 2 Tbsp. pumpkin seed oil and 1 Tbsp. walnut oil
add to base and process in a food processor:
1 cherry tomato, chopped
1 smal clove garlic
20 g ( 2/3 oz.) fresh basil, chopped
1 Tbsp. organic potato flakes
2 green olives
1/4- 1/2 tsp. Harissa

Tofu Spread:
50g Silken Tofu (1/7 of a Mori Nu package)
1 Tbsp walnut (or other) vegetable oil
1 red roasted bell pepper
1 roasted bulb garlic
1 roasted onion, black outer skins removed,
1-2 tsp. lemon juice
salt, pepper to taste

As I said, there are infinite possibilities and every single one of these spreads tastes delicious. it’s creamy and even your omni co-workers or friends will like it. (Mine use to call it “that healthy cream cheese without any cheese” all the time) You can use it on bread (as I mostly do), as a pasta sauce, as a dip, on pizza (instead of or right under your tomato sauce, etc.). Here, the possibilities are infinite too!