For some, seeds might conjure images of bird feeders. But hear me out. Seeds are a powerhouse in my kitchen, adding depth to morning smoothies, richness to soups and even forming the base of creamy dressings. And they’re often cheaper than nuts: my staples are sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and poppy. I buy them in bulk bags, use some to make a seed butter (quickly roasted then blitzed - sometimes mixed with some nuts too - for a spread worthy of toast); I roast them with maple syrup, chilli and rosemary for these snacking seeds, perfect for sprinkling on salads, roast roots or simply for eating by the handful. But today’s seeded swede and onion bhajis have been my most recent success, dipped into a lip-smacking, creamy, sunflower seed raita.

Seeded swede and onion bhajis with sunflower seed raita (pictured above)

These are a great snack, but if you want to make a meal of them, wrap a couple in a chapati with lashings of the sunflower raita, some crunchy salad leaves and cucumber. The basic raita recipe (before adding the cucumber and mint) can be used like yoghurt in lots of recipes and dressings.

Prep 20 min

Cook 15 min

Makes 12 bhajis

For the raita

125g toasted sunflower seeds

1 thumb-sized knob ginger, peeled and chopped

½ garlic clove, roughly chopped

30ml sunflower or light olive oil

Salt and black pepper

½ cucumber, grated

Extra-virgin olive oil, to serve

Mint leaves, to serve

For the bhajis

1 tsp nigella seeds

2 tsp toasted sunflower seeds

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

125g gram flour

Juice ½ lemon

½ tsp turmeric

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp salt

1 large onion, coarsely grated

½ swede, coarsely grated

1 thumb-sized knob ginger, peeled and grated

Sunflower oil, for frying

To make the sunflower seed raita, blitz the sunflower seeds with the ginger and garlic until finely ground. Pour in the oil and blitz again, then add 200-300ml water to emulsify: you want the colour to lighten and for the consistency to be like that of thick Greek yoghurt. Add more water to loosen further, if necessary. Season well, then stir in the grated cucumber.

In a large bowl, mix all the bhaji ingredients apart from the vegetables, ginger and frying oil. Add the veg and ginger to the bowl and briefly mix together with your hands.

Pour 1cm of sunflower oil into a wide frying pan and heat it to 180C/350F – measure the temperature with a digital thermometer, if you have one; otherwise, the oil is ready when it turns a small piece of bread golden in 30 seconds. Form golf balls with the batter and drop them gently into the oil; you may have to fry in batches, so check the temperature of the oil each time. Cook for about two minutes on each side, until dark golden, turning with two forks, then lift the bhajis out of the pan and drain on kitchen towel.

Drizzle a little olive oil on the raita and sprinkle with the mint leaves. Scatter coriander over the bhajis and serve while they’re still warm (although they’re good cold, too).

Maple chilli and rosemary snacking seeds

These are thoroughly addictive, and work well as a quick flavour boost to salads, wraps and sandwiches, or to top soups and stews.

Anna Jones’ maple, chilli and rosemary snacking seeds. Photograph: Matt Russell/The Guardian

Prep 5 min

Cook 15 min

Makes about 400g

200g pumpkin seeds

100g sunflower seeds

2 tbsp linseeds

3 tbsp white sesame seeds

2 tbsp maple syrup

½ tsp flaked sea salt

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 tsp chilli flakes, or to taste

Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4. Put all the ingredients in a bowl, toss, then loosely scatter on a baking sheet so that some bits are clumped together.

Bake for 10 minutes, until golden and sticky, then remove and leave to cool, before spooning into jars for snacking. These will keep for up to three days (if you can make them last that long...)

• This article was amended on 11 March 2019 to correct the quantity of water in the raita recipe. It needs between 200ml – 300ml, not exactly 300ml as an earlier version had it.