Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

One of my favorite parts about pumpkin carving (or cooking) is getting to toast the seeds. I love scooping seeds out of a pumpkin and rinsing them because they get so slimy!! It’s a fun activity to do with kids after carving a jack-o-lantern, and it’s fun for me to do by myself. I also love snacking on the finished product.

After scooping your seeds out of the pumpkin (a grapefruit spoon helps a lot with this part), put them into a colander and rinse them under water. You’ll be amazed at how quickly the orange goop disappears. Try to mix the seeds around with your hand so you can pull out any big chunks of pumpkin flesh that are left behind. The pumpkin seeds are really slippery when they’re wet. A lot of seeds escaped onto my counters and floors, and they all ended up stuck to the bottom of my socks.

Pre-heat your oven to 300ºF. Then, spread your seeds on a baking sheet and season them. I used cinnamon and sugar. Plain old salt would be good, or any other combination of spices you like. The seasoning sticks to the wet seeds, so you don’t have to add oil or anything like that. Spread the seeds evenly on the sheet, and bake them for 10 minutes. Then, stir the seeds around so any wet seeds can come to the top. Don’t worry if your seeds seem like they’re sticking the the pan because they will come right off later. After 5 more minutes of roasting, toss the seeds around again.

Continue this process until your seeds are fully dry. It shouldn’t take more than 20 minutes. Let them cool and then snack away! You can eat pumpkin seeds with the shells still on, but I prefer to crack them off. I’m a nibbler.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.