Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Yay pumpkin seed season! My Dad always made these when we would carve pumpkins as kids. I love the idea of using as many parts of the pumpkin as possible. Not to mention roasted pumpkin seeds are delicious and actually good for you!

While I am kind of off and on about carving pumpkins as an adult I still like to get one just for the seeds. That is what I did this year. With no trick-or-treaters coming to my apartment and no porch/balcony to display a carved pumpkin it sometimes feels a little silly to put the work into carving one and then just look at it myself haha.

It's harder to get into these things than I always think it will be! It's actually easier with those little bitty saws used for carving them. I used a serrated knife and just hacked it open haha.

When you are just going for the seeds it's not too bad to separate them out from the pulp without getting a big mess. It's a different story when you are sorting through the piles of pumpkin guts left over by carvers.

I removed the seed 'chambers' and didn't have any reason to continue smoothing and hollowing like with carving, so that's the end of this pumpkin!

My seeds. I did get some pieces of pumpkin insides mixed in with the seeds. A lot of people say to leave these on and you certainly can, but I am going for a crisp seed so I wanted all pulp removed.

Easiest way to separate the seeds from the bits of pulp is to float them in water. The seeds float and the pulp sinks. Then you can just scoop the clean seeds off the top.

My medium sized pumpkin yielded just 1 cup of seeds!

Fill a pot with water and salt and dump the seeds in. Bring to a boil for 10 minutes. This is supposed to help with the crispiness of the seeds.

After boiling, my seeds were sort of browish-grey and their clear papery seed casings had vanished.

Spread out on a cookie sheet after being oiled and seasoned! I used a pasta claw spoon to stir and distribute them.

All baked up and crispy! They came out really well. I only wish I had more than one cup. These will last for one week in a sealed container, so if you have 3 or 4 pumpkins worth, you have time to eat them.