Roasted pumpkin seeds

In Europe, the pumpkin craze is not as evident as it is in the United states of America. In fact, the only time I have encountered an edible pumpkin in Europe was when I was living in Portugal - they were selling them in a local supermarket in fall. And when I was living in Barcelona, I did see a pumpkin spice latte at a local Starbucks, but I never tried it because Europeans simply do not associate pumpkins with food, therefore I was sure it tastes gross.

But if you live in the United states, fall is full of pumpkins. They are everywhere! And I am not sure whether this is because people here love Halloween, or for some other reason. So, you have pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks, roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pies, pumpkin spice pancakes and waffles, among other things. I tolerate most of the things I mentioned, especially pumpkin spice waffles and roasted pumpkin seeds. And since we carved pumpkins last week for Halloween and decided to roast the seeds from those pumpkins, I would like to share this super simple, yet delicious recipe with you.

Ingredients and other things you will need

• Pumpkin seeds;
• Different spices and sauces, including, but not limited to chili powder, salt and pepper, garlic powder and barbecue sauce;
• Canola oil or parchment paper for the baking tray.

Where to get the seeds?

The answer is more simple than you think - inside the pumpkin, of course! Do not even think of buying them in the store. And most kinds of pumpkins are okay. People here just use seeds from pumpkins that they carved for Halloween.

This type of pumpkin has perfect seeds for roasting.

Preparing the seeds for roasting

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. After you carve the seeds out of the pumpkin, use your hands to separate the seeds from the pumpkin. If you do not like the feeling of a slimy pumpkin interior on your hands, simply use rubber gloves. After you roughly separated the seeds from the pumpkin pulp, wash them in the sink, but do not leave them in the water for long.

The best thing to do to clean the seeds well is to put them in the pasta drainer and just run water over them several times. That should clean them sufficiently. Do not worry, you do not have to clean off all the pulp - it will add some flavor, but do not leave big chunks of it. Do not ‘peel’ the seeds after you are done washing them. In fact, do not peel them at all - once you are done with roasting them, you can eat them whole. Most stores are selling peeled pumpkin seeds and that is what we are all prepared to see and therefore we automatically assume that peeled pumpkin seeds would taste better. But not in this case. After washing the seeds, put them on a kitchen towel and let them dry for a while.

While the seeds are drying, prepare the baking tray. You can either spray it with canola oil or just put parchment paper on it. Parchment paper is much less messy and requires less cleaning after baking, but it is not as environmentally friendly as the canola oil.

Variations

It is easy to experiment with different spices while roasting your pumpkin seeds. If you are not sure what you would like to do, try to roast small amounts of pumpkin seeds with different spices to see which option you like the most. I did experiment a little, and my two favourite flavors are the spicy chipotle and the regular version.

This is how home made roasted pumpkin seeds, seasoned with salt, look like.

And this is the chipotle version. The black spots look like dirt, but these are spices.

To season the pumpkin seeds, put them in a bowl and spray some canola oil on them - this will make the seasonings stick to the seeds. Stir and add seasonings of your choice.

Feel free to experiment with different seasonings in your pantry.

The roasting process

After seasoning the pumpkin seeds, spread them on the baking tray evenly and put them in the oven for about forty minutes (depending on the oven you have). Make sure you stir them at least three times during baking, so they will be evenly roasted. The best indicator when the seeds are perfectly roasted is when they are golden brown. If you like them crunchier, simply leave them in the oven for a few minutes longer.

After roasting

When you are satisfied with the crunchiness of your freshly roasted pumpkin seeds, it is time to take them out of the oven and let them cool down. You can just take the tray out and leave it on the stove top. Storing the roasted pumpkin seeds is super easy, you can simply use zip lock bags or plastic Tupperware containers. As you can see from the pictures above, I used zip lock bags.

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