HOW TO ROAST PUMPKIN SEEDS

A few weeks ago, I blogged HERE about roasting some Sugar Pumpkins.  I mentioned saving the seeds because we were going to roast them. 

Well, here is how we did it:

First, take your seeds (above) and remember when saving them, try to remove as much pulp by hand as possible.  Then put them in a bowl of water and the seeds will float and the pulp will mostly be under them.

Put them in a strainer and run water under them for one last cleaning, they are slippery don't lose any.

Put them in a pot of water, with enough water to cover them.  Now you want to salt the water.  We used 1 TBSP per 2 cups of seeds.  It sounds like a lot but don't worry, it's not.

Just bring them to a boil and allow to boil in the salted water for about 10 minutes. Take them off the heat and drain them, you can use the same strainer as when you rinsed them off.

Spread out on a baking sheet and dab with paper towels to get them as dry as possible.  Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. You can, at this point, drizzle with olive oil or butter if desired.  We left ours plain for this first go round.

Roast for about 20 minutes but you must do it in stages.  We roasted them for 10 minutes and they looked like this...

We tossed them around in the pan and put them in for another 5 minutes...

Then we tossed them around again and put them in for 5 more minutes...

This was what they looked like after 20 minutes, toasted and crispy.  Feel free to sample them, that's the best way to know when they are done.  You want them crispy, not chewy.  Since all ovens are different it could be 15-30 minutes.  Just test and watch them.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with a bit more salt, you want some on the outside just for taste.  You could also take this time to season with chili powder, pepper, cinnamon/sugar or whatever seasoning you prefer.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

And that's it.  Really couldn't be easier and they are so yummy and crunchy.  We used them for a couple of weeks (kept in a sealed container), a handful here and there, we added them to some salads for a crunchy topping.

Enjoy!

UPDATE:  Based on comments and questions, I thought I'd add to this post so that anyone stopping by on a Google search will have more info.

Boiling in water?  This is the first method I learned and the only one I've done.  They can be roasted without this step of course, just cleaned and dried.  The purpose of the boiling, salted water is to get some flavor inside the shell and it does make them flavorful.

Eat whole or open?  Unlike sunflower seeds, these can be eaten whole.  But like sunflower seeds, they can also be cracked open with your teeth (easy way,ha) and you can eat the smaller seed inside.  But again, these are most normally just eaten whole.  They need to be crispy so that you chew them up.