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.
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| 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.
I am laughing at my ignorance. When my daughter was four (35 years ago, we had three pumpkins at Halloween. I cleaned the seeds, sprinkled 1/2 tsp salt on the pumpkin seeds and roasted them at 350 degrees until they looked like they were done. She ate so many, I had to stop her. She begged for them everyday. Even though she had no gastric distress, I still only gave her about 1/4 cup each day. I knew nothing of boiling or so much salt. I did stir once. ACK...now I know. Thanks for the instructions. Oh, I never tasted even one, but she loved them.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize that so many people didn't boil them. The boiling gets the inside salted as well. They are good. Maybe next year you could surprise her with some. :-)
Delete"used them for a couple of weeks" - WHAT???? you tell falsehoods here! we eat them all in one sitting - bahahahahah! and add them to salads? that just sounds blasphemous! i love them coated, and i mean coated, in olive oil and a ton of fresh sea salt - deevine!
ReplyDeletewishing you both lots of love and a very merry christmas! your friend,
kymber
Well we did have quite a few.... ;-) And the salads had those...and dried cranberries...and blue cheese crumbles...and bacon bits...and....well, you get the picture.
DeleteI will try olive oil next time!
I, too, am surprised about the boiling part. I wouldn't have thought to do that. They look delish!
ReplyDeleteThe boiling gets salt (i.e. flavor) inside the shell. Plus I think it par cooks it a bit and helps it get a bit crisper. Of course I've never done it without doing that so I might like it the other way, ha.
DeleteI roasted my pumpkin seeds pre-internet and without a recipe at all. I just did what seemed like it might work. I figured "roasted pumpkin seeds" should be roasted....lol. There was no boiling in the title of the recipe. But, a four-year-old ate them, but she would eat anything.
DeleteAh, the good old days when we all had to actually figure it out. Now as much as I'd like to take credit for boiliing, I did read that but not online, in an actual book, ha. Hey, I'm forty-something and I'll eat anything too, LOL!
Deletei love roasting pumpkin seeds but never heard of boiling them. what does the boiling do?
ReplyDeleteThe place where I read this said it produced flavorful seeds...apparently it helps to season the inside. Of course, I never did it any other way so I don't know any different, ha.
DeleteWell you can add me to the list about the boiling.. ROFL now see you have started a new trend! :O)
ReplyDeleteI started something new, ha! I'm willing to try sometime without boiling and maybe with and then compare. ;-)
Delete1st Man,
ReplyDeleteI'm with Kymber.............we eat all the seeds immediately after roasting them. There's no waiting or eating for days.
We have 8 pie pumpkins worth, two and a half of those baking sheets. They lasted longer than we thought they would, ha.
DeleteNo wonder my seeds were always so gross. I never boiled them either. Next year though, pumpkin seed nirvana awaits. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteLOL, pumpkin nirvana sounds like a good thing. ;-)
DeleteNot to sound as out of the loop as I am (LOL), but do you crack these open to eat just the inside, or do you eat the shell and all? I've never eaten roasted pumpkin seeds before, so forgive my ignorance! ;)
ReplyDeleteNot at all, no worries. I wasn't sure when we first did them either, ha. They can be cracked open like sunflower seeds and there is a tiny seed inside like a sunflower. But unlike those, yep, you can, and most commonly, eat them whole. Just make sure they are good and crispy. If they are chewy, they have an off-putting texture.
DeleteAgain, no worries, and hey, it's not ignorance, it's just no experience with it, ha.
Never boiled my seeds before. Clean them, roast them, salt them. Done.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of boiling them either. K~