Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Get Roasting! Make Toasty Roasted Pumpkin Seeds and Turn that Jack-o-Lantern into Something Tasty!
Make roasted pumpkin seeds from your Halloween or pie pumpkin and enjoy a toasty, tasty, nutritious snack!
Making roasted pumpkin seeds instead of throwing the seeds away and enjoy a tasty treat with good nutritional value. Pumpkin seeds are a good source of proten and monounsaturuated fats. They have phosophorous, magnesium and manganese as well as minerals such as zinc, iron and copper. Some studies show that they help reduce cholesterol as well as having other health benefits.
It's really easy to roast pumpkin seeds. The worst part is getting them out of the pumpkin. If you're never had the experience, let me just say that it's a rather slimy process. If you're going to clean out a pumpkin to make a jack-o-lantern, then you might as well put the seeds to good use.
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
- 1 pumpkin
- 2 TBS cooking oil
- salt (just a light sprinkling)
After getting the seeds out of the pumpkin, wash off as much of the slimy strings as possible. Then put the seeds on a brown paper bag to dry overnight. The rest of the slimy stuff should shake right off the next day.
Put seeds in a zip lock bag with the oil. Shake well.
Spread the seeds out in an even layer on a baking or cookie sheet with small sides.
Sprinkle a little salt evenly over the seeds. Go light on that, or you won't have such a healthy snack.
Bake at 200 degrees F for around 30 minutes. Stir the seeds a couple of times during the 30 minutes to ensure even drying.
Store seeds in an airtight plastic bag or container.
These are great to eat as a snack or added to salads.
If you're willing to put in a little more time, you can use the pumpkin flesh too. Check out my variations for making your own pumpkin puree for all your pumpkin recipes.
