One of my favorite Halloween snacks is surprisingly not candy. It’s roasted pumpkin seeds! They are the easiest thing to make and you already have them if you decide to carve pumpkins. Here is my favorite recipe for cooking roasted pumpkin seeds!
First, carve your pumpkin with a fun face or a scary witch, and when you’re about to clean up, WAIT. Grab all the pumpkin guts and start separating the seeds from the orange mush. This task is a little tedious but so worth it. Don’t worry if you don’t get them all, because if you carved multiple pumpkins, you’ll have plenty.
Next, you’re going to want to rinse off the seeds, try to get the remaining pumpkin off so the seeds are clean. Now is where is gets a little more precise. Now, boil the pumpkin seeds in salted water for about 10 minutes.
½ cup of pumpkin seeds will need 2 cups of water and 1 tablespoon of salt.
So to make the math a little bit easier for you, I’ll add a little cheat sheet.
- 1 cup of pumpkin seeds will need 4 cups of water and 2 tablespoons of salt.
- 2 cups of pumpkin seeds will need 8 cups of water and 4 tablespoons of salt.
Now, I know that sounds like a lot of water, but I would only recommend boiling two cups of pumpkin seeds at a time, because that is a lot of seeds, and water. You can also add more salt if you want a bit more saltiness and flavor. Once, boiling, leave to simmer for about 10 minutes.
After that ten minutes, turn the stove off and remove seeds and drain water.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a roasting pan with oil or cover with olive oil.
Before putting the seeds on the pan, pour some olive oil into the pot with the drained seeds and toss a bit to cover them with oil and them spread them across the sheet.
Bake in oven for 5-20 minutes. I know that sounds like a large gap, but smaller seeds take less time, so it depends on the size of the seed. Check in at the five-minute mark, and remove if seeds have browned. If that’s not the case, keep checking in until seeds begin to brown and then remove and let cool.
Once cool, scoop some up and enjoy!