Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
With pumpkins, squash, and all other sorts of gourds in season now, ideally, you’ll be using them in your dishes. Where there’s pumpkins, there’s seeds, and you wouldn’t think of just throwing them out, right?
These are really easy to make and are a great seasonal snack to have–toasty, crunchy, and salty–definitely a good substitute for a bowl of peanuts. If you’re like me, you might also like to add “spicy,” to the mix, but I’ll leave that one up to you. I happened to have seeds from one pumpkin and from two acorn squash (I wonder if they have any relation to acorn squash stuffed with beef or pumpkin pie? Odd coincidence…).
Most recipes call for simply oiling and salting the seeds and then roasting them in the oven. I wouldn’t have thought to boil the seeds prior to roasting in the oven, but sure enough, its a good way to soften the shells a bit and add a little bit of salt and moisture into them before they go in the oven.
- Pumpkin and/or squash seeds
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Ground chipotle pepper
- Cayenne pepper
- Ground cardamom
- Onion powder
First, rinse and clean the seeds in case there’s still any pumpkin flesh/stringy stuff on them.
Then, get some water boiling and toss in about 2 tablespoons of salt.
While you’re waiting for the water to reach a boil, preheat your oven to 375?F.
Add in your seeds, lower the heat to medium, and leave them rolling around in there for about 10 minutes.
Once done boiling, drain and let your seeds cool off a little. I tend to skip these “wait a moment” steps because hey, I’m very busy. This is why I often have small (but nonetheless annoying) burns, so do yourself a favor and give them a few minutes. 
Once your able to comfortably handle the seeds, first taste one or two to see if you’re happy with the level of salt from the boiling. Then, toss them in olive oil and then coat with spices. You don’t need to be terribly precise with the spices–just add them to taste and try to coat all of the seeds fairly evenly. The chipotle will give a nice smokiness in addition to spiciness, which you’ll take a little further with the cayenne. The cardamom is just a savory something different, which is always fun to use in small amounts because you just can’t put your finger on that one strangely sweet flavor… Anyways, lay them out flat in a pan/baking sheet, being sure not to stack or pile them up.
Put your seeds in the oven and let them cook for about 30 minutes. They should brown a pinch and get a nice toasty flavor. Like after boiling, don’t go munching them down fresh out of the oven–give them a minute. Then enjoy!
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