I love Halloween, not for the candy, but for my Mom’s roasted pumpkin seeds. Growing up, my family always carved pumpkins as a kind of family tradition. As I’ve gotten older and married and had a kid we still carve pumpkins at my parents house every year. I do have to say even as a kid I think I looked forward to this more than candy and trick or treating. Why, you may ask? Well, I’ve just always been a salty person over a sweet person, but also because my Mom’s roasted pumpkin seeds were so good.
It always went down like this: kids carved the pumpkins, and while we were carving the pumpkins, magically, the seeds that we just scraped out of the pumpkins showed up on the table roasted, toasted and perfectly salty. I never paid attention to the fact that while I was trying to think of the best Jack-o’-lantern face to carve on the pumpkin, my Mom was at work in the kitchen washing and roasting the pumpkin seeds so that we could eat them while we were still working on our Jack-o’-lanterns. Now yes some people soak their seeds overnight, boil their seeds then let them dry out or some other time consuming thing that doesn’t work for my instant gratification self.
The whole idea of this recipe, as it seemed from my mom, was to just get the seeds roasted and salted as quickly as possible so that we could enjoy them as quickly as possible. That’s what she did while we were growing up and that’s what she does still today. So when we went over this last Sunday to carve pumpkins I told her I wanted her recipe for how she roasted the pumpkin seeds. This couldn’t have been easier – it’s so simple: scoop the seeds, pick out the seeds from the flesh and sorta wash them, toss on the tray with olive oil and salt. Boom 15 minutes later you have perfectly roasted and salty pumpkin seeds. It doesn’t have to be rocket science, just get the seeds in the oven asap while cutting the pumpkins so you can eat them all like a frantic pumpkin seed eating maniac!
Picking out the seeds from the pulp
Washing the seeds
Pat the seeds dry
Toss with Olive Oil and Kosher Salt
Before oven
After oven
- Pumpkin
- Olive Oil
- Kosher Salt
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- While the oven is preheating have some fun cutting open the top of the pumpkin. Now scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff into a bowl. After everything is scraped out, separate the seeds from the pulp. Feel free to leave some of the pulp on the seeds as this adds taste and texture.
- After the seeds are separated put them in a strainer and wash them under water for just a second. Pat the seeds dry with a towel. Then toss the seeds on a baking tray. Pour some olive oil over the seeds and sprinkle kosher salt to taste over the seeds and mix it all around with a wooden spoon. I don’t have exact measurements on this as it doesn’t really matter. Just play with it and see what works for you. Again, it’s not rocket science. Just make sure to keep the seeds away from the sides of the tray so they don’t burn.
- Now put the tray in the oven for 15–20 min. Stir the seeds on the tray half way through. Watch the tray closely at 15 min and roast to your liking. Just make sure they don’t burn as this can happen quickly near the end.