Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Every squash opened for a puree, soup, or Halloween jack-o'-lantern brings a handful of seeds that almost always ends up in the trash. Roasted, they are a crunchy snack and a topping for soups, salads, and breads. The secret to making them crunchy and flavorful all the way through is boiling them for a few minutes in salted water before roasting: the salt enters the seed and the cooking becomes even. They are eaten with their shell. They come from any squash: butternut squash seeds are smaller and thinner, and roast faster; Halloween pumpkin seeds, large and flat, are the classic ones.
🔎 What is winter squash? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.
🔎 What is pumpkin spice? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.
Ingredients
- Seeds from 1 squash or pumpkin (about 240 ml)
- 1 liter of water
- 1 tablespoon of coarse salt (for boiling)
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon of fine salt
- Optional (savory version): 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika, cumin, or crushed red pepper
- Optional (sweet version): 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin spice
Method
- 1
Separate the seeds from the pulp: put everything in a large bowl with water and rub with your fingers. The seeds float and the pulp sinks, so they separate almost on their own. If you are taking them from a carved pumpkin, the jack-o'-lantern tip explains how to empty it without suffering.
- 2
Boil them for 10 minutes in the liter of water with the coarse salt and drain them. This step salts them from the inside and ensures they roast evenly, without remaining raw in the center.
- 3
Dry them very well with a kitchen towel (dish towel). This is the most important step: with moisture, they steam and become chewy instead of crunchy.
- 4
Preheat the oven to 170 °C. Mix the seeds with the oil and fine salt, and spread them on a baking sheet (tray) in a single layer, without overlapping.
- 5
Bake for 15-25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until they are golden and crunch when bitten. A moderate temperature is intentional: at a higher temperature, the shell burns before the seed roasts on the inside. Butternut squash seeds, being smaller, are ready sooner.
- 6
For the savory version, sprinkle the paprika, cumin, or crushed red pepper as soon as they come out of the oven, while the seeds are still hot. For the sweet version, mix them while warm with the sugar and the pumpkin spice and return them to the oven for 3 minutes so the sugar sticks.
- 7
Let them cool on the baking sheet: they finish becoming crunchy as they cool. In a tightly closed jar, they last for a week. They go very well on creamy pumpkin soup or pumpkin bread.