Day 16 of 31 days of pumpkin and we arrive at the roasted pumpkin seed. I love how seasonal these are. I mean, on what other day of the year do you roast your own pumpkin seeds but on about October 29? This year, I’ve decided to coat my pumpkin seeds with savory spices, but believe me, pumpkin seeds are divine when roasted with just a little bit of olive oil and a LOT of salt.
Getting the seeds out of the pumpkin wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be. If you paw through them while you rinse them, the remaining pieces of pulp come right off.
There are lots of different choices to make when roasting pumpkin seeds. Do you boil them first or shoot them straight into the oven? Do you roast them at high heat, like 400˚F? Or do you slow roast them at 275˚F or 300˚F? Do you coat them with goodies or just let them stand on their own with a little salt? So far this season, I’ve done them two different ways and both were great in their own way, so I’m beginning to think you really can’t screw up pumpkin seeds (unless you burn them). The first way was with my friend Karen. She threw them in a 400˚F oven with a LOT of salt and some olive oil. It took about 15 minutes. They were great right out of the oven. Well, not right out of the oven. Ouch. Those were the ones garnishing my Pumpkin Sage Soup awhile back. And then today, I went for the slow roast with lots of stuff caked on. These also were great. They stood the test of time a bit better than the earlier ones did in both the flavor and texture categories, but they did not outdo the first ones while still warm. Decisions, decisions.
DarrenBarr, a member of StreamingGourmet, has a pumpkin seed recipe video that I really like. The spices he uses are a little different than the ones I chose, but the concept is similar. And it’s really funny to watch him using a hair dryer to get his seeds nice and dry. You can check out his other recipes and videos at his site, Making It With Darren.
Darren bakes his pumpkin seeds for almost an hour in a 300˚F oven, but I found that I needed to take mine out after just over 30 minutes. My pumpkin seeds weren’t totally dry when they went into the oven either, which made me think that they would take at least 45 minutes to get crispy. But 30 was enough, so make sure that you check on your roasting seeds frequently to prevent burning them.
- 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, well rinsed and patted dry
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp garlic pepper
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp Spanish paprika
- 1 tsp sea salt + more to taste
- Preheat the oven to 300˚F. Spray a large cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray.
- Once the seeds are rinsed and patted dry, mix the butter, Worcestershire sauce and the rest of the seasonings together in a large zip lock bag. Dump in the seeds, seal the bag and shake it about until the seeds are evenly coated.
- Spread the seeds evenly on the cookie sheet in a single layer. Bake for 30-45 minutes, checking on them and flipping them over every 10 minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly and either eat warm from the oven or toss them on a salad or make them in the recipe that will be posted tomorrow. You'll see!
Other great roasted pumpkin seed recipes from around the blogosphere:
Can you believe Heidi was blogging about this in 2006? Unbelievable.
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds: 3 Way Recipe from 101 Cookbooks
Cinnamon & Chili Pumpkin Seeds from ZOE
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds from Simply Recipes
3 replies on “Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds”
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[…] and a word about roasting pumpkin seeds. I did a post earlier this month where I roasted the seeds with a rich, spicy coating, but for the salad, I just tossed them with olive oil and a lot of salt and roasted them on a […]
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