Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

So maybe you carved a jack-o-lantern for Halloween or you made pumpkin stew, or maybe you just hollowed out a pumpkin to have a fancy serving dish.  If you did any of these, I know you came across a lot of pumpkin seeds.  Roasting them is super simple.

1. Just clean them well and get all of the stringy pumpkin pulp off of them, and rinse them (do this immediately–it will be nearly impossible if you allow the pumpkin goo to dry on the seeds).  Preheat oven to 325 F.

2. Bring the pumpkin seeds to a boil in salt water and let boil for about 1 minute.

3. Dry them and arrange them in a SINGLE layer on a baking sheet (if you have a really large pumpkin, you may need two separate baking sheets).  Toss them in olive oil to coat.

4. Bake in oven for about 15-25 minutes. This is the most important part. You have to taste them to determine whether or not they are done. You must watch them carefully because the little seeds inside of the pod will burn while the pod itself looks intact.  Keep checking every couple of minutes until the seeds texture/taste is sufficiently roasted.  Remove from oven, sprinkle with sea salt. Let cool, and store in an airtight container.

You can also toast butternut squash seeds and other gourd seeds.  Happy roasting!