Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

The deluge of rain definitely put a damper on things last weekend but the sun finally came out Saturday afternoon so it turned out to be a perfect night for trick-or-treating.  Did we let the dreary weather stop us from carving pumpkins? No way!  Even the slimy little slugs in our garden liked our jack 'o lanterns so much they came all the way up to our front porch to check them out.  Have you ever saved the pumpkin seeds for roasting?  Why throw them away when you can make a tasty little treat!

After rinsing the seeds off in a small colander to remove the pumpkin "guts", I placed seeds on a sheet of waxed paper to dry out over night (or until they are completely dry).  The picture below shows how the seeds look after mixing with olive oil and seasonings but before roasting.

Measure out a cup of seeds and pour into mixing bowl.  For each cup of seeds, I tossed in 1 teaspoon of olive oil plus a variety of seasonings (except for Sugar & Spice version which calls for melted butter).

Simple Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
(Fiesta Lime pictured above)

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Toss seeds with oil.  Add seasonings stirring to completely coat each seed.  Pour onto parchment covered baking sheet spreading seeds out into a single layer.  Place pan in the oven and roast for 20-25 minutes depending on how toasty you like them.  I checked my seeds every 10 minutes to make sure they didn't burn. You want them lightly browned.

For roasted pumpkin seeds with a little extra flavor, you can add a variety of seasonings.  I like the Mrs. Dash brand of seasonings because they are salt-free.

Fiesta Lime
Add 1/2 teaspoon Fiesta Lime Seasoning (Mrs. Dash brand)

Lemon Pepper
Add 1/2 teaspoon Lemon Pepper seasoning (Mrs. Dash brand)

Garlic 
Add 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Sugar & Spice
Eliminate olive oil, salt and pepper.  Add 1/2 melted butter, 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice seasoning and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar or turbinado sugar such as Sugar in the Raw.

My older son (who can be on the picky side) said, "These are amazing!"  That's a huge endorsement coming from him and made my heart smile! :-D

The entire batch of roasted pumpkin seeds (garlic seasoned) got gobbled up before I could even finish typing this post! This snack is so yummy and addictive it should come with a warning label - Once you start eating them, it's hard to stop!