One of the best parts about Halloween is the pumpkin carving, and one of the best parts about pumpkin carving is pumpkin seeds! There’s something pretty amazing about doing a craft that produces both a festive art piece as well as a seasonal snack. It’s so easy to prepare, and you have endless flavors to choose!
What you’ll need:
- Colander
- Cookie sheet
- Wax paper or aluminum foil
- Olive oil
- Salt
- Spices of your choice (we used paprika, garlic powder, oregano, and dill)
Wash The Seeds
Remove any chunks of pumpkin from your bowl of seeds as there are likely bits left behind from when you separated them. Put your seeds in a colander and run warm water over them. Move the seeds around with your hand to make sure every piece gets rinsed.
Dry The Seeds
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and cover a cookie sheet with wax paper or aluminum foil to make clean up easier. Once you’ve cleared all the goop away and your seeds are clean and shiny, put them all on said cookie sheet. For the most consistent results, make sure to spread out the seeds so that none are overlapping each other. Put the cookie sheet into your oven for 10-30 minutes to dry them out. Check on the seeds every 10 minutes or so until they’ve reached your desired level of dryness. Some of the seeds may roast slightly while in the oven, and that’s just fine.
Oil and Salt
Once the seeds are dry, pull them out of the oven and wait for them to be cool enough to touch. Then scoop the seeds into a bowl and rub olive oil and salt into them. The amount of oil or salt depends on preference, but make sure there’s enough oil to coat all of the seeds for optimum roasting.
Add Spices
Having trouble deciding on how to spice up your seeds? Check out some pumpkin seed spice recipes here for inspiration. Because we had pumpkin seeds from 4 large pumpkins, we didn’t want to commit to just one flavor for such a big supply. We divided our seeds into fourths and coated each batch with its own pinch of paprika, oregano, dill, or garlic powder.
Roast ‘em!
If you’re just looking for a straightforward salty treat, you can skip the spicing step and jump right to roasting. Pop the seeds back onto the cookie sheet and into the oven again for another 20-30 minutes. Again, check on them every 10 minutes to see when they’re at your desired level of roasting.
Enjoy!
Once your seeds finish roasting, set them out in a bowl to munch on. They’re the perfect salty, crunchy treat to enjoy with fall’s crispy weather and wide selection of festive snacks.
