When I was a kid, designing the face for our family’s Halloween pumpkin was my opportunity to stretch my artistic wings…in the confines of a large oval…using triangles and circles. You could say that I can draw as well as David Hasselhoff can cha-cha-cha across the dance floor (not pretty!). And really, that is giving me far too much praise. To put it simply, I can't draw my way out of a box. But I can separate pumpkin seeds from pumpkin guts like nobody's business. And so, then and now, I am relegated to pumpkin seed duty.
Thankfully, my boys enjoy squishing pumpkin innards through their fingers as much as they like dreaming up scary or silly jack-o-lantern faces. Our assembly line starts with my husband scooping out the pumpkin, then moves to the boys separating the seeds while I stand at the ready to rinse, dry, season, and roast the seeds. Whenever my mum made this seasonal snack, she roasted them simply with canola oil and kosher salt. That is still my favorite version, but I also listed a cinnamon sugar version here for those of you who enjoy a little sweet with your savory.
The recipe:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, with rack placed in the middle of the oven.
Scoop all of the innards out of a large pumpkin. This recipe is for 2 cups of pumpkin seeds, so adjust the amount of seasonings accordingly if you have more or less than 2 cups.
Thoroughly separate the seeds from the "guts" and place the seeds in a strainer. Rinse well and drain.
Place all of the seeds on a kitchen towel, cover with another kitchen towel, and pat dry thoroughly.
Place the seeds on a large baking sheet. Toss the seeds with canola oil.
Ignore the brown sugar and cayenne pepper that you see in this picture. That version didn't turn out how I imagined. Good flavor, but didn't stick to the seeds. That will be a future project.
For plain, salted seeds:
Toss the oil-coated seeds with kosher salt and spread in a single layer.
For cinnamon sugar seeds:
In a small bowl, stir granulated sugar and ground cinnamon. Toss the oil-coated seeds with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Place baking sheet in the oven and cook until the seeds are golden brown and crunchy (test one, but be careful because it will be hot), about 25 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Cool and serve. These stay good for weeks, though little hands make certain that they never last that long in our house.
Other roasted snacks:
Cookin' Canuck's Spicy Roasted Chickpeas with Rosemary & Brown Sugar
Kalyn's Kitchen's Roasted Kale Chips with Sea Salt & Vinegar
Passionate Eater's Dry-Roasted Pea Snacks
Mignardise's Rosemary Roasted Cashews
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds – Two Ways
If you want to make both types of seeds, you will need twice the amount of pumpkin seeds and canola oil.
1 large pumpkin (to yield 2 cups pumpkin seeds)
4 teaspoon canola oil
Plain, salted seeds:
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Cinnamon sugar seeds:
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, with rack placed in the middle of the oven.
Scoop all of the innards out of a large pumpkin. This recipe is for 2 cups of pumpkin seeds, so adjust the amount of seasonings accordingly if you have more or less than 2 cups.
Thoroughly separate the seeds from the "guts" and place the seeds in a strainer. Rinse well and drain.
Place all of the seeds on a kitchen towel, cover with another kitchen towel, and pat dry thoroughly.
Place the seeds on a large baking sheet. Toss the seeds with canola oil.
For plain, salted seeds:
Toss the oil-coated seeds with kosher salt and spread in a single layer.
For cinnamon sugar seeds:
In a small bowl, stir granulated sugar and ground cinnamon. Toss the oil-coated seeds with the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Place baking sheet in the oven and cook until the seeds are golden brown and crunchy (test one, but be careful because it will be hot), about 25 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Cool and serve. These stay good for weeks.
Makes approximately 2 cups roasted pumpkin seeds.
Belinda @zomppa
Squishing the innards are still fun. Great cinnamon spice!
Evan @swEEts
Yum Yum Yum. We have a huge pumpkin waiting to be devoured and these are perfect recipes for the seeds!
Monet
One of the first "dates" Ryan and I went on involved carving a pumpkin. Needless to say, I carry fond memories of pumpkin seeds and carving in my heart. Thank you for sharing these with us...I've never tried a sweet variety of pumpkin seeds before so the cinnamon sugar looks especially tempting.
Virginia
these look great. growing up we always made parmesan pumpkin seeds. toss them in oil and then sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese (any kind is fine.) i wonder if the cayenne might stick with that?
Jason Phelps
I've tried making plain salted ones in the past and didn't really dig them. Putting a flavored seasoning on them might change that. Thanks for sharing.
Jason
Torviewtoronto
thank you for sharing this looks good
eatgreek.net
very interesting recipes!!! thanks! 😀
Marisa
My boyfriend and I carve a pumpkin every year. I am always tempted to try doing something with the seeds but then they just go in the garbage. I think this might be the year where they won't go to waste. The cinnamon sugar seeds sounds really good!
danasfoodforthought
I wish you had posted this a couple of days earlier! I roasted some spaghetti squash seeds earlier this week,and would have loved a cinnamon sugar version. I'll remember this for next time!
marla {family fresh cooking}
Always of fan of pumpkins and pumpkin seeds over here. Wish we could have you over to help us decorate pumpkins this weekend! You pro you! & we will ignore the sugar version, for now anyways. xo
Cookin' Canuck
Rachel - LOL. I'd like to think that the similarities between the Hoff and I stop at artistic failings.
Claudia, Kalyn, RED - Thanks, I had a lot of fun setting up these photos.
Pretend Chef - I never take the shell off. Just pop the whole thing into your mouth. Trust me!
Natalie - The salted version are still my favorite, but the cinnamon sugar ones are fun as a treat.
Susan - Eating pumpkin seeds is one of my favorite parts of Halloween. Be sure to try them.
warmvanillasugar - I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Anna - Thanks so much. I'm really happy with it, too.
Anna
Great idea Dara, and looooooove the new design it looks beautiful. Have a great weekend.
Kalyn
These photos are so fun. I love roasted pumpkin seeds; sounds like a fun project.
warmvanillasugar
Great recipes! I'm going to try this tonight!
doughmesstic
I've never done anything with the seeds beyond dump them in the garbage. Good thing we haven't made our Jack-o-Lantern yet! Great ideas!
~RED~
Great pics! love the presentation! I made some cinnamon sugar pumpkin seeds a couple weeks ago.. loved them..
Natalie
Beautiful pictures! I've been munching on pumpkin seeds all week; I just wish I'd make some of the cinnamon sugar variety--yum!
Pretend Chef
I have never heard of or thought of making a sweetened version of pumpkin seeds! I am in love with that idea. I love pumpkin seeds. I always eat them without the shell. Is that how these are suppose to be ate?
http://imapretendchef.blogspot.com
Pegasuslegend
one of my favorites to snack on these are perfect love the pictures and depth perception!
Rachel
I simply can not allow any parallels between you and the Hoff. That WAS painful, wasn't it? How delightfully seasonal are these seeds....it's officially fall! Yum.