Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

It's two days before Halloween. Have you carved your pumpkins yet? Are you carving them tonight? Are you looking for a recipe to toast your seeds? If so, you've come to the right place!

I'll be honest: As a child, I don't remember ever really loving pumpkin seeds. My three brothers and I would carve; Dad would supervise; and Mom would be gathering our seeds, rinsing, prepping, and baking. And then, after a job well done, we would eye our pumpkins admiringly (or with sympathy depending on how they looked) and eat pumpkin seeds. I'd eat a few and be done.

This year, I had to toast The Mr.'s and I's seeds, because.. well.. that's just what you do after you carve pumpkins. And they were good! I like pumpkin seeds now!

I guess I don't know how I didn't appreciate them before. I mean.. they're drenched in butter and salt...


4-5 c. pumpkin seeds (we got this amount from 2 large pumpkins)
1 stick butter
salt


Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Make sure your seeds are rinsed well, with chunks of pulp removed. A few remaining strings here and there won't hurt anyone. Allow them to dry in a colander. Here again, they don't need to be DRY; just not dripping wet.

On a cookie sheet, dump pumpkin seeds. Resist the urge to spread them out all pretty yet.

Melt butter and pour over pumpkin seeds. Now you can spread evenly across the cookie sheet. Season generously with salt.

Bake for about an hour, stirring every 20 minutes or so. If you are baking a smaller amount of seeds than I have listed above, your layer will be thinner, and therefore, your cooking time could be reduced to about 45 minutes or so.

The best way to know if they're done? Taste test. Buttery, salty, crunchy. Yum.