Do you have any special Fall traditions at your house? We’ve sort of fallen into a few, by accident; the accidental traditions always end up being the crowd favorites. One of our favorite traditions is making oven roasted pumpkin seeds after we carve our pumpkins.
Have you ever eaten pumpkin seeds? Oh man, they’re insane. Salted, roasted? Hold me.
First things first: carve pumpkins with your family. It’s a complete and total mess, and if your kids are anything like mine they’ve been begging to carve pumpkins since September. Anything messy, disgusting, or slimy?
We seek after these things.
Carve your pumpkins, pull out all the gunk, and you’re ready to rock and roll. No, not really. Separate out the pumpkin seeds from the yuck as much as possible, throw the seeds into a strainer and run water through them until you get most of the pumpkin off the seeds. Next fill up a bowl with a briny solution of water and salt. I’d have a salt lick on my nightstand if it weren’t so disgusting, so don’t measure your salt intake by my standards. I usually fill a bowl halfway with water and add at least a half cup of salt.
Totally up to you though.
In fact, if you’re a spicy person {no, not spicy like THAT, although go you} you could even throw in some fun spices. I’m not a spice lover, so I leave it simple and salty. Yummy flavor options could be: garlic, chile powder, seasoned salt, onion salt or whatever suits your fancy.
Now soak your seeds overnight. I leave mine for about 24 hours so as to absorb the maximum amount of salt {see above re: salt lick}. An alternative is to just rinse the seeds, make sure they’re coated with liquid and toss with spices before baking.
Line a baking sheet with tinfoil, spread the seeds, and if you want one last shot at flavor sprinkle a little more on top before baking. You know what I do right? Add more salt.
Bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, checking on the seeds periodically and flipping them if you like. HOLY YUM. These bad boys will keep for at least a few months if kept in an airtight container. Guilt free snacking food, school lunch treat, whatever suits your fancy.
Do you do this at your house too? Do you have any other fun family traditions for Fall I need to know about/incorporate into my life? Please to be sharing.
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Allison
Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!
Yum! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to roast pumpkin seeds and failed — can’t wait to try your instructions (with all the salt as well!!!).
Oh Aimee, they’re so delicious. Good luck!
ha ha ha “we seek after these things” i love it!
pumpkin seeds are a hit at our house too, and i use basically the same recipe.
I couldn’t help it. Only about 3 readers will get it.
I love pumpkin seeds! A little tip I figured out last year, sprinkle some sugar on top after you take them out of the oven. That way you’ve got sweet, salty and crunchy all in one bite. Oh, so good.
Oh man Cathy, that sounds delicious. Maybe even some cinnamon sugar? Yum!
OK I’m going to show my ignorance, but do you eat the whole thing or open it like a sunflower seed and eat the inside? I’ve tried and failed making these before too but thought maybe we just didn’t know how to eat them…I didn’t soak them though. I’m totally a salt lovin’ fool too so I bet I’d like them your way.
Jen,
You eat the whole darn thing. So yummy, and choc-full of fiber!
Hey Allison, yummmm! It was so good to see you yesterday. Thanks for all the support you always offer my sister. It means the world to us that can’t be there. You’re awesome!
You too Jeni! It would be fun if you lived closer. We could go home and drink diet beverages every Sunday afternoon. *cough*
IKR!
Roasted pumpkin seeds keep for a few months? That won’t ever happen in my house. ;-)
Ha! I know, they don’t even last a week in mine. In theory I suppose.
…and, did you know you can also do the exact same thing with the smaller seeds from acorn squash? Well, you can.
No! I did not! But now I’m going to have to try it, sounds delish.
Thanks for the recipe. I tried these one year and it was like eating salty cardboard. Didn’t do the soaking though. I’ll give that a try with this year’s pumpkin guts. :)
Try it and see if it helps. You might want to cook them for less time, or at a lower temp to make them less “cardboard-y”. What? That’s totally a word!
My favorite part of pumpkin carving, too! I had to link to your blog in my last post since I have never heard of brining pumpkins seeds – and it is so amazing. I didn’t know fall could get any better, but it just did. Thanks for such a great blog!
Here’s a link to my last post: http://cameronhomemadetips.blogspot.com/2011/10/scently-spooktacular.html