Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Every food blog I follow thinks people need a recipe on baking pumpkin seeds. (insert laugh here…)

I’ve read posts on how they clean them, rinse them, soak them overnight, parboil them to cook the seed inside, add oil, season them with spices; one bakes at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, one bakes for 30 minutes at 350, one post I read even advises you on how to eat a pumpkin seed; “Crack the seed open with your teeth, eat the seed inside and discard the shell.”

R-E-A-L-L-Y?!

I don’t mean to be unkind, but give me just a small break, and… um… how ’bout no.

It’s not that difficult, recipe people. Pumpkin seeds are slippery, slimy, right? So, the key to a good final seed is… drying first, THEN baking.

I grew up eating these Indian Brand Pumpkin Seeds. Remember those? Coated in a pure white, thick-salt coating. YUM! Well, this is my recipe for those, except much less white. Enjoy!

Indian Brand Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients:

Seeds from your Halloween pumpkin(s).

Sea salt or course kosher salt, (I use coarse kosher salt)

(Yes, that’s it!)

Directions:

Oven at 300 degrees.

Clean your seeds by continuously rinsing and removing pulp with your fingers. Drain in a strainer.

Keep them somewhat wet (not drenched) so the salt adheres. Pour into a metal or glass mixing bowl. , stir, salt, stir, salt, until well coated to your liking.

Put on a baking sheet, NO OIL (you’re not frying them!)

While you’re waiting… ask yourself why in the world you would want to cover the flavor of a real pumpkin seed, you get once a year with any kind of FLAVORING other than salt?!

Turn every 10 minutes for about an hour to an hour and 5 minutes until seeds are mainly white in color with a slight golden edge. (If the seeds are nice and dry at the 45 minute mark, you can then turn the oven up to 325 for the rest of the baking time.) Take the seeds out of the oven and eat them by the handfuls, warm! Yes, the whole damn thing!

Note: If you have to take off the outer seed, before you eat the inner seed, the outer seed isn’t dried and baked long enough. The outer shell should disintegrate nicely in your mouth without the splintery mess of a under-cooked seed.

I’ve shipped these all the way to my son in the military who was stationed in England and they were still as crunchy as the day I made them when he got them over a week and a half to two weeks later.

Enjoy!