The first time I roasted pumpkin seeds, I burned the crap out of them.
It was heart-breaking, especially since I wasn’t convinced it was even worth the effort in the first place. All that seed cleaning and pumpkin de-stringing – I didn’t even get to enjoy the fruits of my labour. Hrmph.
Here is the part that no one told me about: The inner seeds cook much faster than the outer shell. I kept peeking in the oven and everything looked fine on the outside. Little did I know, the inner seeds were burnt to smithereens.
Well, thank goodness I didn’t give up after that first miserable attempt! My life just wouldn’t be complete without roasted pumpkin seeds.
I’m happy to say, the second batch didn’t just work, it blew my mind! The cup of seeds I roasted did not last long between the two of us. Every pass by the kitchen was an excuse to grab a crispy handful off the pan.
Today, I’m sharing my secrets for a fantastic batch of roasted pumpkin seeds. If you’ve ever doubted they were worth the effort or had so-so results, I beg you to try this one last time. Only I know it won’t be the last time, but the start of a life-long obsession. Watch out pumpkins, we’re coming for ya!
How To Roast Pumpkin Seeds:
1. Clean the seeds. The annoying-but-necessary task is that you have to meticulously clean the seeds until there are no signs of pumpkin guts. The best way to do this (that I have discovered from your comments!) is to plunk the seeds + guts into a big bowl of water and use your hands to break it apart. The seeds will float to the top of the water! They clean much faster this way.
Note: Some of you say that sugar pumpkin seeds yield much crispier seeds than carving pumpkins. I used sugar pumpkin seeds and mine were certainly super crispy!
2. Boil for 10 minutes in salt water. Using Elise’s method for inspiration, I added the pumpkin seeds to a medium-sized pot of water along with 1 tsp salt. Bring it to a boil and reduce the heat to simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes over low-medium heat. Apparently, this method helps make the pumpkin seeds easier to digest and produces a crispy outer shell during roasting. If you are short on time, you can totally skip this step! They will still turn out lovely.
3. Drain the seeds in a colander and dry lightly with a paper towel or tea towel. The seeds will stick to the towel, but just rub them off with your fingers. Don’t worry, they don’t have to be bone dry – just a light pat down.
4. Spread seeds onto a baking sheet and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (I only needed to use about 1/2-1 tsp). Massage oil into seeds and add a generous sprinkle of Herbamare (or fine grain sea salt will do). Try to spread out the seeds as thin as possible with minor overlapping.
5. Roast seeds at 325°F for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and stir. Roast for another 8-10 minutes (if your oven temp is wonky, this bake time could vary a lot!). During the last 5 minutes of roasting, remove a few seeds and crack open to make sure the inner seeds are not burning (you don’t want the inner seed brown). Cool a couple and pop them into your mouth to test. They are ready when the shell is super crispy and easy to bite through. The inner seed should have only a hint of golden tinge to it. They should not be brown.
6. EAT! Remove from oven, add a bit more Herbamare, and dig in! Ah, so good, so good! There is no need to remove the outer shell; it’s quite possibly the best part.
I had no idea I was going to love freshly roasted pumpkin seeds so much. I love how crispy the outer shell is and how fun it is to crunch. They taste a bit like popcorn, but they are much crunchier, filling, and of course packed with nutrition.
Yes, pumpkin seeds are super healthy for you! They are packed with iron, magnesium, fibre, zinc, potassium, healthy fats, protein, and tryptophan (which can boost your mood and help you sleep). Vegans & vegetarians have been using pumpkin seeds for years as a natural source of iron. I think it’s just about my favourite way to get iron, next to Iron Woman Gingerbread Smoothies, of course. Be sure to pair it with Vitamin C to absorb the most iron you can.
7. Share with some very lucky people! (but chose them wisely…)
I promise you’ll never throw the seeds out again.
I want to buy pumpkins just to be able to roast another batch of seeds. And of course, make homemade pumpkin puree. I’m already looking forward to making some different flavour combos – maybe garlic powder, cayenne, rosemary, brown sugar or cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, etc would both be nice to try out? I can’t wait to experiment…many ideas are a-swirlin’ in my…stomach.
Looking for more pumpkin recipes?
Creamy Pumpkin Pie Smoothie for Two
All Natural Pumpkin Butter from Scratch (the bomb!!)
Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding Parfait
and more than 20 more pumpkin recipes!
What spices would YOU put on your roasted pumpkin seeds?
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
How to Roast Pumpkin and Seeds
Yield
4 cups flesh, 3/4 cup seeds
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This is my go-to method for roasting a sugar pumpkin and its seeds at the same time! Most recipes tend to provide instructions on roasting them separately, but I wanted to come up with directions on how to roast them both simultaneously. And, luckily, I've discovered it couldn't be easier.
Ingredients
- 1 sugar pumpkin (2 1/2 to 3 pounds)*
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Pink salt, fine sea salt, or Herbamare
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C) and place two racks near the centre of the oven. Grab two rimmed medium-sized baking sheets and line one of them with parchment paper.
- Fill a medium-sized bowl with water and set aside. Lie an absorbent towel onto the counter next to the bowl.
- Slice off the pumpkin stem and discard.
- Place the pumpkin, cut side down, onto a cutting board. Carefully slice the pumpkin in half.
- Scoop out the pumpkin seeds and flesh/strings and place it all into the bowl of water. The seeds will float to the top (like magic!). Using your hands, grab the big chunks of flesh and pick off any attached seeds. Place the seeds back into the bowl of water. Discard/compost the chunks of flesh.
- Use a slotted spoon to remove the seeds. Let excess water drip off and then place the seeds onto the towel. Blot dry (the seeds don’t have to be bone dry and it’s okay if there are some strands attached—they add flavour!).
- Spread the seeds onto the baking sheet without the parchment and toss with 1 teaspoon of oil. Spread the seeds out into a single layer and sprinkle with salt.
- Mist or spread oil all over the inside of each pumpkin half and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place each half cut-side down onto the lined baking sheet.
- Place both sheets into the oven with the seeds on the lower rack. Roast at 325°F (160°C) for 20 minutes then remove the seeds and taste test a couple. As long as the inner seeds aren't tasting burned, you can keep roasting them. I usually return the seeds to the oven for another 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the seeds and cool.
- Leave the pumpkin in the oven and increase the oven temp to 350°F (180°C). Continue roasting the pumpkin for another 12 minutes or so, until fork-tender. (The timing may vary based on how large and fresh your pumpkin is.) At this point you can slice it up and serve it as a side vegetable with your meal, or process/blend the flesh to make homemade pumpkin purée.
Tip:
- * One sugar pumpkin (roughly 2 3/4 pounds) yields about 4 cups (720 g) of roasted pumpkin flesh and 3/4 cup (75 g) seeds.
I had never boiled the seeds beforehand, but thought I’d give it a try. I think it reduces the baking time (since the seeds are already hot) but otherwise did not make a noticeable difference.
Stumbled upon your site and enjoy your work; thank you. Hope your cookbook—and you—are doing well!
I know this thread is kind of dead, but thought i’d put in anyways. You don’t have to rinse or clean the seeds at all. They are better with a little of the pumpkin goo on them. It gives them a little extra something;
I eat pumpkin seeds year around. When I can’t get fresh seeds I buy Davids brand. They don’t taste very good straight from the bag so I put a couple of teaspoons of margarine in a frying pan and toast them. Stir them continuously so they don’t burn. When they start to pop thy’re ready to eat. Make sure to cool them for a few minutes first our you’ll burn your mouth.
Cleaning the seeds: put in water and use mixer beater and it cleans them fast and doesn’t hurt the seed. I used a hand egg beater and all the flesh tangled immediately in the bottom part and off the seeds. We hand out this method at our pumpkin patch we hold at our church.
If you put the seeds in a large mixing bowl after scraping out the gook, and add hot water, you can wade your hands through and remove most of the gunk. This might help you clean them off faster.
I’ve heard beating the seeds in a bowl of water on an electric mixer for a while separates the seeds and stringy parts. Apparently the seeds float to the surface, string-less, after a few minutes of mixing. I haven’t tried it though.
What worked for me was taking the seeds out BEFORE scraping the stringy bits out of the pumpkin. :)
Thanks for a great recipe!! Off to try it now!
Halloween 2013 came around so I carved a pumpkin, saved the seeds, and read your recipe, then put the seeds, pumpkin guts attached, in the refrigerator, promptly forgetting them. Two weeks later, there they were still sitting and waiting for me to de-gut them. I wondered if they were still even good… but decided to give it a try. I filled the tub they were in with water and the de-gutting went very, very quickly! I don’t know if this is unusual as I’ve never made pumpkin seeds before. Anyway, I noted that you said you’d like to know of a better way to get rid of the guts. Perhaps refrigerating them for a day would help? Or maybe it was forgetting them and refrigerating for 2 weeks… :(
I’m still going to try to cook them…. but not until tomorrow. I’m far more interested in eating than I am cooking, but one must cook to eat! Tomorrow is Friday so maybe I’ll have time to give your recipe a try. I hope they turn out!
I want to thank You I have burned so many batches I just gave up until I read this recipe. tryed it love it now one day I will attempt the punkin puree
the way I separate the seeds from pulp is put them in warm water and move them in a raking motion with fingers and the pulp should fall to the bottom.
I found a super easy and cheap way to clean the seeds! It takes a whole MINUTE max! You need the lid to one of those pots that has the strainer lid. Toss all of your seeds in it and run water over them with just enough water flow to make them float. Those lids don’t have as many holes as a regular strainer, so water will build up in it. All you have to do then is stick your hand in and grip the seeds over and over again. It took me less than a minute to clean a whole pumpkin’s worth of seeds!
Okay, so this isn’t a way to clean pumpkin seeds, rather a way to get them out of the pumpkin ALREADY clean! I cut my pumpkins in half and carefully run my fingers through the web-pod type fleshy pulp holding the seeds that runs from top to bottom and get my fingers behind the seeds, almost cradling the seeds in my hand. I then carefully pull on the seeds, leaving the flesh behind. I then scrape out the seedless pulp that’s left! This takes some finesse and time, but way, way, WAY less time than digging through a huge pile of pulp and seeds after taking them all out together. Try it, you like it! So…….do you love me forever now???
Cleaning seeds, remove them almost clean from the pumpkin, just rub the inside of your pumpkin with long rubbing strokes of your fingers, the stringy stuff will stick to the inside and the seeds come out almost clean. Just rinse seeds after.
forgot to mention, after you have rubbed the seeds out of the pumpkin, then I scrap the inside pumpkin to remove the stringy guts with a spoon.
The pumpkin is cleaned, and ready to use for whatever you use pumpkins for.
I tried them with Lemon Pepper seasoning, they came out yummy. :-)
garlic salt, onion powder, honey, and cayenne pepper
When cleaning the seeds I have found that it is pretty easy when using sugar pumpkins that you are preparing for pumpkin pie. First, quarter the pumpkin and then take a spoon (metal teaspoon) and using the edge of the spoon pushing into the guts of a piece of quartered pumpkin. The seeds will pop free of the strings by repeatedly pushing the edge of the spoon into the guts/string of each quartered section. You will need a bowl or something else for the seeds to fall into and many of them will shoot off in different directions, but really easy to clean up.
To clean pumpkin seeds: after scooping them from the pumpkin, liberate them from the foamy thick membrane. Don’t worry about how much stuff is clinging to them. Put them in a fine mesh strainer and under the faucet swirl your finger around seeds several times. You’ll noticed a lot of the goo and stringy stuff coming off. Dump the seeds into a bowl and tap out the strainer, pick out the big pieces that have now loosened from the seeds. Repeat several times and rinse the strainer upside down to liberate the tinny cling on’s. A few rinses later your seeds are clean as can be.
I’m using your recipes on my seeds as we communicate. I just roasted several pie pumpkins and removed and cleaned the seeds. I ran cold water over them and used a whisk to agitate the bunch that is in a large strainer. Lots of the strings gather together, which makes them easy to throw out and the pumpkin flesh washes out through the strainer holes.. I dried them by rubbing them between paper towels which further cleaned them. I may have to skip the water boiling. I’ll try some both ways. Thanks
Just a couple of suggestions. To help remove the slime from the seeds, put a tablespoon or two of vinegar in your water and let them soak a few minutes. You can use lemon juice too. Neither of these will change the taste of the seeds and both help to reduce the slime from the pumpkin. Second, after boiling I put a paper towel inside the bowl of my salad spinner and put the seeds on the towel. A quick spin and most of the water comes off. A few seeds may land in the outer bowl, but those inside the spinner are much drier and ready for the oven. YUMM!
I FOUND THE EASIEST WAY TO DE-SEED A PUMPKIN!!! My pumpkins got almost completely FROZEN from being outside and even though its a little tough to cut into it initially, the strings are frozen together and the seeds pop right out with little guts on them!!