Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Happy Hallo-Week! (O.K... that was a pretty bad attempt at a funny Halloween joke, but bare with me).

This post came from a desire to carve pumpkins and blog about it... but because we are a food-centered blog, we needed something edible to go along with it. Enter pumpkin seeds!!

Ya, we made a bowl out of a pumpkin. Nbd. Watch out Martha Stewart!

For those of you who haven't tried this tasty treat... it's pretty tasty... and easy!! (Win!) And a great way to make use of some of that pumpkin gunk/guts/slimy stuff.

THE RECIPE:

All you need for this recipe is:

Pumpkin Seeds (minus pumpkin gunk)
Melted Butter
Salt & Pepper

1. As you are hauling out the insides of your pumpkin, separate the seeds from the slimy stuff and put them into a colander. Don't worry if there are some slimy bits mixed in - they'll rinse off pretty easy! Which brings us to the next step...
2. Rinse the pumpkin seeds.
3. Spread the seeds on a cookie sheet trying to make a single layer so the seeds will dry faster/toast more evenly.
4. IF you have the time, let the seeds dry out for a few hours or overnight. Since we are impatient we've never actually tried this so we don't ACTUALLY know if it makes a difference - try it and let us know!
5. Toss the pumpkin seeds, melted butter, and the salt and pepper together in a bowl.
6. Re-lay the seeds on the cookie sheet and bake for approximately 30 minutes at 325 degrees - or until they are golden brown/crispy/look delicious!

7. Put into a pretty bowl... or enjoy them hot and fresh off the cookie sheet like I just did...

Sidenote: We like to think of ourselves as food minimalists - only using essential, good quality ingredients. This is why we stuck to classic unsalted butter, coarse sea salt, and freshly ground pepper for this recipe. But there are lots of different spices you could try! A few ideas are: Curry flavored pumpkin seeds, paprika, BBQ, garlic and cheese (damn, maybe we should have tried that one... just thought of it now), or whatever your heart desires or your pantry/spice cupboard contains!

As for our carved pumpkins - the inspiration for this blog post - well, they turned out pretty damn good too:

Left: Jack Skellington the Pumpkin King Right: Cannibalistic, Evil Pumpkin... eating smaller Pumpkin

Happy Hallow-Eating!! (Yea..? No..? Whatever, I like it).

Caroline and Jo