Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

By Ellen L.Published: 2014-11-07

Happy (after) Halloween to one and all! I hope all of you have had just as gruesome and spookity a Halloween as we did! Well, to be honest, ours was probably not so spookity as yours since it was mostly centered around tiny crazy costumed kids and their apparently insatiable appetite for sugary treats.

And of course there was the Halloween costume to be made to order (umm...anybody else still traumatized from weeks spent making a Queen Elsa costume?) and the treats to be purchased and distributed and...last, but not least, one of my personal favorite parts of Halloween, the choosing and the carving of dear ol' Jack O' Lantern pumpkin! (Do you like the slightly creepy way Jack's eyes came out?)

And under the general motto of 'Waste not, want not," we always try to repurpose dear ol' Jack by eating his flesh (see our delicious Anise Pumpkin Cookies recipe!) or, this year, by ripping out his gook-ily guts and making yummilicious Roasted Pumpkin Seeds from the very seeds that we plucked out from Jack's innards!

This was the first time we made these Roasted Pumpkin Seeds with a dash of white pepper and it is really amazing how simple and yummilicious it was! Toasty, nutty, aromatic, a little bit crunchy, the white pepper adding a bit of exciting zippiness. We even ended up eating the thin shells as well as they added a crunchy tasty deliciousness.

This tastes nothing like store bought pumpkin seeds! Store bought seeds taste like paper compared to these! There really is nothing like fresh, is there? The simple secret here is that we started out using fresh pumpkin seeds!

My 老公 liked them so much he keeps asking when we're going to have some more. Umm...maybe next Halloween?

Here are the pumpkin seeds after the washing away of the pumpkin-y stuff. The only slightly hard part of this procedure is the pulling out of the pumpkin innards from dear ol' Jack. Those pumpkin stringy bits just don't want to come out!

I decided to roast in my trusty and beloved cast iron pan but you can also roast these Pumpkin Seeds in the oven. It's just that I have a history ~~completely burning~~ missing the mark with roasting seeds in the oven, so I like to have my seeds where I can see them. Also because I just love my little cast iron pan.

If you have a chance encounter with a pumpkin ( I know it's kind of off season at this point but one can hope) do try out these simple to make and simply yummilicious Roasted Pumpkin Seeds with a dash of white pepper and let us know what you think!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds Recipe

(Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 5 mins)

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh pumpkin seeds
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4-1/2 tsp salt (depends how salty you like it)
1/4 tsp white pepper

Directions:

Remove seeds from pumpkin. Rinse in colander, removing the stringy pumpkin bits until only seeds are left. Spread out seeds on clean surface and let air dry, flipping over seeds occasionally.

Once the pumpkin seeds are dry to the touch, heat up cast iron pan to medium heat. Add oil. When oil is hot, add pumpkin seeds. Stir until all the seeds are coated with oil. Add salt and white pepper and stir until mixed through.

Lower the heat and allow to slowly roast for 5-10 mins (depends on your seed size), stirring occasionally until the seeds are aromatic and golden brown spots are formed. All the seeds should pick up some golden brown spots.

You can increase heat if you think the roasting is going too slowly but be careful of burning. At a certain point you will be able to see the seeds are actually popping inside. Allow the seeds to pop for a bit and you're done!

Nut-ilicious Nuts at The Hong Kong Cookery: