Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

    Pumpkin pastries at Starbucks, pumpkin ale in the grocery store, pumpkin spiced latte at every coffee shop, pumpkin pie soda from Jones Soda Company.  You can find pumpkins everywhere as soon as the weather starts cooling off and even before then.  As a child, one of my favorite memories is sitting at the table with my whole family carving up a pumpkin.  Each of the children would try and out do each other with the most elaborate carvings.  No one would necessarily win, but we definitely cared whose pumpkin looked the best when they were proudly put out to decorate the front door. 

   Most of the time we would put the seeds directly into the garbage can because what else could you do with those messy seeds?  I’ve finally found a recipe (or two) that calls for pumpkin seeds.  Instead of putting the scooped out pumpkin seeds in the garbage, you can put them in a colander and wash them for about five minutes (or until the slimy texture has been completely washed away).  Then place them on a paper towel and let them dry (for at least 15 minutes, but its best to let them dry overnight).  If you’re not carving pumpkins anytime in the near future, you can always buy them from the grocery store. 

   Another recipe I am making (and will post this month) required green pumpkin seeds, so the pictures will reflect what green pumpkin seeds look like roasted.  They still have a slight green tint to them instead of entirely turning brown.  While my base recipe is from here, I tweaked it as I saw fit.  My whole family loves these roasted seeds.  Some say they taste like sweet sunflower seeds, some say they taste like pine nuts.  What do you think they taste like?  

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups pumpkin seeds

2 Tbsp. olive oil

3 tsp. salt (sea salt is best)

1 tsp. pepper

1/2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

1 tsp. paprika

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300°F. 

Toss seeds in mixture until well coated.  Let the seeds soak in mixture for about 15 minutes as the oven heats up.

Spread the seeds evenly on a non-greased cookie sheet and place on middle rack of oven.  Let cook for 12 minutes.  Take out and mix up so seeds are turned over and the outside seeds are moved to the inside.  Cook for 10 minutes, stir up again.  Cook for 5 minutes or until brown.  (If you use green pumpkin seeds they will not turn completely brown, but will have a slight greenish tint to them.)

Let cool on paper towels.  Add salt to taste, if necessary.  Or you can serve them warm out of oven.