After you’ve carved your jack-o-lantern for Halloween, it’s time to roast perfect pumpkin seeds! Use this pumpkin seed recipe to make this salty and crunchy snack, that’s healthy too!
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One of our Halloween traditions has always been to roast the pumpkin seeds that come out of the pumpkins that we carve. For as long as I can remember, we always did this as kids and then I started and continued the tradition with my own kids. In our house, there is no way you carve a pumpkin without also roasting the pumpkin seeds afterward.
How To Clean Your Pumpkin
The first step to getting perfect pumpkin seeds is cleaning your pumpkin!
- Set up a work area: We usually lay down newspaper or an old plastic tablecloth to keep our area clean.
- Cut off a lid to your pumpkin: Cut a 2-3″ circle radius around the stem to do this.
- Clean out the inside of your pumpkin: This is where you get all the seeds from. You can use a metal spoon or an ice cream scooper to scrape and scoop the insides, but we think a pumpkin scoop works better. Want the very best option? If you have a drill, then the “Pumpkin Gutter” attachment is awesome — makes the job super easy and less messy.
Have a drill? The Pumpkin Gutter tool makes cleaning out a pumpkin super easy & less messy!
Best Tips for Perfect Pumpkin Seeds
Making your own roasted pumpkin seeds is really easy, but there are three steps that are most important:
#1. Clean your pumpkin seeds well: You really want to wash them well and discard of any and all pumpkin fibers. Over the years, I’ve had a time or two when I didn’t clean the seeds well enough and they really don’t turn out as well. So, grab your colander and clean them…and then clean them again.
#2. Boil pumpkin seeds before roasting: If you are short on time, you could skip this step, but we highly recommend that you boil your pumpkin seeds before roasting them. We have more details below about why.
#3. Keep a watch on them when they are baking: I’m really bad at getting sidetracked, so I set my kitchen timer
Why Boil Pumpkin Seeds Before Roasting?
There are a couple reasons why we recommend that you boil pumpkin seeds before roasting. Boiling before roasting pumpkin seeds helps to cook the insides of your pumpkin seeds so when you do roast them, you will get perfect crunchy pumpkins seeds. Boiling will ensure that the insides are cooked.
Also, roasted pumpkin seeds are full of nutrients, but they also contain phytic acid, which is naturally found in nuts, whole grains, and seeds. Phytic acid can prevent the absorption of some nutrients, like iron, magnesium, and calcium. By boiling the seeds before roasting, this them removes most of the phytic acid that they contain helping you to get even more nutrition out of them!
How To Eat Pumpkin Seeds
If you are new to roasting pumpkin seeds, you might be wondering just how to eat them. If they are nicely roasted, I like to eat them whole, as does most of my family. If you wish, you can also eat them how you would eat a sunflower seed, by cracking the outer shell open slightly with your teeth, eating the seed on the inside, and discarding the outer shell.
How to Make Perfect Pumpkin Seeds
Here is the full recipe and instructions for roasting perfect pumpkin seeds – ready for you to print!
Like this recipe? We’d love for you to share on Facebook with your family and friends or for you to pin it on Pinterest!
Perfect Pumpkin Seeds
After you’ve carved your jack-o-lantern for Halloween, it’s time to roast perfect pumpkin seeds! Here’s the recipe for how you can make this salty and crunchy snack.
- Prep Time: 45
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 85 minutes
- Category: Snack
- Method: Roasting
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- Seeds from 2 large pumpkins
- ½ teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- Dash of salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Scrape out and remove seeds from your two pumpkins. Wash and clean your seeds from your pumpkin, making sure you remove any unwanted pumpkin rinds or deformed seeds. Wash in a colander and once again remove any unwanted items.
- Soak the clean seeds in a bowl full of water for 1/2 hour on the kitchen counter or overnight in the refrigerator. Drain the seeds, discarding the water.
- Fill a pot with water and a dash of salt (enough water so that it will cover the seeds). Bring the water to a boil. Place seeds into the boiling water and boil gently for about 10 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and drain the seeds and place back into your empty bowl. Toss seeds with olive oil. Lay out seeds in a thin layer onto a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with Lawry’s Seasoned Salt. Place in oven and move and turn the seeds over about every 10 minutes, making sure they are not burning. Seeds are done after about 40 minutes or when they become firmer and are no longer soft. You do not want dark spots on your seeds, you want them to be a darker yellow.
- Season with additional salt if desired. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Place into a clean mason jar or another food-safe storage container. Enjoy!
Keywords: pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seeds recipe, roasted pumpkin seeds, halloween, halloween recipe
Thank you to our contributor, Leah Wood, for this recipe & photos!
Check out these other Halloween recipes!
Spiderweb Sandwich Cookies with Marshmallow Buttercream Filling
Halloween Eyeball Pinwheels Appetizer
Great way to save pumpkin seeds. What a good idea to save !
★★★★★
There’s such a thing as a pumpkin gutter drill attachment? Oh my – that would make it so much easier! 😛 I never even thought about boiling my seeds – intrigued now as to how the taste would change! Thanks for sharing over at Fiesta Friday!
These look so delicious, perfect snack! Definitely pinned for later. Found it at the Fall into Fall party.
Mmmm! I love pumpkin seeds so much! These look wonderful! 🙂 Lisa
Thank you for sharing! I planned on baking pumpkin seeds next week and was searching for a little while for one that looked easy!
★★★★★
I LOVE this recipe! My favorite after fall pumpkin carving 🙂
★★★★★
We carved pumpkins yesterday, and I made the seeds today. I painstakingly followed these instructions, and thought to myself, I’m not sure if I’ll do all this next time. Seems like a lot of work. WRONG. These are the most amazing pumpkin seeds I have ever had in my life. Just the other week I bought a bag from the store, and I never want store bought ones again. Worth every single step. Except next time, I want to do more seeds! They’ll be gone before I know it!
★★★★★
I totally disagree with the cleaning part. I take away the larger pieces, but the sticky film on the seeds from the pulp helps the seasonings stick (you can try all kinds of mixes) WITHOUT having to use any oil, and adds to the taste.
This is my first time trying this recipe tonight, so I hope they turn out good 😀 I only have canola oil would that be okay if I didn’t use olive oil ??
I haven’t tried it with canola oil, but I think it would work fine. 🙂
Thanks for sharing on the What’s for Dinner link up!!
My son would love these
Thanks for sharing on the #OMHGFF hope to see you next week!
Pinned to share!!
Hope you have a great week!
I haven’t had pumpkin seeds in so long. Thanks for the refresher on how to cook them! Your’s look delish!
Kristine 🙂
Your pics are amazing! They’re making me want to roast some seeds tonight!
One of my best memories of fall is carving the pumpkin with my mom and then roasting pumpkin seeds with my dad. I could snack on these all day! In fact, these days I buy pumpkins for the seeds alone 😉
Thanks so much for sharing on craft schooling Sunday, looks great!
Have you ever had the seeds pop like popcorn in the oven? I was only 15 minutes into baking them and had to turn the oven off because they were popping all over the place! What did I do wrong?
Hi Karen,
I bet you did do anything wrong. The seeds may pop a bit, and that’s totally normal, but I’ve never had trouble with them popping off the pan. It could be a couple different things — your oven might cook a bit hotter than it’s actually saying (an oven temperature gauge is helpful for determining if this might be the case). Or it could just be the seeds themselves, as I hear that large seeds can pop more. In either case, if you give them another try in the future, I would recommend turning down your heat a bit if you start to hear them popping too much. Hope that helps.
Made these today and LOVE them. We’ve never boiled ours first and this was the missing step we didn’t know we were missing. The only thing I’ll change next time is to add the seasoning to the seeds while still in the bowl instead of waiting until they are on the pan. Thanks!
Great, Michael! Glad you liked it and thank you for the tip with the seasoning. I will have to try that method next time.
Hey Brandie, Just last night my nephew who lives near LV texted for a recipe for roasting pumpkin seeds and I told him to google it. I’m giving him your recipe asap – and me too! Thank you for linking up at Wonderful Wed. Blog Hop and hope you can bring another great idea next week. Carrie, A Mother’s Shadow
Great, Carrie! Thanks for sharing it and for the hosting Wonderful Wednesday blog hop.
What temp do you set the oven to? This always seems to be a problem for me when I try roasting pumpkin seeds.
Hi Danielle,
The oven temp on these is 350 degrees F.
I want to try out your recipe. I wasn’t aware that they can also be eaten whole.