Scrumptous Seeds

I had an amazing time creating these Pumpkin Seeds. So much fun in fact we plan to get a few more pumpkins and experiment with a few other recipes so check back in a few days for more variations. The Firefly sat in her Bumbo on the table as I carved the top off of our large pumpkin and scooped the innards into a bowl. Then the precious baby sat, mostly content, on the counter as I rinsed and separated the seeds from the pumpkin brain matter. I know most people absolutely hate this part but I actually enjoy it. I will share with you the fastest way I have found to scoop out a pumpkin. First, make sure the top is large enough so you can really get in there, there's nothing worse than trying to scoop the guts from a pumpkin and you can't properly get your hand in there. Second, the scoop things that the stores sell always break on me so I instead use a good size serving spoon; metal. Third, start at the top of the pumpkin and scrape those sides in a spiral fashion just letting all of the brain matter to fall to the bottom of the pumpkin, then when you reach the bottom scrape that and free all of the goo. Fourth, lift the goo out and throw it in a bowl or bucket.

Step One: Separate Seeds from Pumpkin Guts
I just threw away the pumpkin guts and had the seeds in a collander for rinsing.

Step Two: Rinse Seeds
Just use water to get the orange gunk off of the seeds.

Step Three: Dry Seeds
I laid paper towels on a cookie sheet and spread the cleaned up seeds out so they could dry, approximately 3 hours.

Step Four: Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.
Here's where we split things up! We separated the seeds into two equal parts placing each group into separate ziploc baggies.

Bag One - Butter and Garlic Seeds
We melted 2 Tablespoons of butter and added about a teaspoon of Garlic Salt to it. Once the butter was cool enough we poured it in the bag, closed the bag, and shook vigorously until all the seeds were coated. Then we spread the seeds on a tin foil lined cookie sheet and sprinkled more garlic salt on top.

Bag Two - Olive Oil and Sea Salt
We added 2 Tablespoons of olive oil to the second bag, closed the bag, and shook with all our might until the seeds were coated. Then we spread these onto a different tin foil lined cookie sheet and sprinkled Sea Salt on top of the seeds.

Step Five: Both cookie sheets were baked in the oven for 30 minutes. I pulled them out, stirred them, laid them back flat on the sheet and applied more of their respective seasonings. Then I returned them into the oven swapping their places (garlic was on top for the first half hour then on the bottom rack for the second) and baked for anther 30 minutes.

Step Six: Enjoy!!!



We are going to try some seasoning salt, cajun seasoning, and a few other spices on the next batches. If you have a favorite pumpkin seed recipe that you use please share with us so we can try it as well!!!