When I was experimenting with cooking pumpkin earlier this fall (remember the pumpkin pancakes?), I made sure to experiment with roasting the seeds as well.
My recollections of home-roasted pumpkin seeds were that they were kind of tough. But I figured that with so many recipes on the internet for roasted pumpkin seeds, it must be possible to do them well.
My first batch of seeds were cooked in salted water for around 15 or 20 minutes before I covered them in oil and spices and roasted them in the oven.
They became crunchy, salty, flavorful, and not the least bit tough, so I assumed that I had cracked the pumpkin seed code.
However with my next squash purchase, I searched the internet for the recipe I had used previously and found additional information that lead me to believe that it might not even be necessary to boil the seeds before roasting. I wasn’t about to ruin a batch of seeds in case this recipe was wrong, so I boiled half and and put the other half straight in the oven, so I’d be able to compare them (I also, unrelated, spiced the halves differently).
Again, the seeds turned out well, and there didn’t actually seem to be any difference in texture between the two half-portions. So, my recommendation is to definitely roast your squash and pumpkin seeds, but to skip the extra boiling step.
Here is the recipe that I used. Happy roasting.
Jens says
I tried roasting pumpkin seeds before but they were rather unpleasant due to the shell of the seeds. Did you shell the seeds beforehand or is there a trick to remedy the issue? Might depend on the type of pumpkin as well. …
Great Blog btw!
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Anne Therese says
I had a similar experience before – I suspect it may simply be the difference between seeds of winter squash (which is what I used here) and those of pumpkin. Shelling is a lot of work, I think, and might not be worth the effort.
I’m happy you like the blog. Big hugs to you and Lavinia.