Now five ways! Updated for 2018; originally posted November 19, 2017
I have a recipe/technique I love for toasted pumpkin seeds, but it’s buried in/interwoven through this Lamb and Pumpkin Stew recipe. So no-one has to dig through that one, here’s the pumpkinseed recipe on its own, with some other flavor combination experiments:
- Gut a pumpkin (or multiple pumpkins).
- Get most of the goop off the seeds.
- Soak goopy seeds in heavily smoked-salted water overnight. (You could use un-smoked salt, I guess, but I like the extra layer of flavor.) I used 6 cups of boiling water and 1/2 cup of smoked salt + 6 cups of cold water, but I was soaking about ten pumpkins’ worth of seeds (I had managed a big community pumpkin-carving activity, with lots of people all carving pumpkins on the same porch, and it seemed a shame to throw so many seeds away…). So, the proportion is 2 tsp salt to every cup of water, and you need enough water to cover your seeds. (They’ll float. Don’t fret.) 2018 update: You can leave the seeds hella goopy when you soak them, and then–instead of trying to get the seeds out of the goopy brine, try to get the orange goop out instead. This was a lot faster, for some reason. A spider is also very helpful (the kind that’s like a small wire mesh colander-on-a-stick, used a lot in Asian cooking, not the arthropod).
- Rinse them off the next day. Lay a flour sack or linen tea towel on a sheet pan, and spread the seeds out on that to dry. (Do not use a loopy-pile towel or paper towels–too much stickiness/fiber transfer/annoying and gross.) It will take them a day or two to dry–just move them around a little whenever you walk past them, until they are dry to the touch. (2018 update: It occurred to me that I was writing from a place of privilege here. You can definitely dry them in a very low oven—180 degrees or so, for about 90 minutes—if you were in a hurry or if you are afflicted with kitchen vermin. I’m not judging. I lived in a hella roachy apartment building for a long time, and I know it’s not about your housekeeping; it’s about their knack for surviving anything once they have a foothold).
- When they are dry, preheat the oven to 275 degrees. (I like a slow oven. Some people roast seeds at 350 or 400 or even 425, but I like to give them a lot of time to dry out and crisp vs blasting them with heat and risking scorching. Sort of like the “slow and golden” school of marshmallow roasting vs the “set it on fire!” school.)
- Coat your seeds with some combination of seasonings that you like. I did four different kinds today. For 1/2 cup seeds, you want about 2 tsp fat and 2-3 tsp of other flavorings. (2018 update: I did the bacon-mushroom-thyme one again, and a new honey-orange, below.)
Bacon Mushroom Thyme (for omnivores)
- 1/2 cup cleaned/soaked/dried pumpkin seeds
- 2 tsp bacon fat
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1/4 tsp pepper (I fresh-ground peppercorns in an electric spice grinder)
- 1 tsp porcini mushroom powder (standard caveat re. “I have access to weird ingredients”–the porcini powder was a gift from my dear friend/culinary partner/instigator Derek)
Spicy Orange Duck (for omnivores)
- 1/2 cup cleaned/soaked/dried pumpkin seeds
- 2 tsp duck fat
- 1/2 tsp applewood smoked salt
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp dried orange peel
- 1/2 tsp Aleppo pepper
Spicy Honey (vegetarian)
- 1/2 cup cleaned/soaked/dried pumpkin seeds
- 2 tsp grapeseed oil
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp sherry vinegar
- 1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper
Vaguely Greek* (this one is vegan)
- 1/2 cup cleaned/soaked/dried pumpkin seeds
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp dried lemon peel
- 1/4 tsp pepper
*If I do this one again, I would either infuse the oregano in the oil for longer first, or I would add the oregano partway through the toasting. This time through, the oregano got quite scorched.
Different Spicy Honey (2018)
- 1/2 cup cleaned/soaked/dried pumpkin seeds
- 2 tsp grapeseed oil
- 1.5 tsp Mike’s Hot Honey
- 1 tsp sherry vinegar
- 1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried orange zest
- Big pinch of smoked salt
The method is the same for all the flavorings:
- Put your seasonings of choice in an oven-safe bowl that is big enough for however many seeds you want to do.
- Warm seasonings in the oven for about 5 minutes so fat melts/honey liquifies/flavors combine; whisk with a fork.
- Add seeds and stir to coat.
- Spread out in a single layer on a sheet pan–you can put baking parchment on the sheet pan if you want (I did, just for easier cleanup).
- Toast them for about an hour and a half, stirring every 15-20 minutes, until they are toasty-gold and/or they make dry-autumn-leaf rustling sounds when you stir them. Kind of hard to say because different seasonings have vastly different color and burnishing clues. This is a long time, I admit, but this low temperature/long time makes the seeds very crispy, which to me is the most important quality.
- Take them out of the oven and try not to burn your mouth. They’ll stay good for more than a week in a ziploc bag or airtight container, but they probably won’t last that long.
