How to Bake Pumpkin Seeds

I mentioned on my list last week that you should carve a pumpkin for Halloween. Of course this is a fun time, but what about the pumpkin seeds?

My fiance, Alec, suggested that we should bake them. I personally have never tried baking pumpkin seeds, but I thought why not? We had a ton since the pumpkin we carved was gigantic. Let me tell you, they turned out better than I expected!

How to bake pumpkin seeds

Step 1: Clean the seeds
Make sure all the pumpkin guts are off of the seeds. The best way to wash them is to either fill your sink or a bowl, full of water. Any remainder of the guts should come off easily.

Step 2: Boil the seeds
Yep, I said to boil the seeds. If you don't want to wait for your seeds to dry, then boil the seeds in a medium sized pan. Add a little bit of salt to your boiling water. Stir the seeds while it's boiling because they will most likely float to the top. Only boil them for 10 minutes. Once they are done, strain them like you would with pasta. Dry the seeds off with a paper towel. They don't have to be bone-dry, but they shouldn't be soaked either.

Step 3: Bake the seeds
Preheat your oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit. On a baking sheet, add a teaspoon of olive oil to the seeds. Spread them all around the sheet and make sure each one is covered in oil. Your pumpkin seeds can be plain or have some taste to them. For this recipe I used seasoning salt. Sprinkle that all over the seeds as desired. When you're done with that, put the seeds in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes is up, take them out and stir them about. Put them back in for another 10 minutes. If you take them out and find that they aren't as crisp as you like, put them in for another 8-10 minutes.

Step 4: Enjoy!

Pumpkin seeds are a great snack and a healthy alternative from eating potato chips. It wasn't very hard to make these either, so go ahead and give it a try!