Easy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds (Roasted Squash Seeds)
Don't throw away those pumpkin or squash seeds! It's so easy to roast them up for delicious and healthy snacking.
Ingredients
- 1 pumpkin or other hard winter squash
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Cut the pumpkin or squash in half and scoop out the pulp and seeds.
- Separate the seeds from the pulp.
- Rinse the seeds in cold water, drain and pat dry on a clean kitchen towel or paper towel.
- Spread the seeds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Lightly drizzle seeds with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until seeds are golden brown and crispy.
- Cool for 5-10 minutes and start snacking, warm or cold.
Notes
Store any leftovers in an airtight container.
No need to hull the husks off the inner seed meat. Once roasted, the outer shell is crunchy and flavorful and the whole seed can be eaten.
Don’t throw away those pumpkin or squash seeds! It’s so easy to roast them up for delicious and healthy snacking.
Anytime I cook a pumpkin or hard winter squash, I always roast up the seeds. It’s super simple, and if the oven is on anyway to cook the squash, you might as well pop those seeds in there.
Not to mention that pumpkin seeds are full of health benefits and incredibly delicious to eat on their own or as a topping on salads or other dishes.
One medium-sized pumpkin or normal-sized butternut squash is only going to yield about 1/2 cup to 1 cup of roasted seeds, depending on the size of the squash. It’s not going to stock your pantry for long, but rather provide enough tasty seeds for a snack or two or to throw on your salad.
In our family of seven, one tray of roasted seeds gets gobbled up in one sitting with no leftovers. If you do have leftovers, after the seeds are fully cooled, store them in an airtight container to keep them nice and crispy.
Super Basic Ingredient List
The most basic element of making these seeds is the pumpkin or squash that the seeds come out of.
If you’re making a pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin, roast up those seeds while the pie is baking. Or if you’re roasting a butternut squash or spaghetti squash, don’t let those seeds go to waste.
Seeds from quite a wide variety of winter squashes will give you very similar seeds for roasting:
- Pumpkin
- Butternut squash
- Spaghetti squash
- Acorn squash
There are many other less well-known varieties of squash out there that may or may not have seeds good for eating. For example, I grew Kabocha squash a few years ago, and the seed shells were much too hard and tough to eat when roasted.
The only other ingredients you need to make basic roasted pumpkin or squash seeds are some olive oil and sea salt or kosher salt.
How to Roast Pumpkin or Squash Seeds
Preheat oven. Start by warming up the oven. Preheat to 400°F, or whatever temperature you’re roasting your squash or baking your pumpkin pie. The oven temperature is pretty forgiving for these seeds. Just pop them in with whatever else is going in the oven.
Cut the pumpkin. I find it works best to scoop out the pulp and seeds when the pumpkin or squash is in halves. It makes a nicely shaped bowl to scrape out, easier than working with quarters. If you’re quartering your pieces, do that after you’ve scooped out the pulp.
Remove seeds. Now comes the extremely squishy and tactile experience of separating the seeds from the pulp. There’s no good way of doing this other than getting your hands messy. Or have one of the kids do it. Small kids especially will love getting nice and gooey.
Rinse seeds (optional). If you feel squeamish about the goey strings that may be clinging to the seeds, go ahead and rinse them in a bowl of water. Swish them around and remove any strings or bits of pumpkin pulp from the seeds.
Pour off the water while holding a hand over the seeds, or pour out the water through a fine mesh strainer. I always have trouble keeping all the seeds in the bowl, or if using a strainer, all the little bits are still in there.
I totally consider rinsing the seeds to be an optional step, and find that more often than not I skip it. I’m all for cutting corners whenever I can get away with it. Whatever slimy bits are stuck on the seeds don’t really rinse off all that well, and they crisp up nicely when baked anyway.
But if you do rinse the seeds, the next step is to dry them with a towel. Make sure they’re quite dry so that you get a crispy result, rather than steaming the seeds in the shell.
Spread seeds on tray. Spread the dry seeds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Lightly drizzle seeds with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
Bake. It will only take about 15-20 minutes before you’ll start to hear seeds popping in the hot oven. Some might even pop off the tray and onto the bottom of the oven. When you hear lots of popping, it’s time to take them out. Or you can look for seeds that are golden brown and crispy.
Cool and enjoy. Let the tempting crispy snack cool for 5-10 minutes to avoid burned fingers or tongues. They’re equally delicious hot from the oven or cool. Store any leftovers in an airtight container. No need to refrigerate.