How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds for a Delicious Fall Treat

The holiday season is a time that is all about delicious food, and sometimes those foods can feel just a little bit heavy. Lucky for you, we've got a recipe for a fall snack that is pretty darn healthy and still absolutely delicious. We're talking about roasted pumpkin seeds.

If you've carved a pumpkin recently and you're wondering how to roast up those little seeds from inside, check out our favorite recipe here. You can customize it to the flavors you want and create all kinds of treats for the holiday season. Are you ready to start roasting up your new favorite food? Grab yourself a pumpkin and let's get moving, it's time for some roasted pumpkin seeds!

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We hope you find these products as awesome as we do. Just an FYI: We are a participant in the Amazon affiliate program, and Brainjolt may receive a share of sales from links on this page.

Your first step is to get some seeds.

If you want to do the whole thing by hand, you'll start with a full pumpkin and start scooping out the insides. This is the most fun if you do it while you're carving your pumpkin. Now normally you might throw away all that inside goop, but not this time: that's where the seeds live.

Now clean off those seeds

Your next step is to wash off the seeds. I like to pop mine in a strainer and run cold water over them until all the pumpkin goop is gone. I like this set of metal strainers because of the multiple sizes: no matter what I'm doing one of them is the perfect fit.
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Or take the quicker route

Now if all of that sounds like a bit too much work, you CAN go ahead and buy some plain pumpkin seeds that haven't been roasted or seasoned in any way. If you're in a hurry this is a great way to still have fun roasting your seeds.
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Now get ready to bake!

Spread your pumpkin seeds out on a baking tray to get them ready for the oven. Set your oven to 350 so it can heat up while you season and prepare the seeds, because this next stage is where you can really make some decisions about what kind of seeds you want.
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Season!

For each cup of pumpkin seeds, you want two teaspoons of melted butter. Toss them together on your baking tray. Then you can decide what kind of seasonings you want to put on there. The most simple is salt and pepper, but you can do almost anything. Go sweet with cinnamon and sugar. Make it garlic-ey with some garlic powder and celery salt. Try some Italian seasonings. Truly you can do just about anything.

Now into the oven they go!

Bake for 15-20 minutes. You'll want to pop open the oven and give them a quick stir at least once during that time. You're looking for lightly browned and dry seeds at the end of the process. If you want to take a different route you can bake them for 45 minutes at 200 and then bring the heat up to 325 for the final 5 minutes to give them that last crisp. This can help give a more even roast that goes all the way through the seed.

Do not eat yet!

These seeds are going to be piping hot, so watch your fingers and let them rest for at least 10 minutes before you start feasting on your snack. This is also a chance to add any last-minute seasoning you think would give it an extra punch.

Now it's finally time to get snacking!

You can eat all your seeds right away, or roast them in advance and save them for any time you're craving a snack. They're a great replacement for chips or popcorn.

Give them some nice presentation

I particularly love to roast up pumpkin seeds and serve them at holiday gatherings. When I'm sharing with friends and family I want to use a nice bowl that brings the presentation to the next level, like these lovely wooden snack bowls.
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Compare with the big brands

Now you may be looking at this recipe and thinking that it's a lot of work for something you can buy in a bag in 2 minutes. But here's the real final step: grab yourself a bag of roasted pumpkin seeds from the store, then do a taste test compared with your own pumpkin seeds. Homemade are definitely better.
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