Our Hungry Hungry Pumpkin and Pumpkin Pie Seeds

We have a fun tradition that we’ve started with Eric’s family of doing some kind of  food “craft” for different holidays.  Many of you voted for our gingerbread house contest , and there’s also been a Peeps diorama day for Easter.  But our most recent was, of course, a pumpkin carving day.

We weren’t sure what we were going to carve, last year I did our names, the year before that was Bert and Ernie, but I didn’t have any inspiration for this year.  I asked Eric and he said “We have to have a big pumpkin eating a little pumpkin!”  I quickly agreed and sketched out a design.  When I cut the top off our pumpkin, we all were shocked to see that the walls of the pumpkin were 6 inches thick!!!!  Fortunately our pumpkin also had huge seeds, so we had lots to roast.

I have fun playing around with different seasoning for roasting pumpkin seeds.  I’ve already shared Tiki Salt seeds with you (using acorn squash seeds), and last year I just did plain butter and salt.  But my favorite recipe I’ve ever come up with for roast pumpkin seeds is using pumpkin pie seasonings.

I basically just use the same ingredients I put in pumpkin pie, cinnamon, ginger, all spice, nutmeg, sugar and salt.  Oh and butter of course, gotta have the butter.

These seeds are so tasty, they’re quite addicting.  In fact I think I’ve eaten enough of seeds to start my own pumpkin patch just while writing this post!  Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween yesterday, happy November!  Up next, apple butter that will take you back to the good ol’ days.

Pumpkin Pie Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds (one to two pumpkins worth)
3 TBS butter melted
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger powder
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp all spice
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp sea salt
additional salt and sugar to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Wash pumpkin seeds in a colander to remove any pumpkin flesh.  Use paper towels to pat dry.

Place the seeds in a bowl and mix in the melted butter.  Mix cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, all spice, sugar and sea salt in a small bowl.  Sprinkle over the seeds and mix well.

Spread the seeds out on a rimmed cookie sheet and place in the oven.  Roast 30-45 minutes, mixing with a spatula every 10 minutes.  Remove when seeds are browned and crispy.  Sprinkle with additional salt and sugar to taste.

Approximate cost/serving: Cheap!  I bought a large pumpkin for $1.50, let’s call the seeds 1/3 of that cost.  With all the other ingredients it’s only 65 cents to make my 1 1/2 cups of pumpkin seeds.

Vegetarian/Gluten Free: Yes on both counts.

You may also like:
Chai Tea Pumpkin Seeds from Shef’s Kitchen