How to Roast Pumpkin Seeds From Your Jack-o'-Lantern, Extra Crunchy

Every October the same thing happens: the family carves a pumpkin, and a bowl of stringy, slippery seeds ends up on the counter. Those seeds are a free snack. Roasted with a little oil and salt, they come out crunchy and toasty, and a medium carving pumpkin usually gives you about a cup of them.

What you need

• Seeds from 1 or 2 pumpkins
• About 1 teaspoon oil or melted butter per cup of seeds
• Salt, or one of the seasoning mixes below
• A baking sheet, and a colander

Step 1: Separate and clean the seeds

Scoop the insides of the pumpkin into a large bowl of cold water. Squeeze the pulp with your hands; the seeds float to the top and the stringy flesh sinks. Skim the seeds off with a slotted spoon into a colander and rinse them. A few strands left on the seeds are fine. They just brown in the oven.

This is a good job to hand to kids. It is messy, it is fun, and it keeps them busy while an adult finishes carving.

Step 2: Boil them (optional, but worth it)

Bring a small pot of water to a boil and add about a tablespoon of salt per 2 cups of water. Add the seeds and simmer for 10 minutes. This seasons the seeds all the way through and makes the shells crisp and less chewy. Drain well.

Step 3: Dry them completely

Spread the seeds on a clean kitchen towel and pat them dry. Wet seeds steam instead of roasting, and they will not get crunchy. If you have time, leave them on the towel for an hour, or overnight.

Step 4: Season and roast

1. Heat the oven to 325°F.
2. Toss the dry seeds with oil or melted butter and salt, or your chosen seasoning. Spray oil works too.
3. Spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Crowded seeds steam.
4. Roast for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until they are golden and you can hear them crackle when you shake the pan.
5. Cool them on the pan. They get crunchier as they cool.

Small seeds from pie pumpkins cook faster than the big, flat seeds from a large jack-o’-lantern, so start checking at 15 minutes. A low oven is the whole trick. At high heat the outside burns before the inside dries out.

Seasoning ideas

Add the seasoning with the oil before roasting, except for sugar mixes, which can scorch; toss those on for the last 5 minutes, or right after the seeds come out.

Savory

• Garlic powder and salt
• Seasoned salt or a salt-free herb blend
• Chili powder, cumin and a squeeze of lime after roasting
• A few dashes of hot sauce or Worcestershire sauce mixed into the oil
• Soy sauce with a pinch of ground ginger
• Grated Parmesan and dried Italian herbs

Sweet

• Cinnamon and sugar
• Pumpkin pie spice with brown sugar
• Nutmeg, cinnamon and a light drizzle of maple syrup

A sheet pan lined with foil and divided into two or three flavors lets everyone pick a favorite. Kids usually go for cinnamon sugar; adults tend to like the chili-lime.

If your seeds did not turn out

Chewy instead of crunchy. They were still damp, or the pan was crowded. Dry the next batch longer and use two pans. You can put chewy seeds back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Burnt outside, soft inside. The oven was too hot. Stay at 325°F or even 300°F and give them more time.

Seasoning falls off. Toss the seeds with the oil first, then the seasoning, so there is something for the spices to stick to. A light spray of oil halfway through roasting helps a second layer of seasoning cling.

Some seeds are flat and papery. Those were immature seeds with nothing inside. Pick them out; they burn quickly and taste bitter.

Pumpkin seeds vs pepitas

The seeds from a carving pumpkin have a white hull, and you eat them hull and all. Pepitas, the flat green seeds sold in bags, come from pumpkin varieties that grow hull-less seeds (or have the hull removed). They cost several dollars a bag at the store. The seeds from your jack-o’-lantern cost nothing, which is hard to beat.

Storing roasted pumpkin seeds

Let the seeds cool completely, then store them in a jar or zip-top bag. They keep at room temperature for about a week, in the refrigerator for a few weeks, and in the freezer for a few months. If they lose their crunch, spread them on a baking sheet and warm them at 300°F for 5 minutes.

Ways to use them

• Pack them in lunchboxes as a salty snack.
• Sprinkle them over salads, soup or oatmeal.
• Mix them with raisins, cereal and a few chocolate chips for a cheap trail mix.
• Put them in small bags tied with ribbon for a party favor at a Halloween get-together.

If you are planning one, the cheap Halloween party ideas include games and decorations that use the same pumpkins, and roasting seeds is also a good addition to a list of TV-free activities for kids on a rainy fall afternoon. For more snacks and dinners that cost very little, browse the budget recipes.

Save the flesh too. The inside of a carving pumpkin is watery and stringy compared with a sugar pie pumpkin, but it can be roasted, pureed and frozen in 1-cup bags for soups, muffins and pancakes, and it is one more thing from the pumpkin that never has to go in the trash.