Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

The thing I look forward to most about carving pumpkins is cleaning and eating the seeds! We got quite a few from our two pumpkins this year, and I decided to be a little adventurous in their flavoring. Normally, I would just toss them with salt and roast them, but this year I tried some different seasonings. The steps are the same, just vary the seasoning to your tastes and what you have in your spice cabinet. Be creative!

This year, I made:
Salted - the old stand-by, spray with cooking spray and toss with salt
Cinnamon Sugar - a sweet treat! Toss with a little bit of melted butter and then some cinnamon, and sugar, with a touch of nutmeg, ginger, and ground cloves thrown in (or pumpkin pie spice)
Garlic Parmesan - A savory treat! Spray with cooking spray and toss with garlic powder, parmesan cheese, and a touch of salt
Hot - A spicy treat! Spray with cooking spray and toss with salt and a little (or a lot) of cayenne pepper

There are a lot of other combos that would work. Italian herbs, cajun spices... the possibilities are endless!Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

pumpkin seeds, cleaned well
cooking spray, oil, or butter
seasonings of choice

DIRECTIONS:
1. Separate pumpkin seeds from pumpkin guts. Place in a colander and rinse WELL. Try to remove as much orange stuff as possible (a little won't hurt you).
2. Spread the seeds out on a paper towel and pat dry. (Mostly dry anyways).
3. Heat oven to 300 deg F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.
4. Toss seeds with oil or butter (or just give them a good spray of cooking spray). Then toss with seasonings (I put the seasoning in a sandwich size Ziploc and tossed them that way). Vary the amount of seasoning you have to the amount of seeds. Generally, you need a couple tablespoons of seasoning to ~1/2 cup of seeds. The exception here is strong flavors - you don't want too much salt or too much cayenne. Spread seeds on baking sheet in a single layer.
5. Roast seeds at 300 deg F for 30-40 minutes, flipping/tossing them about halfway through. Seeds are done when they don't taste soft in the middle, but watch so they don't brown too much.

REVIEW:
I am very pleased with the flavor combos I tried. The spicy seeds aren't too hot, and the parmesan garlic seeds had a great taste to them (got this idea from the sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings). When I mentioned a sweet option with cinnamon and sugar, Josh said I was on my own. These are actually really good! I only wish I had more pumpkin seeds to make some more!

And if you are wondering what I carved this year... well, I took the easy way out. But aren't these just adorable?