Tag: pumpkin seeds

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

FullSizeRender_3

The leaves are changing, the mornings are colder, and the urge to get cozy under a blanket with a cup of tea is creeping. This means only one thing…it’s pumpkin season! One of my favorite things about Seattle is that we actually get seasons. Spring is rainy, summer is gorgeous, fall is crisp and cozy and while we don’t get snow every winter it has been known to dump a few inches every few years.

Fall might be my favorite season to cook. So many comfort foods like potato leek soup, Ratatouille, butternut squash and my personal favorite- anything with roasted pumpkin. Most people get excited about carving pumpkins and drinking pumpkin spice lattes. I get equally excited about hacking a pumpkin open and roasting that delicious goodness! Cube it and add to salads, make pumpkin soup, puree it for baked goods, add some sautéed spinach and toasted quinoa and you have a wholesome hearty vegan meal.

Roasted pumpkin seeds are a great snack, party appetizer, salad addition or kitchen adventure with aspiring little chefs! The recipe is super simple and can be personalized in so many ways!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Prep Time: About 10 minute to scoop out pumpkin and remove stringy parts from seed
Cook Time: Aprox. 20 minutes 

Rice Bran Oil
Pumpkin or squash seeds
Grey or pink salt
Baking tray
Paper towels
Bowl

FullSizeRender_4Scoop out the pumpkin and separate the seeds from the stringy insides. Pinching the seeds while you run the strainer under cold water works to remove most of the stringy parts. Line a baking tray with paper towels. Wash the seeds in a strainer, being sure to remove all the stringy parts, and them flat the lined baking sheet. Pat the top of the seeds with a paper towel, it’s okay if they stick a little! Just remove the seeds from the paper towel and keep patting.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Put the seeds in a bowl and toss with oil. I recommend rice bran oil since it doesn’t have a taste and it has a high burn point ensuring that it’s good for baking and grilling. You can also use grapeseed oil, safflower oil or avocado oil. Those each have their own slight taste so it depends on what flavor your’e going with. Add a few pinches of salt, toss, and add a bit more salt. You can add to taste depending one how much you like salt. I use it sparingly.

Remove the paper towels from your baking tray and spread out the oiled seeds on the tray. You won’t need to add additional oil to the tray. Shake the pan out a bit so that most of the seeds are laying in one single layer. Some of the seeds will overlap, which is just fine!

Place the baking sheet in the oven. Turn seeds after ten minutes then allow them to roast until the corners of thee seeds start to brown. Depending on your oven, this could be between 17-25 minutes.

Remove the tray from the oven and allow the seeds to completely cool. Roasted seeds will keep in an airtight container for up to four days!

FullSizeRenderThe Kitchn has a few amazing ideas for other ways to flavor pumpkin seeds:

Sweet Pumpkin Seeds: Omit or reduce the salt and roast the seeds on parchment-lined baking sheet. Let cool, then toss with brown sugar or a little maple syrup. Not too much, just enough to lightly coat the seeds. You can also add cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg or other ‘sweet’ spices. Toss well to coat evenly. Return the tray to the oven and continue to roast for another 10 to 15 minutes or so.

Sweet-Hot Pumpkin Seeds: Toss the seeds with a little honey and sriracha or chili flakes. A little cumin might be nice, or curry powder. Roast as with sweet seeds.

Savory Pumpkin Seeds: Add herbs such as chopped rosemary, dried oregano and/or spices such as smoked paprika, chili powder, cumin to the seeds before roasting. Check carefully to be sure the herbs and spices aren’t browning too quickly. If so, roast at a sightly lower heat.

Pumpkin Seed Butter (Gluten-Free, Dairy Free)

FullSizeRenderLast summer I got hooked on pumpkin seed butter. Before that, I didn’t even know such a thing existed. I felt pretty nut-butter gourmet knowing that there was macadamia butter as well as cashew butter. I knew that you could grind your own; I’ve seen and even used the machines in my local Whole Foods to make fresh almond butter. But those machines were big, and scary, not to mention loud and quite menacing to look at. The though had NEVER dawned on me that it was something that could be made at home. Until a combination of a strong desire for a food processor, DIY itch and budgeting came together. Random components, but quite a story!

This recipe was adapted from the the kitchn’s Pumpkin Seed Butter recipe. I LOVE that they say it was inspired by a nut butter that they tasted at the Portland Farmers Market because I’m pretty sure it’s the same nut butter that hooked me on Pumpkin Seed Butter. Nut-Tritious Foods is a wonderful little company based out of  Vancouver, Washington.  They do a great job of educating customers why cold-pressed nut butters are better for you. I pulled the info below from their about page because it’s REALLY important to know!

“… we COLD-PROCESS and don’t use heat to get our nut butter into the tub. Heat will oxidize the healthy fats (poly- & mono-unsaturated) and make them more like a saturated fat! Most all jar nut butters have been heat processed – you can tell by the ‘nutcrete’ in the bottom of the glass jar.” An additional note, the heat processing method allows the nut butter to sit on the shelf in a jar until it’s purchased. Personally, I’d much rather have the fresh stuff that I know is perishable and know that I’m getting the most nutrition out of my consumption.

Check out my Almond butter recipe here.

Pumpkin Seed Butter

2 cup raw pumpkin seeds, without shells
1/2 cup ground sunflower seeds
1/4 cup flax meal*
1/4 cup  grapeseed oil
1 spoon of honey (to taste)
pinch grey salt

*Flax Meal: You can easily make flax meal in a coffee

Combine  pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds , and flaxseed meal in your food processor. Blend until the ingredients are well chopped and blended. You’ll need to stop and scrape the sides down so all the ingredients get blended together.

Add the honey and blend until the nut butter starts to form. This can take up to ten full minutes so have patience! Once you see the play dough texture, where the seed butter starts to form a ball and move around the bowl you’re getting close! Add the oil and continue to blend 5-10 minutes more until the butter is consistently smooth. Your food processor might get warm but don’t worry too much, you can always let it cool a little bit and then blend away. I used the 1/4 cup of oil and it was just fine, but you may want to add more depending on how you like your nut butter.

Place in an airtight container (tupperware or glass jar) and store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks.

There are plenty of additions to this recipe, you can mix up the ratios. You can choose olive oil or coconut oil. You might want to add salt, or use salted pumpkin seeds. You can also pre-heat the oven to about 350 and roast the seeds on a parchment paper or foil wrapped cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes. If you oven roast them, stir the seeds once or twice during cooking and let them cool before adding to the food processor. There is also a delicious looking adaption for Maple Pumpkin Seed Butter and Chocolate Pumpkin butter.