Roasted pumpkin seeds can become a tradition every bit as special as candy, carved pumpkins, spooky decorations and costumes. Not only do roasted pumpkin seeds go hand in hand with carving a pumpkin, but they also go very well with trick or treating because pumpkin seeds are one of the most nutritious seeds around. Seeds, in general, are a concentrated source of nutrition because they need to contain a supply of food for the plant to begin to develop. Pumpkin seeds were on the NYT Well blog post The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating as “the most nutritious part of the pumpkin and packed with magnesium. In fact, a 1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds contains 45% daily value of magnesium, which is used up rapidly when you eat sugar. In addition, pumpkin seeds contain the percent daily value of the following:
52% of manganese
40% of phosphorus
35% of tryptophan
28% of iron
23% of copper
22% of vitamin K
17% of zinc
as well as
16% of protein
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
This recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds is from Simply Recipes.
Ingredients:
Large Pumpkin
Salt
Olive Oil
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Carve the pumpkin and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Separate the seeds from the stringy pulp and rinse the seeds in warm water.
3. In a pan, add pumpkin seeds and water (about two cups of water for each 1/2 cup of seeds.) Add 1/2 Tablespoon of salt for every cup of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
4. Toss pumpkin seeds with olive oil. Spread the seeds out on a roasting pan in a single layer. Bake in the top rack until the seeds begin to brown (about 10-20 minutes.) Remove from the oven and and let the pan cool on a rack. Let the seeds cool completely before eating.