Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

For years, when I roasted pumpkin seeds, I took them out of the pumpkin, washed them, added a sprinkle of salt and tossed them in the oven. They were good, but they were never great. Last year for Thanksgiving I tried, for the first time to brine my turkey, soaking it in salt overnight. And that got me to thinking about what else I could soak, like pumpkin seeds. So I looked it up and found all sorts of recipes for soaking pumpkin seeds in brine. Some said soak for an hour, some said over night, some said boil, some did not, some said lots of salt, some said a little, some said bake at a low temperature, some said at a high one. So I did what I do, I tested a few of them and came up with my own version and my family loves it.

• Fresh Pumpkin Seeds
• Salt
• Water

After you have cleaned out your pumpkin and had tons of fun hanging out with the kids, covered in goo and slime, wash the seeds and remove as much of the pulp as possible. I put a strainer in a large bowl, fill it with water and rub and squeeze the seeds and drain the water. I do this several times to get all the pulp off.

Put the seeds in a pot that has a lid. Make a mixture of salt water, measuring 1/4 of a cup of salt for every 1 cup of water and cover the seeds completely with the brine. Soak overnight.

When you are ready to roast the seeds, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Boil the seeds for 10 minutes and drain, but do not rinse. Place the seeds in a thin layer, covering the bottom of a cookie sheet. Roast the seeds for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, stir them around a bit, they will still be damp. Roast for another 5-10 minutes. If they are still damp, stir and roast for another 5 minutes. Repeat this until they are dried out and starting to get a golden brown. Once they are dry they roast to a nice golden brown very quickly, so stay close at this point.

I love to eat them warm, right out of the oven. Yumm!

Enjoy!