30 Pumpkin Seed Recipes to Spice Up Your Life

You know I grow pumpkins and squashes–right?  I am a broken record about the dreaded squash vine borer and squash bugs.  But the reality is–growing them might not be your thing and  you would rather savor those delectable pumpkins or squashes. I can’t blame you.  Who doesn’t love pumpkin pie, butternut squash  soup, or any dessert with pumpkin as the base–especially around the holidays?  But the pumpkin or squash flesh is not the only star.  Yep.  You heard it here.  The seeds are equally as yummy.  So, don’t throw them out.  Use them.  See how below.

I promise you.  Pumpkin seeds will be the new black.

Basic Pumpkin Seed Roasting Method:

Whenever I am getting a pumpkin ready to roast, I remove the seeds and put them in a separate bowl.  Don’t worry about removing the gunk off of the seeds right away.

While my pumpkin or squash is roasting, I remove the gunk by submerging the seeds in water.  I swirl the water around with my finger to loosen up the flesh from the seeds.  Then, I remove as much as I can.  If there is a few strands left, I don’t stress.

Next.

Always soak your seeds.  Soaking helps with digestion.  Read more about why you should soak your seeds HERE.  Cover the seeds with water then add 2 tablespoons of salt to 4 cups of seeds.  Make sure the salt dissolves.  Let them soak overnight.

In the morning, I drain and rinse the seeds.  Spread them out on a cookie sheet to dry in the oven at the lowest temperature.  My oven’s lowest temperature is 135 degrees.  Alternatively, use a dehydrator at 115 degrees.  The oven method takes about 8 to 10 hours.  The dehydrator will take 24 hours.  (I have this stainless steel one.)

Cook them until they are nice and crunchy.

(If you want to reduce the temperature in your oven, you can use a pencil or any hard object to prop open the door. Sometimes I use 2 chop sticks.)

Once cooled, store them in a glass jar for a month or put them in the freezer.

Spiced Pumpkin Seed Recipes

I don’t add any spices to my seeds since I use them in recipes that calls for nut flour.  I simply grind them in my blendtec or food processor to make pumpkin meal seed flour.  (You can use pumpkin seed flour in this zucchini recipe in lieu of almond flour.)

However, you can spice up the seeds when dehydrating them. Simply pat dry the seed after soaking them and add the spices listed in the recipes below.

*Warning–you can’t make all of these recipes at once.  I know you will want to.**

• Ginger Orange Zest Pumpkin Seeds–Serious Eats
• Sweet or Spicy Pumpkin Seeds–Jen and Joey Go Green.
• Sweet spicy salty pumpkin Seeds–Today in Dietzville. (Lindsay and I follow the same method of soaking.  She adds the spices when she dehydrates the seeds.)
• Mocha Pumpkin Seeds–Taste of Home
• Ranch, Pizza, Dill, Salt & Pepper, Cinnamon Sugar or Sweet & Spicy  Flavored Pumpkin Seeds–Back to Her Roots
• Old Bay, Wasabi, or Jalapeno Based  Pumpkin Seeds–Chowhound (The article offer 10 different recipes.  I choose a few to highlight here.)
• Chocolate or Vanilla Nutmeg Based Pumpkin Seeds–Swanky Recipes.  (Again, this article offers 10 recipes. I choose a few to highlight. I am such a chocolate girl.)
• Pumpkin Seed Brittle-Epicurious. Note, you do not need to dehydrate the pumpkin seeds for this recipe. I would still soak them.
• Curried Pumpkin Seeds–101 Cookbooks
• Honey Sriracha Pumpkin Seeds–Soup Addict
• Parmesan & Garlic Pumpkin Seeds–CaryCitizen  (The article offers four additional recipes.)
• Spicy Pepitas ( and a Butternut/Greens recipe too boot.)–Organic Kitchen
• Chili Lime Pumpkin Seeds-She Knows  (This article offers 2 other recipes as well.)
• Smoky BBQ spiced Pumpkin Seeds–Skinny Taste
• Bacon Roasted Pumpkin Seeds–The Gunny Sack
• Birthday Cake Flavored Pumpkin Seeds–Cook the Story  (Why?  Because every day should be your birthday!)
• Sage Roasted Pumpkin Seeds— Low Carbe Diem (Great recipe for the holidays.)

How to use your Plain or Spiced Pumpkin seeds

 

If you just want to soak and dehydrate your pumpkin seeds now but use them at a later time, be sure to check out the below recipes.

• Pumpkin seed granola–LA Times
• Pumpkin Seed Pesto--Whole Foods (In their recipe, they mention green pumpkin seeds.  I think you could use whatever type of pumpkin or squash seed you have.  Try it and see.)
• Raw Maple, Cinnamon Pumpkin Seed Walnut Butter–Raw Food Recipes
• Almond Pumpkin Seed Butter–Natural Noshing
• Pumpkin Seed Power Bars–Lexie’s Kitchen
• Pumpkin Seed Guacamole–Lunch Box Brunch
• Tahini Pumpkin Seed Ice Cream (Raw)–Raw Food Recipes
• Raw Vegan Superfood using Pumpkin Seeds–Raw Food Recipes
• Fall Greens with Roasted Butternut Squash and Spicy Pepitas–Organic Kitchen (Duplicate of the above.)
• Grain Free Pumpkin Cinnamon Roll using Pumpkin Seeds on Top-Scratchy Mommy.
• Pumpkin Seed Dukkah-NY Times  (Love Rose Shulman’s recipes.)
• Mayan Pumpkin Seed Dip–Food & Wine
• Pumpkin Seed Milk–The Blender Girl
• Pumpkin Seed Hummus–Half Baked Harvest.  (How could I not include a hummus recipe?)

(Thanks to Brit+Co for some great pumpkin seed recipe leads.)

Join the Conversation:

How do you roast or use your pumpkin seeds?

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