Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

This post is probably a little late, considering most people carve their pumpkins long before Halloween. This year, between Nick being gone for most of October and my parents being in town during the holiday, I just never got around to it.

I decided that it actually worked out though, because then I could keep my pumpkins into November as fall decorations! That is, until our friends’ puppy decided to help me carve one of them…

How could you even be mad at that cute little face? Apparently, dogs really like pumpkin. Luckily, this particular pumpkin was one that we grew in our garden, which was ugly and misshapen and didn’t make the cut for front yard decorations. I wasn’t going to waste the pumpkin though, and I was actually glad that Gunner finally motivated me to scoop and roast the seeds– the best part of pumpkin carving!

I remembered seeing some spicy roasted pumpkin seeds while perusing my blog assignment for this month’s Secret Recipe Club. Perfect!

Members of the Secret Recipe Club are assigned a blog each month. Who has who is a secret until reveal day (today!). The mission is to choose a recipe from the assigned blog, make it, and share it!

This month, I was assigned Hapa-tite, an American-Hawaiian-Asian-Fusion kind of blog by Nicole. Hapa-tite has a huge variety of different recipes, some familiar (like Barbeque Chicken Pizza) and some intriguingly ethnic (like Vietnamese Pork with Nuoc Cham). The site also features a wide variety of fun bento box ideas!

Nicole roasted her pumpkin seeds a variety of different ways: simply with sea salt, a sweet version, and a spicy version. The spicy version was her favorite so that’s what I decided to try!

Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

(adapted from Hapa-tite)

• 1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds (scooped out fresh)
• 1 tbsp oil (I used coconut, but olive would work well)
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder (or cayenne)
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt

Rinse the seeds and spread on paper towels to remove excess water.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In bowl, toss seeds with oil. Add spices and salt, and toss again. Spread in an even layer on a nonstick baking sheet (I used parchment paper so I didn’t have to clean the baking sheet… #lazy).

Bake until the seeds are browned, about 30 minutes, tossing the seeds every 10 minutes. Let cool completely and then store in airtight container (if you don’t stuff them all in your face immediately after taking them out of the oven).

If you’ve already carved your pumpkins for the season, don’t forget about other winter squashes! You can roast any squash seeds: acorn, butternut, spaghetti! Check out this post on roasting squash seeds!