Are You Ready To Play With Your Pumpkins?
I love everything about fall: the leaves changing, weekend drives into the country, pumpkin patches, collecting the last of the sunflowers from summer and preparing them as food for the birds of winter, building bonfires, and my favorite, fall food. Delicious! But then again, if you were to ask me a few months from now, I will probably say winter food is better.
Seasonal foods vary, and they are all wonderful, but there is something extra special about fall, and I think that has a little something do with pumpkins. I love playing with mine! I enjoy creating jack-o’-lanterns, serving soups and stews in the small ones, making homemade pumpkins pies, and at the top of my list, roasting pumpkin seeds. They are a great snack and, the best of all, gluten-free.
I keep it simple, extracting the seeds from the pumpkin, salt and bake. However, I saw a recipe on Facebook from Whole Foods, which had a few extra steps. I never thought about rinsing and boiling the seeds for 10 minutes. Now I know!
In addition to salt, I added garlic and rosemary. They are fantastic! I’ll definitely be taking a handful of these with me on my next hike.
Fall is here to stay, for now, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it, getting outdoors as often as I can, and when the temperature drops after the sun goes down I’m going to take my fall fun indoors, kicking back to relax, enjoying a glass of Malbec and a warming fire.
Here’s to fall and its fabulousness. Here’s to creating memories with friends, and for my special friends (my celiacs) – here’s to it being forever gluten-free, always living our best life one meal at a time. Cheers! – paerki
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds (makes about 2 cups)
Ingredients:
1 medium pumpkin
4 cups water
1-tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Method:
Preheat oven to 250°F. Cut off top 3 to 4 inches of pumpkin then scoop out seeds onto a clean work surface. Discard stringy fiber from seeds along with any seeds that are split or cracked then transfer to a strainer and rinse well. (You should have about 2 cups of seeds.)
In a medium pot, bring water to a boil. Add seeds, reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes. Drain well then transfer to a paper towel-lined sheet tray and pat dry.
Transfer seeds to a medium bowl, toss with oil and spread out in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Roast seeds, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until just crisp and golden brown, about 1 hour total. (They will become crispier as they cool.) Set aside to let cool completely then shell or eat whole.
For spicy pumpkin seeds, mix 1/2 teaspoon each garlic salt, cumin, coriander and cardamom with seeds and oil before roasting. For sweet pumpkin seeds, mix 1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, cloves and ginger and 1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar with seeds and oil before roasting.
Seasonal foods vary, and they are all wonderful, but there is something extra special about fall, and I think that has a little something do with pumpkins. I love playing with mine! I enjoy creating jack-o’-lanterns, serving soups and stews in the small ones, making homemade pumpkins pies, and at the top of my list, roasting pumpkin seeds. They are a great snack and, the best of all, gluten-free.
I keep it simple, extracting the seeds from the pumpkin, salt and bake. However, I saw a recipe on Facebook from Whole Foods, which had a few extra steps. I never thought about rinsing and boiling the seeds for 10 minutes. Now I know!
In addition to salt, I added garlic and rosemary. They are fantastic! I’ll definitely be taking a handful of these with me on my next hike.
Fall is here to stay, for now, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of it, getting outdoors as often as I can, and when the temperature drops after the sun goes down I’m going to take my fall fun indoors, kicking back to relax, enjoying a glass of Malbec and a warming fire.
Here’s to fall and its fabulousness. Here’s to creating memories with friends, and for my special friends (my celiacs) – here’s to it being forever gluten-free, always living our best life one meal at a time. Cheers! – paerki
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds (makes about 2 cups)
Ingredients:
1 medium pumpkin
4 cups water
1-tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Method:
Preheat oven to 250°F. Cut off top 3 to 4 inches of pumpkin then scoop out seeds onto a clean work surface. Discard stringy fiber from seeds along with any seeds that are split or cracked then transfer to a strainer and rinse well. (You should have about 2 cups of seeds.)
In a medium pot, bring water to a boil. Add seeds, reduce heat and boil gently for 10 minutes. Drain well then transfer to a paper towel-lined sheet tray and pat dry.
Transfer seeds to a medium bowl, toss with oil and spread out in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Roast seeds, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until just crisp and golden brown, about 1 hour total. (They will become crispier as they cool.) Set aside to let cool completely then shell or eat whole.
For spicy pumpkin seeds, mix 1/2 teaspoon each garlic salt, cumin, coriander and cardamom with seeds and oil before roasting. For sweet pumpkin seeds, mix 1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, cloves and ginger and 1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar with seeds and oil before roasting.
