Whether you grow your own pumpkins or pick one up at the local farm stand or grocery store, you get two bits of goodness out of it, not only the pulp as in our featured Roasted Pumpkin Soup, but also the seeds.

If you have enough seeds saved for your garden next year, then roast those babies up and have yourself a yummy and healthy treat.

Pumpkin seeds have a good amount of fiber in them, are a great low-carb treat, and pack a protein punch. They also are a good source of Omega-6s and Vitamin K. Careful of how much salt you put on them and you’ve got yourself a guilt-free munchie!

Equipment:

Baking sheet pan

Parchment paper or cooking spray

Oven

Mixing Bowl

Ingredients:

Fresh pumpkin seeds (**)

Oil of choice

Salt

Spices of choice(***)

Instructions:

Heat oven to 300 degrees F. Line your baking sheet pan with parchment paper, otherwise you may want to do a light coating of cooking spray. Put the seeds in a bowl, Add about 1 tablespoon of oil and 1 tsp of salt per 1 cup of seeds. Mix thoroughly. Put the oiled and salted seeds in a single layer on the prepared roasting tray. Make sure they aren’t too crowded. The more space between them the better. Feel free to roast your seeds in batches if you have carved up a larger pumpkin. Roast for about 20 minutes. Keep an eye on them, because they can go from perfect to perfectly burnt quickly. When a light golden brown (a bit darker if you’ve put spice on them), remove from oven. Cool for about 5 to 10 minutes on the pan and then enjoy. Keep in an airtight container for up to 4 days; however, they never last that long in Runa’s house.

(**) You can wash your seeds until they are clean like the above photo, just be sure they aren’t soaking wet when you go to roast them, ensure they are as dry as possible or they won’t roast properly. Otherwise, you can just get the big chunks of pumpkin off and roast them as is. Runa likes to do the later and the bit of pumpkin that remains on the seeds, cooks off in the oven and adds an extra bit of flavor to them.

(***) Runa makes hers with paprika and black pepper; but you can experiment — you could even do a little nutmeg and cinnamon to echo a pumpkin pie. Your call. But salt is a best partner regardless.)