Pumpkin seeds

[Mama~Love]

Hiw to prepare them? NT says to sprout them, but they should be hulled. We just finished carving pumpkins, and I picked out all the seeds, rinsed them, and now they are drying on towels.

What should I do next? How do you hull them when they are so slippery?

TIA!

[stilllearning85]

I have always wondered how to hull them too! Seems like it would take hours!!

[JamieCatheryn]

Sprout then hull, I think. Soak all day, drain, rinse daily for like 3 days. Then the hulls will be opened and easy to pick off.

[sunnysandiegan]

I have been meaning to ask what to do with pumpkin seeds, too. We are going to carve our pumpkin today or tomorrow. Thanks for the thread, OP, and for the info, JamieCatheryn!

My next questions are....

What do we do with the sprouted seeds?

Can we roast them (directions?) and get some nutrition in that form?

[Mama~Love]

Thanks JamieCatheryn! Should I put them in the dehydrator after the 3 days, or eat them as is? Can they be roasted?

[greenmulberry]

We always used to toss them with a little salt, spread them on a cookie sheet, and bake them in the oven until toasty.

Then eat once they cool! I would pop the shell in my teeth and eat the 'meat' from the inside like a sunflower seed, but I know some people chew the whole dang seed up, hull and all.

[Metasequoia]

Once they're hulled, I put them in the dehydrator sprinkled with sea salt. I keep them in jars & sprinkle them over salads.

From the pumpkins, we just eat them in the hulls after baking them.

[OhMeOhMy]

We don't bother to hull them either. We rinse and toss with a little oil & salt then bake at 350 for about 25 minutes (stir around 10 minutes). Yummers. We just took ours out of the oven.

Oh and for oil I prefer corn, though sometimes I use veggie.

[Bea]

The day before we carved our pumpkin I was read someones GoodHouseKeeping magazine at work. They gave directions for roasting pumpkin seeds and I gave it a go. Best pumpkin seeds I ever had!

Rinse and remove flesh and strings from seeds. Boil in water (6 cups per 2 cups of seeds with a teaspoon of salt for 10 minutes.

Drain and roughly dry. Toss with a tiny amount oil (I used vegetable) just enough to lightly coat and another little sprinkle of salt, bake 375 for 40 minutes stirring every 10 minutes.

They were fabulous. I usually don't like pumpkin seeds in the hull. This recipe's seeds lasted about 30 minutes before we'd eaten them all

[Junegoddess]

Very timely... I just baked some pumpkins in an attempt to make Harry Potter-ish pumpkin juice. It's early yet, but it looks like house elves must have special magic for extracting that much juice...

But I do have a nice bowlful of pumpkin seeds now. Sprouting makes sense... they can open their OWN darn shells. LOL

[pampered_mom]

Originally Posted by Junegoddess

But I do have a nice bowlful of pumpkin seeds now. Sprouting makes sense... they can open their OWN darn shells. LOL

I tried hulling them last year - which gave me a new appreciation for eating them. I gave up halfway through as it did not seem worth it. We had always roasted them in the past and ate them hull and all. I always felt badly about doing that, though, since I know it's a less than ideal way of eating them.

When we roast them I skip most popular vegetable oils (including canola and corn) and go with something like coconut oil - although I think last year I used olive oil. Maybe ghee for another alternative?

[Laniemama]

Originally Posted by OhMeOhMy

We don't bother to hull them either. We rinse and toss with a little oil & salt then bake at 350 for about 25 minutes (stir around 10 minutes). Yummers. We just took ours out of the oven.

Oh and for oil I prefer corn, though sometimes I use veggie.

Corn and veggie oils are not acceptable for the TF board here! I use butter or coconut oil and sprinkle w/ sea salt. I also made some sprinkled with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, a little sea salt and butter. SO good! I made some spicy ones for dh too with cayenne, butter and salt, he likes them!

[sunnysandiegan]

Originally Posted by OhMeOhMy

We don't bother to hull them either. We rinse and toss with a little oil & salt then bake at 350 for about 25 minutes (stir around 10 minutes). Yummers. We just took ours out of the oven.

Oh and for oil I prefer corn, though sometimes I use veggie.

We used your recipe (with EVOO instead of corn/veggie oil) for half of our pumpkin seeds and YUM!!!

We are doing the sprouting thing with the other half. When I rinse them every day, do I leave some water in the jar with the seeds????

[Junegoddess]

Originally Posted by JamieCatheryn

Sprout then hull, I think. Soak all day, drain, rinse daily for like 3 days. Then the hulls will be opened and easy to pick off.

This was admittedly my first time trying to sprout anything... and sprouting is awfully close to gardening in general... encouraging plant life and such... and I am notorious in the plant kingdom. Plants fear me. But... I followed instructions... soaked, rinsed, drained and then rinsed and drained daily for three days. All I've got is funky pink-edged seeds. No signs of sprouts.

Any ideas what I might have done wrong? What I can do to fix it now? Or are these pumpkin seeds destined for the compost pile?

[sunnysandiegan]

Originally Posted by Junegoddess

This was admittedly my first time trying to sprout anything... and sprouting is awfully close to gardening in general... encouraging plant life and such... and I am notorious in the plant kingdom. Plants fear me. But... I followed instructions... soaked, rinsed, drained and then rinsed and drained daily for three days. All I've got is funky pink-edged seeds. No signs of sprouts.

Any ideas what I might have done wrong? What I can do to fix it now? Or are these pumpkin seeds destined for the compost pile?

Our half of the pumpkin seeds that we decided to "sprout" turned out just like yours. I tossed them onto a plate this morning to air-dry. I am sort of expecting to just roast them at this point. If they turn out icky at that point, I don't know what to do....

[Junegoddess]

I'll give 'em another rinse then... and spread them out to dry a bit. Not going to mess with them too much tonight. I needed something for an inaugural run on my dehydrator... hope the pink isn't mold, though.

We are so darn humid down here, I wouldn't be surprised if it's mold. I'd like to KNOW, though, as I was just gearing up to soak and dehydrate a huge bag of almonds.