We just helped GoFaresBoy carve his pumpkin. I took the seeds and have them roasting in the oven. Does anyone else do this?

YES! Love them!

I'm boring though, I just rinse them and then spread them on a sprayed cooking sheet and sprinkle with a bit of salt and cook them in a low oven. Do you do anything more interesting? Some people use different seasonings, for example...???

You can roast other squash seeds, too - like butternut, acorn, etc.

Mmmmm, pepitas. ^ Try this:

Clean all the slime and strings off them, rinse them, then lay them out on paper in a single layer to dry.

Once dried, use a rolling pin to crack the hulls. Then dump them into a bowl of water and stir vigorously to separate seeds from hulls. Hulls will float, seeds will sink.

Put the seeds in a frying pan and heat on low. When the seeds start popping or cracking, stir them while heating for about 3 minutes. Salt. Enjoy.

I put my seeds in a little canola oil, then sprinkled some salt, garlic powder and onion powder on them before putting them in the oven to toast. Another recipe I've seen says to also use a little worchesture sauce in the mix.

We usually roast any pumpkin and squash seeds, usually boring, sprinkle with some spices (usually something like penzeys northwoods fire) and just bake.

Have to try the pumpkin separation thing.

Squash the seeds are usually so small it doesn't matter, just eat them all.

Always a treat that I enjoyed!

Now that I am at college, I can't enjoy them this year, as our "kitchen" in the dorm is subpar, and would never use it... (it's caused the fire alarm to go off at least once this year)...

Great, my chance to list a recipe for pumpkin soup! (Not too OT, since it calls for roasted pumpkin seeds as garnish. )

Quarter, then slice into manageable pieces, a fresh pumpkin. Scrape out seeds (keep and roast) and the fibers. Boil the pumpkin, then cool, refrigerate at least overnight, then drain as well as possible and peel off the rind and discard rind. Make several fresh pumpkin pies (we use half-and-half sugar and Splenda) with most of the pulp or else freeze. This will be a lot of pumpkin.

With about two cups of leftover pumpkin, make pumpkin soup:

Inexact amounts, measure by sight:
about 2 tablespoons cooking oil, about 2 tablespoons flour and one-half medium chopped onion (onion optional), stir together and brown. Add one or two cans of chicken broth, Campbell's regular chicken broth only (not Swanson, not low sodium or low fat). Add a sprinkle or two of salt and several generous sprinkles of black pepper and bring to a boil. Stir in two cups of mashed fresh pumpkin, heat, then turn off heat and allow to cool.

Put into a blender until smooth. Check seasoning. Add more black pepper to taste. The more black pepper (within reason), the better, as it tastes like an authentic Southern homemade vegetable soup that way. It should be a peppery soup. Refrigerate overnight if needed. Reheat. If only one can of chicken broth was used, this is a good time to add the other, so as to thin the soup out. You may even need half of a third can of chicken broth but probably won't. Do not thin the soup with milk or cream.

The finished soup should resemble orange velvet in texture and color. Pour into soup bowls, then add a teaspoon of sour cream and sprinkle the sour cream with roasted pumpkin seeds.

Beautiful, festive for the holidays, and very, very good.

We always do this after we carve pumpkins for Halloween

mmmm-mmmm, I love pumpkin seeds and pumpkin soup! Thanks for the recipes, guys! I haven't thought of making my own toasted pumpkin seeds, but will definitely try this year.

we used to do it on my grandma's farm back in the Ukraine

now I stick to sunflower seeds

--Russ

I had never had them until this past weekend. My S/O decided to past the Sunday afternoon by carving a pumpkin. She cleaned the seeds, laid them out to dry, sprinkled a little olive oil and salt on them, then roasted them. They were great! ^ ^

I am tempted to take the rest of the batch on a trip I have this weekend.

I put my seeds in a little canola oil, then sprinkled some salt, garlic powder and onion powder on them before putting them in the oven to toast. Another recipe I've seen says to also use a little worchesture sauce in the mix.

Hmmm...I do the same thing, but use olive oil instead. Wor. sauce, huh? Sounds a little "yucky" to me, but I'll try it