2 Reasons To Make Pumpkin Seeds In The Air Fryer And 1 Reason Not To

If roasting pumpkin seeds is your favorite part of carving jack-o'-lanterns every October, try using your air fryer for a quicker, crispier result. After all, a crunchy, well-spiced snack is the perfect way to wind down from a long afternoon spent picking out and carving pumpkins.

From scraping out the inside of our holiday gourds to rinsing away the fibrous strands and drying the seeds well, cooking your own pumpkin seeds is already a long process. If you roast them in a conventional oven, you have to add an additional 25 to 30 minutes before you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, whereas an air fryer speeds up the process so you can start crunching on those pepitas sooner (and they will be supremely crunchy). There are pros and cons when using the device for this simple yet profoundly tasty dish, but there are a few things you should be aware of so you can decide what works best for you.

Air fryers are a great way to whip up great-tasting snacks on the fly. When roasting pumpkin seeds, the benefits of using an air fryer are twofold. First, your cleaned, dried and seasoned seeds will get crispier than in a conventional oven. Air fryers are essentially small, countertop convection ovens that use fans to circulate hot air around the food, thereby cooking more evenly and efficiently, which leads to the second reason: The pumpkin seeds will roast much faster in the countertop appliance, cutting cooking time in at least half.

That being said, you might think, why wouldn't you use an air fryer to roast pumpkin seeds? There is one major reason, and that is capacity. To successfully make crispy roasted pumpkin seeds, they need to be spread out in a single layer on the baking sheet. Since many air fryers only have a 3- to 6-quart capacity, and overcrowding is the kind of mistake that inhibits crispiness, you'll be limited as to how much you can make in one go. You could make several batches, but the process would take longer than if you roasted several sheet pans of seeds in a conventional oven.