The Crucial Tip To Follow For The Crispiest Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Autumn eating is all about earthy fall flavors. Your recipe wishlist during the harvest season should include rustic apple tarts, cozy caramel toppings, cinnamon-spiced sweet potatoes, and of course, loads of succulent seasonal squash.

Amenable to sweet and savory recipes, the humble pumpkin is the star of squash season. If you're cooking (or carving pumpkins), take the opportunity to use every part of the gourd. You can make a classic pumpkin pie, pumpkin cornbread, or pumpkin peanut butter pancakes. It's also essential to save the seeds. Pumpkin seeds make for a simple, salty treat for snacking or can serve as a crunchy, textured topping for stews, soups, and salads.

Pumpkin seeds should be nutty and savory, with a crunchy shell, and they're conveniently customizable with your favorite flavors. They're easy to roast up while you're simmering a soup course or sculpting a jack-o-lantern. You can avoid soggy seeds with one crucial step: Dry pumpkin seeds before roasting to get them as crispy as possible.

For pumpkin seeds that are golden and perfectly toasted, set your oven to the right temperature for roasting; flavor the seeds with olive oil, salt and pepper, homemade pumpkin spice, or your favorite spice blend; and be sure to thoroughly dry the seeds before popping them in the oven.

Before roasting, give pumpkin seeds a good rinse to eliminate any clingy pulp. Then you can gently pat the clean seeds dry with a towel to soak up any excess moisture. Set the seeds out and allow them to dry for as long as possible. The longer you let them dry, the crispier the final results will be.

To expedite drying, you can also heat the seeds in a warm oven, allowing any extra liquid to evaporate. Properly drying the seeds will help the oil and spices to stick, resulting in a crunchy, flavorful snack, perfect for sprinkling over butternut squash soup or displaying on a fall charcuterie board.