By Averi and Marina Halbert
You know it’s Halloween when you get jump-scared by a jumbotron advertising the newest pumpkin spice chai tea at Starbucks (no shade, it’s delicious). As those pesky pumpkin spice lattes sneak up on us every season, so do our yearly traditions; gallon sized jars of candy corn in a glass pumpkin on the counter, ding-dong-ditching neighbors with Halloween themed baskets of sweets, and decorating our yard with 16-foot skeletons from Home Depot. In our household, Halloween spirit starts early and strong.
One tradition that we, like most households, observe around this time of year is carving a pumpkin. While the process of pumpkin carving can be annoying, with all those guts clinging to your hand and the stringy fibers getting stuck under your nails, seeing a small light flicker behind the lifeless eyes of your strange orange creation almost always makes it worth it. However, for the times that seeing your pumpkin’s crooked smile simply doesn’t fill you with halloween spirit, we have a suggestion to make pumpkin carving even more enjoyable and worth your time.
Instead of tossing those annoying seeds and guts in the trash, get a big bowl full of water and plop them in there as you clean out the pumpkin. By the time you finish your carving, you’ll find that the seeds are (for the most part) floating at the top, ready to be collected, cleaned, and cooked. That’s right, cooked! Pumpkin seeds are 100% edible and 100% delicious when prepared the right way. We promise your lovably wonky attempt at carving a witch’s hat into the face of your pumpkin will look much better if you’re tossing cinnamon toasted pumpkin seeds in your mouth as you judge it. Below we’ve linked a couple of our personal favorite recipes, whether you like sugar, spice, or a little bit of both!
Just as a tip – most recipes require a large amount of dry seeds, so the process will always start with cleaning the pulp off the seeds, laying them out on some towels, and allowing them to dry. The whole process will be a lot more efficient if you do multiple pumpkins’ seeds at once, although you could always scale the recipe down.
Check out this amazing recipe for cinnamon and sugar seeds!
This simple recipe will create the most delicious, spicy seeds.
A perfect blend of sweet and spicy, these spiced maple pumpkin seeds are a crowd favorite.
There are hundreds more recipes out there, these are just the ones we’ve been using for the last couple of years. Feel free to search for any flavor you’d like! We’ve come across some … interesting recipes, like ranch dressing or buffalo sauce flavored seeds. Plus, since you’re mostly eating pumpkin seeds, these recipes can technically be called healthy eating (except maybe the cinnamon and sugar one). All in all, utilizing every part of the pumpkin will make carving more delicious, gets you your money’s worth, and contributes to a yummy and spooky Halloween.