With Halloween this week, it’s prime time for carving pumpkins. I did mine last weekend, and as I was scooping out the insides, TJ asked me to keep the seeds so we could roast them. I’ve never eaten pumpkin seeds before, but thought it’d be fun to try, so I threw a bunch of spices on them and went to town.

They turned out good, but they are definitely really spicy! If you don’t like a lot of heat, you can cut back on the amount of crushed red pepper, or leave it out completely and have garlic pumpkin seeds instead. Next time, I think I want to try a sweet version – maybe cinnamon sugar or something?

Oh, and that pumpkin I carved? I sliced it up while watching Gilmore Girls (of course), and here’s how it turned out!

Printable Recipe
Makes a ton

ingredients:
1 1/3 cups pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp pepper

instructions:
Rinse the pumpkin seeds to get all the pumpkin goop off them. Lay them in a flat layer on a baking sheet and let them dry overnight. The next morning, roast the seeds at 300 for about 10 minutes.

Put the seeds in a bowl and add the olive oil, garlic powder, salt, crushed red pepper, and pepper. Stir to combine.

Raise the oven temperature to 350 and lay the seeds out in a single layer on the baking sheet.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the seeds are crispy and golden brown.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Food Network

Have you ever roasted pumpkin seeds? Do you usually carve pumpkins free hand or do you use a pattern? (I’m clearly a pattern fan)