I know I’ve done it before, but I couldn’t quite remember how to bake pumpkin seeds. The O Family bought a huge pumpkin this year, and sadly we did not carve it. Mr. O really loves pumpkin seeds, so we wanted to dig out the seeds and see if we could roast them.

Oh, and before I start, a quote from Mr. O. As we were looking online for a guide to follow, he says this: “Make sure the recipe makes them nice and crispy, or we won’t be friends anymore.” Threats!

We used the awesome instructions at Oh She Glows as our general guide for how to bake pumpkin seeds, but because I can never ever follow directions, we changed it up a bit.

First, be sure to clean out your pumpkin and get all the seeds possible. Once you have all the seeds you need, clean them well! Something suggested in the Oh She Glows post (which we didn’t try) was to put the guts and seeds in a bowl of water. As you separate the two, the seeds will float to the top, and you can just scoop them off.

After the seeds are separated, the next step is boiling them in some salt water. Put them on the stove in a pot of water that has been brought to a boil. After you’ve submerged the seeds (they’ll keep floating to the top), you can reduce the heat to a simmer. After ten minutes, strain the seeds. Pat them dry using paper towels or a clean kitchen towel. Now you’ll want to preheat the oven to 325f.

Now you’re ready to flavor the seeds however you like them. This is wear we strayed from the instructions. First, drizzle olive oil over the seeds. Do not drench them. Basically, you just want the seeds to have a light coating. I think we put a little too much on our seeds, though. They ended up tasting great in the end. We decided to flavor the seeds with garlic powder, onion powder, and cayenne powder.

Then it’s time for some baking! Bake the seeds for 10 minutes, and pull them out to mix them around. Mix everything well. Bake for another ten minutes. The total amount of time you need to cook the pumpkin seeds will depend on your own oven. My oven usually gets real hot, but it took about 25-30 minutes before I felt ready to take them out. Don’t just judge by the color of the shells. I’ve found the best way to test is by cracking the shell. They should be crispy, but the insides should be still a little soft. Having crispy insides means you’ve overcooked the pumpkin seeds.

Once you’ve taken the seeds out of the oven, you’ll want to remove them from the pan – mine was extremely hot, and I was afraid leaving them there would burn the seeds.

After they’ve cooled down – which will happen super quickly – the pumpkin seeds will be ready to eat. If you still want more flavor, you can add any seasonings you’d like. So there really is no need to wonder how to bake pumpkin seeds any longer. It is a quick, and easy process. Not to mention that clean up is simple as well.

Enjoy!