Last night, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to sign up for National Blog Posting Month (aka NaBloPoMo). NaBloPoMo is an annual blogging event that takes place each November: participants commit to posting on their blogs each day of the month. This means you’ll be hearing from me more frequently over the next four weeks…I hope that’s ok with you :)
To keep my goal of posting every day in November an attainable one, my posts will most likely be shorter than usual. There will be recipes, of course, but not every day…some days may just be brief musings on topics related to general health or nutrition. I have a few giveaways planned, too :)
Today, I have an easy, tasty recipe for candied pumpkin seeds for you.
I made this recipe with the seeds I took out of the pumpkin I used to bake this Pumpkin Stuffed with Cheese, Sausage, and Pasta. Whenever you “play with” pumpkins, you always end up with a sloppy mess of pumpkin seeds, right? Don’t dump them in the compost (or worse yet, the garbage)…use them to make a healthy snack instead! (I am being more conscious about my food waste than ever these days, since I am participating in this program.
Seeds (and nuts and grains and some other foods) naturally contain something called enzyme inhibitors. To increase the amount of nutrients available to your body when you eat these foods (and to make them more digestible), it’s good to give them “a good soaking”. This is why I recommend soaking your pumpkin seeds in salted water before roasting them (doing this also simplifies removing all of the pulp that may stick to the seeds upon removal from the pumpkin).
These fiber and zinc-rich goodies are perfect for topping salads and side dishes. They are also wonderful eaten on their own.
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Related recipes:
Spicy Roasted Pumpkin Seeds from Our Gluten Free Family
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds from Tasty-Yummies
Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Seeds from So Let’s Hang It
5 Ways to Spice Up Roasted Pumpkin Seeds from Serious Eats
Recipe for Candied Pumpkin Seeds
Ingredients
For pre-soaking the pumpkin seeds:
- *approximately 1.5 cups pumpkin seeds (mine were from the sugar pumpkin I used to make this recipe
- *1 teaspoon fine or course sea salt
- *water
For roasting the seeds:
- *4 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- *4 tablespoons melted organic coconut oil or melted organic butter
- *1 teaspoon coarse sea salt plus more to taste
Instructions
- 1. Combine pumpkin seeds with salt in a bowl and add warm water to cover. Stir around to dissolve the salt. Cover with a tea towel and allow to sit on the counter for at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 300°F.
- 2. Strain the pumpkin seeds and remove any residual pumpkin pulp. Pat seeds dry with a towel.
- 3. Toss pumpkin seeds with the maple syrup, melted coconut oil or butter, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Spread out on a lidded sheet pan. Bake for about 1 hour, or until they are starting to brown and get crispy, tossing every 10-15 minutes. They may not seem 100% crispy when you remove them from the oven, but they will crisp up as they cool. Toss with additional coarse sea salt, if desired.
- Eat these as a snack on their own, or sprinkle them on salads or other vegetable-based side dishes.
