Spiced Roasted Squash Seeds

Here we go, NaBloPoMo day 2.

I quickly realized the problem of an imageless post. You see, I designed this site specifically to showcase an image on the homepage. So an image-less post has an empty look when sitting next to the others. I guess there will be pictures this month, and every month! Yay for visuals, because who doesn’t prefer a visual along with their post now, really? Doesn’t this image make you want to read through for the recipe?

That said, maybe I should come up with a standard image I can just use on those posts that don’t really have associated images. Or I can pull something older out of the image hat. That’s what I did for yesterday. I went back and added a pumpkin-carving preview image. Check it out if you missed it here: NaBloPoMo, an attempt. It also explains what this whole NaBloPoMo is. Mike thinks it’s a terrible acronym. It just makes me laugh because it’s so silly to say. Try it. You’re laughing, right?

Yesterday’s image is from the pumpkin carving party. Every year at work they host an annual pumpkin carving competition. Literally, every year. They’ve been doing this since the early 80’s making this the 32nd or 33rd annual carving (institutional memory is a little fuzzy). I’ve had the pleasure to participate the past few years. I work with a group of amazingly talented people so I pretty much carve for fun, knowing I don’t have the technical carving skills to really compete for any of the fame, glory, or prizes the contest brings.

Everyone gets one hour to carve and then all pumpkins are brought into our conference room. Lights are turned off, candles are lit, and the fun and judging begins. This year, I went for a technically simple pumpkin of a whale, inspired by this tutorial. I was thrilled to tie for third place in the contest! Go whale! You can see some of the other pumpkins in the group photo.

All of these pumpkins means one thing for the industrious – pumpkin seeds! Lots and lots and lots of pumpkin seeds.

So I experimented with several different seasoning techniques. And then I also found myself with butternut squash seeds as well (more on that to come later this week). So I figured, why not roast the squash seeds? If you’ve never roasted squash seeds it’s really easy, they’re slightly smaller, more plump, and a little softer than the pumpkin seeds. But you can use this recipe for either pumpkin or butternut squash seeds, however in a side-by-side comparison, all parties (being me and Mike), preferred the squash seeds to the pumpkin seeds. Enough chatter. Here’s the basic recipe or guidelines, really.

Spiced Roasted Butternut Squash Seeds
butternut squash seeds (or pumpkin seeds)
1 part cinnamon
1 part ground cumin
1/4-1/2 part mild chile powder
1/4 part sea salt

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Line cookie sheet with nonstick liner (like a silpat) or parchment paper.
2. Separate out seeds and rinse well in colander to remove all of the orange flesh.
3. Pat seeds dry with paper towel.
4. Spread seeds out on cookie sheet.
5. Generously sprinkle all seasonings on seeds in the above listed ratios, adjusting quantities based on how many seeds you have.
6. Use hands to mix seeds and spices well, right on the cookie sheet! Spread everything out so seeds are not touching.
7. Roast in oven. Check after 10 minutes and stir. They quickly go from not done to burnt, so keep checking every few minutes until they’ve reached a lovely golden brown.
8. Let cool and enjoy the goodness. Try not to eat them all at once as you might get a belly ache.