One of my favorite things to make, serve and eat this time of year is sweet and salty roasted pumpkin seeds. I eat them as a bite on their own, as a garnish to any fall fruit concoction or with pumpkin, sweet potato or squash desserts.
Pumpkin seeds appeal all year long but at this time of year they are at their freshest and pair well with seasonal foods. Over the last couple of weeks we have served them many different ways: roasted and combined with fall squash, in a green salad with banyuls vinaigrette and a quenelle of polyface farm eggs, roasted and added to a spelt bread and to garnish several sweet courses.
I save the seeds from pumpkins and fall squashes to roast, often with olive oil and salt. The unhulled seeds are my favorite for snacking. Hulled pumpkin seeds work well for both savory and sweet dishes.
Nutritionally pumpkin seeds are miraculous! They are believed to help promote prostate health, help with arthritis, and lower cholesterol… They are also full of minerals, protein and monounsaturated fat.
Sweet Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
2 cups Hulled Pumpkin Seeds
3 tablespoons Agave Nectar
Himilayan Salt to taste
1 tablespoon sugar (ideally organic fair trade)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a sheet tray combine pumpkin seeds, agave nectar and salt to taste. Roast stirring regularly until seeds are darkly toasted but not burnt.
Remove from the oven and stir in sugar. Continue stirring as they cool to prevent them from sticking to the sheet tray. These store for several days in an air tight container.
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