How To Clean Pumpkin Seeds - My Fearless Kitchen

What do you do with the pumpkin seeds after you’ve carved your Halloween pumpkins? Use these easy tips to clean pumpkin seeds, then enjoy them for a snack!

How to Clean Pumpkin Seeds

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Carving Jack-o-lanterns at Halloween is fun… but what on earth do you do with all that slimy stuff that comes out of the pumpkin? You could just throw it away… or you could clean off the pumpkin seeds and roast them for a delicious snack!

It can look a little daunting to clean pumpkin seeds. They are all stuck in a mass of pumpkin pulp, after all. But did you know that if you soak the whole thing in water, it gets a lot easier? (Scroll down for printable directions.)

Put the pumpkin pulp and pumpkin seeds in a large bowl and fill it with water. You’ll see any loose seeds float to the top. Use your fingers to gently separate the rest of the pumpkin seeds from the pulp. It’s easier to do this underwater.

Remove the pulp from the bowl, and throw it away. (Or compost it, or feed it to your cows. Whatever you do with vegetable waste.) You probably won’t get all the seeds completely clean. That’s okay, any of the leftover pumpkin will easily come off once the seeds are cooked.

Scoop the loose seeds off the top of the water with your fingers and put them in a colander. Rinse the seeds well under cool running water. The seeds will stay a little “slimy” feeling – this doesn’t mean they aren’t clean!

Spread the cleaned pumpkin seeds out on a sheet of parchment paper to dry. Don’t use paper towels, the seeds will stick to paper towels as they dry, and you’ll regret it!

Once the seeds are cleaned, you can roast them right away, even before you dry them. But if you dry them first, they won’t take quite as long to cook.

Now that you know how to clean pumpkin seeds, get to carving those Halloween pumpkins, clean and roast the pumpkin seeds, and then enjoy a delicious snack!

Enjoy!

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Printable Instructions for How to Clean Pumpkin Seeds

How To Clean Pumpkin Seeds

Marybeth Feutz What do you do with the pumpkin seeds after you've carved your Halloween pumpkins? Use these easy tips to clean pumpkin seeds, then enjoy them for a snack! Print Recipe Pin Recipe Prep Time 20 minutes minsTotal Time 20 minutes mins Course Snack

Ingredients

• Pumpkin seeds and pulp from a hollowed-out pumpkin.

Instructions

• Place the pumpkin seeds and pulp in a large bowl.
• Add enough water to cover all the seeds and pulp by at least 1 inch.
• Using your fingers, gently separate the pumpkin seeds from the pulp. Discard the pulp.
• When the seeds are loose, they will float. Scoop the seeds out with your fingers and put them in a colander.
• Rinse the pumpkin seeds well under cool running water (they will still feel a little "slimy" when you are done).
• Spread the cleaned seeds out in a single layer on a sheet of parchment paper to dry. (Do not use paper towels - the seeds will stick.)
• Roast the cleaned pumpkin seeds with this recipe.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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