My favorite thing about carving pumpkins is the leftover seeds, which I think taste a heck of a lot like fried eggs when toasted. A week ago we went to the pumpkin patch and loaded up on spaghetti squash, which we ate, and pumpkins, which were carved on my front porch. I didn’t carve my pumpkin, which I got for pie, but sat outside and dug through buckets of muck and picked out pumpkin seeds.
After taking this picture I spread them out onto two baking sheets.
Most sources I looked at recommended cooking them for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees, but my experience was that 15 minutes was plenty. For the second batch (the left ones), ten would’ve even been plenty because the oven was so hot after cooking the first batch. I sprayed the first batch with olive oil and then sprinkled it with cajun seasoning and crushed red pepper and then stirred them around until they were evenly coated. I poured cinnamon, sugar, and melted butter over the second batch and stirred them around until evenly coated as well.
After I get bake my pie I might get a little more creative with those seeds–I’m thinking about candying them or baking them into some muffins?
The ones on the left are a little too toasty.
