Crispy pumpkin seeds – dehydrated or roasted

Being hangry is now official. Why? Because in early 2018 it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary along with over 1,000 other new entries. In my last post I talked about ‘me time’ as a new dictionary entry and when I spotted ‘hangry’ on the new words list I couldn’t resist sharing this news with you too.

Hangry – adjective – bad tempered or irritable as a result of hunger

Hangry is now a ‘proper English’ way to describe how it feels when hunger gets the better of you. It’s a feeling I often get thanks to my intermittent fasting. Just ask my husband – who is usually on the receiving end of my approaching end of fast hangry-ness.

One of my ways to avoid hunger threatening calmness is to always have some activated nuts close by – a healthy snack to tide me over until the next meal. Recently, just as my nut supplies were running low a whole pumpkin (that was destined for soup) surprised me with almost a cup sized amount of giant seeds. Rather than throw them away I got to work turning them into crispy snacks.

Pumpkin seeds are rich in nutrients including magnesium and zinc and so it’s always a shame to discard them when slicing pumpkin (or butternut squash). You can follow this method to turn them into crispy snacks with any type of pumpkin or butternut squash seeds – including a jack-o-lantern type pumpkins that provide huge seeds.

Crispy dehydrated or roasted pumpkin seeds

Remove the seeds and rinse them in water. While doing so remove any remaining pulp.
Fill a bowl with filtered water and a reasonable amount of sea salt. Then add the seeds.
Soak for 12-24 hours (longer is better).
Drain the seeds and rinse with more filtered water. Allow to dry or pat dry with paper towels.
Evenly place the seeds on a tray. If you like sprinkle them with spices such as paprika or cumin.
Dehydrate or roast the seeds:
- Dehydrate: Do this in the oven on the lowest setting (around 50C) or if you’re lucky enough to own a dehydrator then now is the time to use it. This method takes 12-24 hours and the low temperature preserves vital enzymes.
- Roast: Simply cook the seeds in the oven at 180C for 20-40 minutes (depending on the size of the seeds). Note that this method will destroy the enzymes in the seeds making them harder to digest.

Do you need to soak the seeds? Ideally yes. Soaking makes the end seeds nice and crispy. It also helps to make the seeds more digestible if you’re planning on the dehydrate Vs roast method (as roasting counteracts this benefit).