Halloween is right around the corner. If you’re like most people, you are going to carve a pumpkin into a snaggle-toothed masterpiece and leave it, candle-illuminated, outside your front door to greet costumed candy beggars.

I don’t get many trick-or-treaters in my neighborhood, however I still like to carve a pumpkin. It’s gooey and messy. It brings back memories of sitting on the newspaper-covered kitchen floor as a child, digging into the gourd with bare hands.

Of course, once you scoop out all the pumpkin innards, you’re left with a pile of seeds and goo.

As a kid, we’d salt and roast the pumpkin seeds. They weren’t super flavorful, but since you were directly involved in the process, you’d eat a few anyways.

These days, my palate is a bit more refined and I like to spruce up the pumpkin seeds into a gourmet treat.

Below I’ll give you my favorite way to make them taste really good + 5 other ways to use pumpkin seeds. The amount of spice mixture will depend on how many seeds you have, so adjust as needed. No shame in adding extra seasoning at the end if you don’t get it quite right.

Chili-Lime Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

• Seeds of 1 medium pumpkin
• 1-2 teaspoons coconut oil or ghee
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon mild chili powder
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder
• Juice of 1 lime

Directions

1. Separate pumpkin seeds from the orange goo. Don’t rinse, otherwise you wash off a lot of flavor.
2. Place on a cookie sheet. Toss in oil, spices, and lime juice.
3. Roast for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees or until lime juice is evaporated, seeds are crisp, and the house smells amazing. Set a timer. These burn easily.

Need more ideas for what to do with pumpkin seeds?

Try these 5 spice mixtures:

• Cinnamon-sugar
• Thyme-salt-lemon
• Rosemary-salt-pepper
• Curry powder-ginger-salt
• Cajun seasoning blend (typically salt, paprika, cayenne, garlic, pepper)

Remember that the seeds from winter squash taste identical to pumpkin seeds. Don’t throw them out. Actually, the picture above is of butternut squash seeds. Next time you make any winter squash, save the seeds and try one of these recipes!

Did you like this recipe? If so, be sure to sign up for email updates to get more simple and tasty recipes and real food nutrition tips delivered to your inbox every week.

If you’ve got other great ideas for what to do with pumpkin seeds, tell me in the comments section below.

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Until next week,

Lily