Confessions of a Pumpkin Hater {+ a Recipe for Roasted Pumpkin Seeds}

Source: closetcooking.com via Debbie on Pinterest

I hate the taste of pumpkin. I can’t explain it; I just do.

Now consider this fact in conjunction with my abiding love for food and entertaining and you can quickly see how the Fall season is both glorious and torturous for me at the same time.

Every.Single.Food.Magazine. is featuring 5,000 recipes for Fall and they ALL include pumpkin as the star ingredient. Now, I know what you’re going to say – that I can substitute sweet potato or squash for the pumpkin in these recipes – and you’re right, I most certainly could.  But the simple imagery of seeing the pumpkin makes me shudder and ruins the recipe for me at the outset. Pinterest is also painful these days.

Don’t get me wrong – I like the idea of the pumpkin and what it represents, and of course we have about 6 of them on our doorstep for Halloween.  We even took an amazing trip to the Pumpkin Patch and picked our own gourds. But the taste? The texture? THE SMELL OF A RAW PUMPKIN?

*GAG*

That said, I’m all about trying to find the positive in a situation, yes? The best I can do given these unfortunate pumpkin-obsessed circumstances is to share the one and only pumpkin recipe I can stomach – Roasted Pumpkin Seeds.  My mom used to make these all the time growing up and I’m going to salvage the seeds after we carve our Jack o’ Lantern this year to share the tradition with my kids (who will most certainly turn their nose up at them).

I’m looking forward to December when the food world turns its attention to Bourbon Balls, Sugar Cookies and Peppermint Bark. Until then…

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds via SimplyRecipes.com

Image Credit: Taste of Home

INGREDIENTS

• One medium sized pumpkin
• Salt
• Olive oil

METHOD

1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut open the pumpkin and use a strong metal spoon to scoop out the insides. Separate the seeds from the stringy core. Rinse the seeds.

2 In a small saucepan, add the seeds to water, about 2 cups of water to every half cup of seeds. Add a half tablespoon of salt for every cup of water (more if you like your seeds saltier). Bring to a boil. Let simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.

3 Spread about a tablespoon of olive oil over the bottom of a roasting pan. Spread the seeds out over the roasting pan, all in one layer. Bake on the top rack until the seeds begin to brown, 10-20 minutes, depending on the size of the seeds. (Smaller pumpkin seeds could toast more quickly.) When browned to your satisfaction, remove from the oven and let the pan cool on a rack. Let the seeds cool all the way down before eating. Either crack to remove the inner seed (a lot of work and in my opinion, unnecessary) or eat whole.