If you’re carving pumpkins, save those seeds that get scraped out and make these delicious crunchy roasted pumpkin seeds. This is an easy, basic recipe for learning how to roast pumpkin seeds, along with three seasoning blends to try… use any of them of your favorite combination of spices! An awesome fall treat!

Growing up, the night that our family carved pumpkins was almost as exciting as the night we went trick or treating. After visiting a local pumpkin patch and carefully picking out our favorites, my parents would cover the kitchen table in newspapers. My mom would cut the top off of the pumpkins and go to work scraping out all of the pulp and seeds. Once she was finished, my dad would let my sister and I draw our designs on our pumpkins, and then he would working carving. While we were busy at the table, my mom would pull all of the pumpkin seeds out of the pulp, rinse and dry them, season them, and put them in the oven. By the time we were finished carving our pumpkins, we were more than ready to start snacking on fresh roasted pumpkin seeds.

I haven’t carved a pumpkin in years, but every October around this time, I start to crave those fresh roasted pumpkin seeds my mom would make. I finally made my own roasted pumpkin seeds this year, and used three different spice blends.

Did you (or do you) have pumpkin carving traditions? If you roast pumpkin seeds, what are some of your favorite flavors to use?