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Foodbuzz
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My favorite snack: Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
April 13th, 2006 | Category: Vegetarian
If you had known me in person, you would be really surprised to know that my favorite snack is in fact a healthy one. I have a tendency to pick and choose meals/snacks/drinks that are so full of calories that by the time you’re finished you balloon up instantly and it becomes humanly impossible to fit in the same pants. So this one is definitely an extreme outlier if you were to look at a histogram of my usual diet.
Roasting pumpkin seeds surely doesn’t need any instructions. But the health benefits do need mentioning. They are packed with protein, manganese, phosphorous as well as the amino acids arginine and glutamic acid. They also contain calcium, potassium, selenium, folate and niacin. Aside from easeing urinary problems (thereby reducing the risk of developing prostate cancer), it is used in Asian medicine to treat worms, depression, diabetes and water retention. Homeopathic practitioners prescribe it for nausea and seasickness.
How to prepare? Next time you buy a pumpkin, don’t throw away these goodies. Rinse them in a colander, pull any pulp or strings attached, rinse again and blot them dry. Most of the preparation techniques you will find online call for roasting them on a cookie sheet after adding a few drops of olive oil, but I recommend otherwise. These seeds already contain more oil than you really need (see nutrition chart above), so just put them in a non-stick pan and roast on medium heat stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until most of the seeds crack open. They last up to a month in an airtight container in room temperature.
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Oh my goodness, I am literally addicted to pumpkin seeds! There arent good ones here (and I can’t depend on picking them out of pumpkins each time!), but if I’m in the Middle East then I always bring back huge bags of gigantic pumpkin seeds! I love that stuff!!