If there’s one food that rules the month of October, it has got to be pumpkins. Although pumpkins are great to eat year-round, the fun of pumpkin carving is more-so reserved for this month only. With pumpkin carving comes the pumpkin guts, which shouldn’t be wasted. Here are 5 uses for pumpkin seeds that’ll give you a reason to save those guts.
Before using the seeds, I highly suggest roasting them to give them a crunch and more flavor.
1. Add them into granola
I always think granola is better when it has a lot of different textures and levels of crunch. You can even customize the pumpkin seeds by roasting them with different flavorings to add even more flavor to your granola.
2. Add them to salads
Take a boring old salad full of leaves and spice it up with some extra crunch and flavor. Pumpkin seeds are the perfect addition to make a salad more seasonally appropriate for the fall.
3. Sprinkle them on top of muffins
The next time your bake muffins, try sprinkling some pumpkin seeds at the very top. It’ll give your muffins that extra unecessary but amazing crunch found on muffins you usually only buy at the café.
4. Use them in a breakfast hash
This one may not be as intuitive, but the nutty aroma can be the perfect compliment to a breakfast potato hash. Plus, pumpkin seeds add the perfect amount of crunch and bite to the dish.
5. Make candied pumpkin seeds
This recipe for candied pumpkin seeds includes ingredients most people probably already have in the kitchen. It’s a great alternative to actual candy and super simple to make.
Yes, you could just go to the grocery store and buy a back of already made or seasoned pumpkin seeds, but that just takes away from the fun of the fall season. Plus, you’ll still feel the guilt of wasting away all those pumpkin seeds you scooped out.