Found an interesting recipe from Jamie Oliver’s book “Cook With Jamie” for “Incredible Boiled Butternut Squash with Squash Seed and Parmesan Pangrattato”. The recipe suggested mixing fried butternut squash seeds with bread crumbs, and parmasan cheese. It got me thinking about roasting squash seeds. I never thought about roasting anything but pumpkin seeds, and it’s not something that I’ve ever done personally.
So, of course I googled, and I found a roasted butternut squash seeds recipe online at Simple Daily Recipes. On her blog, Jill insisted that roasted butternut squash seeds taste so much better than pumpkin seeds! The one or two occasions that I’ve eaten roasted pumpkin seeds, I found them to be chewy, and too “seedy”. Not sure if they weren’t roasted enough, or if that is really how they are supposed to be. But I was now intrigued and inspired to try roasting butternut squash seeds!
Tonight, as I started scooping seeds from a butternut squash for dinner, I had a conversation in my head. I thought okay, I really should save these seeds to roast them. I hesitated, nah, I’ll try it next time. No, don’t wait, winter vegetable season will be ending soon, just get a bowl and save them……so that is what I did.
It was fairly easy to scoop the seeds away from that stringy stuff, and I saved them in a small bowl, leaving them on my counter to wait until I had time to clean them.
Jill’s recipe was super easy, she actually referred to her roasted pumpkin seeds recipe, but suggested to lower the temp to 300°
So, here’s exactly what I did:
- After scooping out the seeds from the squash, I rinsed them under cold water using a colander, then transferred them to a flat dish to dry a little. My squash was very small, so there wasn’t a whole lot of seeds.
- I placed a piece of parchment paper on a small aluminum baking tray and dumped the seeds onto the tray. I let them sit while we had dinner, so they’d dry out a little bit more on their own.
- Jill suggested to salt the heck out of them, so I did.
- Then I put them in a hot 350° oven (which was on from cooking dinner), lowering the temp to about 300°. I roasted for a little over 10 minutes, then poured them into a small dish.
My notes:
- I wasn’t sure how the extra orange stringy stuff would be, so I tried to get it all off the seeds. I should have read the comments posted to Jill’s blog, as one person suggested to keep the gunky stuff on, as it gave more flavor.
- I used way too much salt. Next time, I will definitely use a lot less. I will also experiment with other toppings like a bit of brown sugar (sucanat) and cinnamon. I’m also thinking that a little melted chocolate on top might work too. Oh the possibilities are endless!
- Jill’s blog commenters, also suggested roasting spaghetti squash seeds too, so that will be something I’ll try soon!
Bottom line, roasted butternut squash seeds are fantastic! Reminded me of popcorn that is “half popped” – Crunchy and flavorful, with just enough chew. It doesn’t taste like you’re eating unhulled seeds like with pumpkin. I ate the whole bowl! I was bummed there was such a small amount, I wanted more!