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| Sugar Pie and Baby Bear Pumpkins |
In Turkey, we have an intense snack culture. Each evening, after dinner, there must be a pot of tea "çay" ready on the stove and some "snacks" to accompany. But what we call snacks are nothing like "chips". They are usually nuts like walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pistachios or dried fruits like grapes, raisins, apple slices etc. or traditional Turkish fruit roll sheets, fruit sausages. The list goes on. So the above-mentioned yummy and healthy goods are called in general "kuru yemiş" which translates to "dried snacks". You can find at least five "kuru yemiş shops" along the same street, easily.
It is that popular and a whole other universe. I just wanted to give you the short illusion of the enthusiasm we have here towards "snacks".
What's your snacking tradition or favourite snacks?
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| Raw Seeds |
I googled and found a couple of "how to roast pumpkin seeds" posts but a lot of it by drizzling olive oil and even spices like black pepper or just salt. You can also do all those things, but I didn't want to add more flavour to it. Seeds already have enough nutritious oils and minerals like zinc in them.
I used the seeds of one Baby Bear pumpkin, one Sugar Pie pumpkin and two Jack Be Little pumpkins. To my surprise, turns out Baby Bear seeds were huskless! (see the above picture: the green ones) And they were the best and tastiest! Sugar Pie seeds were ok, too. However, I wasn't crazy about Jack Be Little's seeds: too tiny and a little bitter.
METHOD
Heat the oven to 250C with fan.
Carve the pumpkin or pumpkins in my case, take the seeds out.
Rinse and drain the gooey stuff as much as possible.
Spread two layers of paper towel or a tea towel on the counter and pour the wet seeds on it.
Dry them as much as possible.
Put a baking paper on an oven tray and spread the seeds evenly.
At this point, you can drizzle a tbsp olive oil and some salt and mix. I didn't.
Roast the seeds until they start popping. I was actually wasn't expecting them to be popping. (See video above.)
Take them out and eat them warm.
You can use the green, huskless seeds in salads, on morning toasts or even in bread.
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| Roasted Seeds |
bon appetit,
