I spent this Saturday taking a cooking course from Le Cordon Bleu.  The ingredient du jour was pumpkin and other fall harvest vegetables (spaghetti squash and butternut squash).  I was very excited to take this class, as I love cooking with pumpkin.

The class didn’t disappoint!  I came home with Béchamel topped ham stuffed with pumpkin and Emmental cheese and spaghetti squash topped with Alfredo sauce.  Needless to say, I consumed a lot of cream, cheese and butter this weekend 😉

Now, you are likely wondering, what in the world does this have to do with pumpkin seeds?  Well, in the practical portion of our class, we had to peel and seed our pumpkins.  As I was looking around the classroom, I noticed that most people were putting their pumpkin seeds in the garbage!  Not me, I took those pumpkin seeds and placed them in a Tupperware container to bring home.  I would never pass up the opportunity to roast up some pumpkin seeds.

The flavours that you can add to your pumpkin seeds are endless.  I normally roast my pumpkin seeds with olive oil and chili powder. Once they come out of the oven, they don’t last very long.  It is like eating a handful of deliciousness.  A lot of people just use butter and salt.  However, during a recent conversation with my friend Kerri, I discovered that pumpkin seeds could be roasted with soya sauce!?!

Soya Sauce, hmmmmm, this sounded very intriguing to me.  Kerri said that is how her mom always roasted their pumpkin seeds.  So, of course, I wanted to give it a try.  My mind started to think about other combinations that might be good.  The chili powder would be savoury, the soya sauce would be salty, and now all I needed was a dessert pumpkin seed.  How about butter and cinnamon? Done and done!

I divided my pumpkin seeds into three equal portions, and made three different varieties.  I thought that Jamie and I could do a taste test to determine which was our favourite.

When the seeds *finally came out of the oven, I couldn’t wait to sample them.  The chili powder was my old faithful recipe, so I dove into that one first.  The smokiness of the powder works well with the nutty flavour of the seeds.  Next was the soya sauce.  I was amazed with how this tasted.  Sweet and salty =  Delicious!  The final taste test was the butter and cinnamon.  This was delightful and complimented the pumpkin seeds very well.  In fact, it would be a great topping for a pumpkin pie.

*I say finally, because I find that pumpkin seeds take a ridiculously long time to bake, considering how small they are.  Forty-Five minutes feels like an eternity when you are waiting.

So, I know you are waiting for it, our final verdict.  Jamie and I are both in total agreement, our favourite pumpkin seed flavours (that we sampled) are:

1. Soya Sauce
2. Chili Powder and Olive Oil
3. Cinnamon and Butter

Next time we have a pumpkin, we will try curry powder and pumpkin pie spice.

Thanks to Kerri’s mom!  Soya sauce and pumpkin seeds are #1 in our books!

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Ingredients:

• 3 cups raw pumpkin seeds
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp soya sauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300°F.
2. Take one cup of pumpkin seeds and toss with olive oil and chili powder.  Place in a baking dish.
3. Take another cup of pumpkin seeds and toss with melted butter and cinnamon.  Place in a baking dish.
4. Take last cup of pumpkin seeds and toss with soya sauce.  Place in a baking dish.
5. Place prepared pumpkin seeds into preheated oven for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Remove from oven and enjoy!
7. Happy Halloween!