Pumpkin seeds are an excellent source of fiber and nutrients, and therefore a healthy snack. Soaked in sugar syrup or pickle, baked in the oven, they are a great alternative to popcorn. Elegant peeled green seeds can be decorated with pastries, salads and soups. But before you cook and eat the seeds, they need to be cleaned.
Pick your recipe
You will need
- - pumpkin;
- - knife;
- - colander;
- - slotted spoon;
- - oven;
- - baking paper;
- - a hammer for meat.
Instruction manual
1
Cut the top of the pumpkin with a sharp knife. Pull the "cover" by the "tail". Gently cut the seeds that you removed with the top together with the fibers, separate and soak in a bowl of water.
2
Using a spoon, remove all the insides from the pumpkin. Put them on a pallet or newspaper and use your fingers to remove seeds from pumpkin fibers, and then put them in a container of water.
3
Drain the water from the bowl of seeds through a colander, place it under warm running water, stir the seeds with your fingers, helping the water wash away the remnants of pumpkin fibers from them. Some seeds may need to be cleaned one at a time, manually. Put the peeled seeds on paper towels and let dry.
4
You should not hope that when the pumpkin fibers dry, they themselves will fall off the seeds. This will not happen, on the contrary, it will be almost impossible to clear the seeds.
5
Pumpkin seeds peeled from fiber are not yet ready to be eaten. If you want to enjoy their natural taste, you have to boil them. To do this, boil a large pot of water and dip the seeds in boiling water. Simmer the seeds for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and drain the seeds through a colander. Let them dry.
6
If you want to get fried salted or sweet seeds, soak them overnight in salt or sweetened water. Take 1/4 cup sugar or salt for every two cups of water. After you soak the seeds, drain the water and dry it. Then heat the oven to 180 ° C, spread the pumpkin seeds in a thin layer on a baking sheet covered with baking paper, sprinkle with vegetable oil and bake for 10 to 20 minutes, until light golden brown.
7
Pumpkin seeds can be eaten directly with the outer shell. But if you want to decorate soup or pastries with them or you just don't like the fibrous husk, the seeds can be easily cleaned. Seeds are peeled one at a time by placing the narrow end between the thumb and forefinger. Squeeze your fingers and, if the seed does not slip out of the husk itself, insert a nail or a knife for peeling vegetables into the resulting gap and remove the skin.
8
To free many pumpkin seeds from the husks, place them between sheets of baking paper and beat them with a hammer. Beat so as to break the shell, but not to break the seeds. Pour the seeds into a bowl of water, mix with a spoon. The husk will float to the surface, and the peeled seeds will sink to the bottom. Take out the husk with a slotted spoon, and drain the water through a colander. Dry the seeds and eat them.