Pumpkin seeds are as simple as they are precious. It is enough to have a handful of seeds and a small piece of land to plant them and get new fruits . With toasted pumpkin seeds, instead, you get a healthy or natural snack or a crunchy ingredient to add to your dishes.

What do pumpkin seeds contain and where to buy them

Pumpkin seeds are an excellent idea for a natural snack or can be used in many recipes, sweet or savory .

What do pumpkin seeds contain? Vegetable fibers, phosphorus, potassium, choline ... and yes, they provide a certain amount of fat, but they are good fats and do not contain cholesterol . They also bring vegetable proteins and low glycemic index carbohydrates.

It is not difficult to buy them ready for consumption in stores specializing in natural food, but also in the supermarket, or on the stalls of fairs and food markets.

If you want to enjoy a truly healthy snack, of course, it is advisable to buy unsalted snacks .

How to dry pumpkin seeds

If you want to plant pumpkin seeds to get new plants, you need to dry them .

The first thing to do is to buy a nice pumpkin and remove the seeds, carefully removing the residual pulp and filaments, and then put them in a colander and rinse them under running water.

The second step is to let them dry very well and quickly . It is advisable to put them first in a clean cloth, rubbing carefully, and then arrange them on a second dry cloth without overlapping them, so that they lose the last residual moisture.

While the pumpkin seeds are drying, it is necessary to eliminate those that are too small or broken, which would hardly germinate. It is not important to dry so many: better few but good.

When the pumpkin seeds are completely dry, place them on a flat surface (without overlapping them) and let them dry naturally, away from moisture, checking and turning them every day. This operation lasts at least a week, but it may take much longer.

Once dried, pumpkin seeds should be placed in a cardboard bag until April, when they can be sown in a seedbed or directly in the ground.

It is very important to keep them only when they are well dried and always keep them away from moisture, otherwise they will become moldy and are no longer suitable for sowing.

How to toast pumpkin seeds

Do you want to try to toast pumpkin seeds at home? Here's how to do it, step by step.

After removing and cleaning the pumpkin seeds as described above, you must dry them very well with a clean cloth. Then turn on the oven and set the temperature to 150 degrees.

Pumpkin seeds should be spread on a plate lined with baking paper (without overlapping them) and then toasted in the preheated oven for about 50 minutes . To make the roasting uniform, it is good to turn them from time to time .

Once roasted, to shell them it is sufficient to crush them with the teeth and then extract the seed.

Pumpkin seeds can also be eaten raw, fried or roasted in the microwave .