Sometimes we all need a little treat.
I don’t tend to buy crisps, crackers or olives to nibble at with a glass of wine unless we have guests. I don’t know why… maybe I think we don’t deserve it or maybe it is that we are fat enough and having extras isn’t a necessity. Perhaps I think it is a needless extravagance?
But you know what? We do deserve to have something every now and again. After all, the person I like best in the world would be sharing them with me and I’m happy enough to put stuff out for people I don’t love half as much.
So, what follows is the ideal compromise. It’s healthy, it’s tasty and it doesn’t cost very much at all.
I’d bought a small pumpkin to make some Puy Lentil and Pumpkin Soup and I’d had to scoop out all of those plump seeds. What better than to use something that others might just throw out?
They are all embedded in the fibrous middle but they are easy enough to remove if you gouge at it all with a spoon.
If you put them in a colander and run water over them it’s quite easy to pull the orange fibres off, leaving just the seeds behind. They will feel very slippery so give them a good rub in fresh water.
Once they are clean, spread them, out on a board and leave them to dry off.
This time I wanted plain and simple butter and salt roasted pumpkin seeds (I often make them and flavour them with things like chilli powder or spices ) but there’s something rather delicious about the plainness of the roasted seeds… plain, certainly but tasting deliciously of butter and salt!
Get a flat baking tray and put a knob of butter and some salt on it (I always use a silicone sheet because it is so easy to clean and doesn’t tear if you scrape at it. If you haven’t got any, it doesn’t matter – use tin foil or be prepared to clean the baking tray)
Put the tray in a pre heated oven at 200 degrees C/390 degrees F and get the butter melted and hot.
Toss the pumpkin seeds in the melted and salted butter and put them back in the oven for ten minutes or so.
After ten minutes, give them a shake… they should be browning nicely.
Put them back in if they need a few minutes more – this will depend on how much moisture was left in the seeds.
Once they have cooled… put them in a bowl and share with your best friend.
A glass or two of wine makes this the perfect pre-dinner snack – healthy, tasty and all it took was a knob of butter, ten minutes and some otherwise thrown away seeds!
