How to Toast Squash or Pumpkin Seeds - Recipe

Sometimes I hear pumpkin seeds called "pepitas" the Spanish word which sounds much more glamorous than squash seeds. While we were in Panama I learned the phrase "ella esta cargando una pepita". She's carrying a pumpkin seed, which is an indirect way to say she's pregnant. I, of course, learned this because all of our neighbors were convinced I had a bun in the oven. "What? You're married and you don't have kids? Surely you are working on making a pepita?" Anyway, now when I see bags of pepitas on the shelf at the grocery store, I imagine a bag of potential babies. Kind of weird, I know.

One of my goals for making my life and kitchen use fewer resources is to use what I do have more efficiently.  I love winter squash.  I buy a butternut, pumpkin or kombocha squash almost every time I go to the grocery store.  The flavor and texture are sweet and velvety and they are so good for you.

In Panama I would save the squash seeds and dry them - as much as it was possible to dry seeds in 95% humidity - and package them for the Seeders, Peace Corp's Panama's seed exchange program.  Back home in the Midwest I have been composting the seeds.  Then I realized what I should have been doing was toasting the seeds!  The only problem is, I only get maybe a cup of seeds out of any squash.  It seems like a waste of time and energy to bother toasting them. 

Then I remembered I have a refrigerator.  I have discovered I can clean the squash seeds and hold them in the refrigerator until I have enough to toast.  I put the cleaned seeds in a single level on a cookie sheet.  Toss them with a little oil and salt for a snacking seed or leave them plain for use in baking or granola.  Here is a mixture of the big kombocha squash seeds and the smaller butternut squash seeds. 
Toast the seeds at 200-250 degrees for about two hours.  Every half hour or so stir the seeds around to help them dry evenly.  Let the seeds cool and you are ready to eat or store them. The smaller seeds need less time to dry than the big ones.  I had no trouble toasting them together.

Jeff and I both like the taste of the butternut squash seeds better than the kombocha. The butternut seeds are very similar to sunflower seeds in flavor. The kombocha have more shell and less of the nutty meat. 

I was planning to mix these seeds into a scone or maybe a salad, but while I've been working on this post I've also been snacking on them.  There's not that many left.  Guess I'll just have to finish them!