Ingredient

Pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin seeds come in two forms that look quite different and behave differently: the flat, dark green hulled kernels sold as pepitas, and the whole cream-coloured seeds you get out of a pumpkin. Both are good and they are not interchangeable.

The two kinds

Pepitas

Hulled kernels from a particular hull-less pumpkin variety. Flat, dark green, tender. Sold in bags. Toast in minutes and are eaten whole.

Whole pumpkin seeds

The seeds from an ordinary pumpkin or squash, complete with their fibrous cream-coloured hull. Chewier, and the hull is edible if roasted properly.

Which for what

Pepitas for anything where you want a tender seed and a green colour — sauces, salads, granola. Whole seeds for snacking and for roasting from a pumpkin you already have.

Flavour

Both are nutty and mildly sweet. Toasting is what brings it out; raw pepitas taste faintly grassy and of not much.

Allergen note

Pumpkin seeds are not tree nuts and are not among the fourteen declarable allergens in the UK. Seed allergies do exist and are separate.

Roasting the seeds from a pumpkin

Free food, and the usual results are disappointing because of one skipped step.

1. Scoop the seeds out with the fibres and put the lot in a bowl of water.
2. Work the seeds free with your fingers. The seeds sink and most of the stringy pulp floats, which does most of the separating for you.
3. Rinse them and then dry them thoroughly — properly dry, on a cloth, for as long as it takes. This is the step people skip and it is why roasted pumpkin seeds so often come out leathery instead of crisp.
4. Toss with a little oil and salt, and any spice you want — smoked paprika, cumin, chilli, or sugar and cinnamon.
5. Spread on a tray in a single layer and roast in a moderate oven, shaking every five minutes, until golden and crisp. Twenty to thirty minutes is usual, and low and slow beats hot and fast.
6. Cool them completely before deciding whether they are crisp. They firm up considerably as they cool.

What to do with pepitas

• Toasted and salted, as a snack or scattered over almost anything.
• Pipián verde — the Mexican sauce of ground toasted pumpkin seeds, tomatillo, chilli and herbs. One of the great sauces, and pepitas are its body as well as its flavour.
• Mole verde, on the same principle.
• On soup, particularly squash, sweetcorn and black bean soups, where they provide the crunch a purée lacks.
• In granola and bread.
• In a salad, toasted, with something bitter or sharp.
• Ground into a pesto, in place of pine nuts, which is cheaper and works well with coriander and lime.
• As a substitute for egusi, in West African stews, which is the nearest available replacement.

Toasting pepitas, and listening for the pop

Pepitas behave differently from most seeds in a dry pan, and once you know what to expect they are very easy.

Put them in a dry pan over a medium heat and keep them moving. For the first minute or two nothing much appears to happen. Then they begin to pop and jump — audibly, and enough that a lid or a splatter guard is sensible — and they swell slightly and turn from flat dark green to plumper and paler.

That popping is the moment to pay attention. Within about a minute of it starting they are done: nutty-smelling, puffed and lightly coloured. Left much longer they brown, then scorch, and burnt pepitas are bitter in a way that ruins whatever they go into.

Salt them in the pan while they are still hot so it sticks, tip them straight out onto a cold plate so they stop cooking, and let them cool completely before judging the texture — they crisp considerably as they come down.

Common questions