Air Fryer Pumpkin Seeds

These super crispy air fryer pumpkin seeds are so easy to make, you'll wonder why you haven't, made them before! Flavor the roasted pumpkin seeds with your favorite spice mix, and enjoy this delicious, and healthy snack all winter long!

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Jump to:

• Cleaning Your Pumpkin Seeds
• Soaking Pumpkin Seeds In Salt Water
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Variations
• Special Equipment
• Storage
• Recipe
• Comments

Roasting pumpkin seeds is one of the easiest snacks you could make, and it's a healthy one too! Pumpkin seeds are full of antioxidants, magnesium, and contain 'good fats' your body needs to stay healthy. Roasting pumpkin seeds has even been shown to increase their health benefits!

Another upside to roasting your own pumpkin seeds is you are reducing the amount of food waste you produce, and it's a great way to use all parts of a pumpkin if you are making homemade pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie, or simply carving a pumpkin!

Cleaning Your Pumpkin Seeds

Before you start roasting the raw pumpkin seeds, you'll want to make sure to clean them first. A simple step, but an important one.

Fresh pumpkin seeds will still have some pumpkin guts attached, which will easily burn when roasting. You want to make sure all of this pumpkin flesh is removed to ensure even roasting. The easiest way to do this is by:

• scooping all the pumpkin guts out of your pumpkin into a large bowl with a sturdy metal spoon.
• separating the pumpkin seeds from as much of the pumpkin guts as possible using your hands.
• rinsing the pumpkin seeds under fresh water with a mesh strainer several times.

Soaking Pumpkin Seeds In Salt Water

The real secret to this recipe is soaking the cleaned pumpkin seeds in salt water overnight. While this step is optional, you will notice the salt soaked pumpkin seeds will be much crunchier and simply taste better!

Pumpkin seeds soaked in salt water are also easier to digest!

To soak the pumpkin seeds in salt water, simply dissolve about ½ tablespoon of salt for every 2 cups of water. Store the pumpkin seeds in the salt water, in the fridge, overnight.

Before roasting the pumpkin seeds in your air fryer as described below, simply rinse the seeds with water!

Ingredients

To make these air fryer roasted pumpkin seeds all you really need are:

• pumpkin seeds
• clarified butter or vegetable oil (clarified butter tastes better!)
• onion powder
• garlic powder
• smoked paprika
• salt
• cracked black pepper

See the recipe card below for quantities.

Instructions

1.Scoop the pumpkin seeds out of a whole pumpkin, and clean them by separating all the seeds from any pumpkin flesh and rinsing in fresh water several times as described above.

Optional: Soak the pumpkin seeds in a weak salt water solution overnight (about ½ tablespoon per 2 cups of water) to help make the roasted pumpkin seeds easier to digest, and also make them extremely crispy!

2.Regardless if you soak the pumpkin seeds or not, make sure the seeds are dried well after rinsing with fresh water.

3.Mix the spices together in a medium sized bowl, add the pumpkin seeds, and clarified butter or oil. Toss well to coat all the seeds evenly in the spice mixture.

4. Spread the pumpkin seeds in an even layer in the air fryer basket. If the air fryer basket has a grate in the bottom, remove the grate.

Air fry the pumpkin seeds at 350F for 10 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown, and crispy all the way through. If the seeds were soaked, you may have to roast the pumpkin seeds a minute or two longer.

Cool the air fryer roasted pumpkin seeds, and then store in an airtight glass jar!

Variations

While we are big fans of our garlic/smoked paprika spice mix, feel free to play around and try out other flavor combos or spice mixes!

• Cajun Spice Mix - Try using a Cajun spice blend for a spicy, flavor packed variation
• Sweet and Spicy - add one table spoon of brown sugar and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon to give the pumpkin seeds a sweet kick! (Make sure to check the seeds during roasting to prevent burning the sugar!)

Special Equipment

As these air fryer roasted pumpkin seeds are cooked in an air fryer, we recommend the Instant Vortex air fryer, though there are many great quality air fryers available!

Lacking an air fryer, you can also roast these pumpkin seeds on a sheet pan in the oven at 350F for 20 - 30 minutes.

Storage

Store the fully roasted pumpkin seeds in an airtight glass jar for best results. The roasted pumpkin seeds will last up to a week at room temperature or up to two if stored in the refrigerator.

Recipe