Oven-Roasted Butternut Squash Seeds

October 16, 2012 by Alia 7 Comments

It’s the Season for Squash!

Fall has arrived and that means that all kinds of squash are in season!

One of my favorite Fall and Winter foods is Roasted Squash Soup.  I use a simple recipe that calls for roasted carrots, onions, garlic and butternut squash.  It’s seasoned with cinnamon, curry powder and oregano.  I also like to add nutmeg.  Finally, I thicken the soup with a bit of milk.  The recipe calls for regular milk, but I usually substitute that with almond or coconut milk.  Both work just as well.

Do You Use the Seeds?

I usually throw out the seeds that come from the squash.  This time, I decided that I would keep them and try to roast them.  After all, I buy roasted pumpkin seeds.  These couldn’t be all that different, right?

In fact, it was easy to roast the seeds to perfection and they taste better than anything I could buy in the store.   I washed the seeds after extracting them from the squash, dried them out, tossed them in a bit of coconut oil and salt, and then roasted them in the oven. It was one of the easiest snacks I’ve ever made!

What’s So Good about Butternut Squash Seeds?

Aside from being really tasty, these seeds are a great source of zinc and calcium.  The seeds also pack a lot of protein.  They are great to add to a mix of nuts for an afternoon snack.

I always like to keep an assortment of almonds, walnuts, sesame seeds and the like with me during the day.  I’ll definitely be adding my butternut squash seeds to the mix.  A handful of this mix in the afternoon is usually just what I need to keep me going and to avoid that afternoon lull.