Last year, in addition to the usual butternut and acorn squashes that decorated our fall menu, I developed an obsession with a smaller squash with magical properties! It’s called Delicata- small, easy to clean, (comparatively) easy to cut, and completely delicious. You don’t even have to peel them! Unsurprisingly, when I saw them starting to show up at my local grocery stores, I promptly purchased all of them. Squash is my favorite sign of fall! In addition to roasted delicata sides, I’ve been enjoying butternut squash soup, and even finished my first batch of pumpkin puree, which my dog is SUPER excited about.

With all those squash and pumpkins around, it’s great to have something to do with all those seeds! Having attempted to roast the seeds before using different recipes and methods without results, I finally dialed in the combination of salty and crunchy and easy to season! Turns out the trick is to do more than roasting them- who’d have thought! The instructions are below- but it’s more of a method than a recipe!

First,  you clean off the seeds in a colander in the sink- though I have not yet found a good or easy way to do that, short of summoning an imp to do it for you- then put them in a small pot filled with a few cups of water (like 4-5 cups water, unless you have more than three cups of seeds, you might double this!) and then a tablespoon or so of salt. It might take a little more if you like really salty seeds! Then you bring it all to a rolling boil. While doing this, you should preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Boil the seeds (stirring only if seeds stick to the bottom or the sides) for five minutes, then drain in the colander. Put the seeds on a greased cookie sheet in a single layer, sprinkle with any desired seasonings, and bake for 10-12 minutes until just browned.

I’ve enjoyed these just salted, or with a light dusting of chili powder or curry powder over the top of them, but there would be plenty of different seasonings that would be great!

Since my new favorite squash is definitely on the small side, they naturally have smaller amounts of seeds. To get the most mileage out of making seeds, I will throw the ‘innards’ of one squash into a tupperware container in the fridge, and add to it during the week- once I’ve processed 2-3 squashes, I’ll usually have enough seeds to justify making another batch! Delicata squash have very tasty seeds that aren’t too tough, so they’ve been my (unsurprising) favorite!

These are great on their own, on top of salads, or even as a little bit of crunch on top of a soup- imagine spicy, crunchy squash seeds on a blended squash soup!