Utterly Addictive Pumpkin Seeds Courtesy of Dana Carpender

Today, I found a very interesting recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds on Dana Carpender's blog. When my brother Marc goes to North Carolina in the fall to close his summer house in the winter, he always brings me pumpkins, which I do all manner of things with. And the last thing I do after roasting a pumpkin to make savory pumpkin soup is roast the seeds. My recipe is a little different, as I usually toss my seeds in olive oil, and season with garlic and onion powder, and soy sauce. They make for a really nice salty snack.

Dana' s recipe uses coconut oil and coconut aminos, which I'd never heard of. You might want to give this one a try as it uses coconut oil, which we know is an excellent source of fat for our WOE.

Utterly Addictive Pumpkin Seeds

1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 tablespoons coconut aminos
1/4 teaspoon anchovy paste
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce or other Louisiana-style hot sauce
1 teaspoon onion powder
2/3 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 cups squash kernels (shelled pumpkin seeds are, indeed, squash kernels.)
Set oven to 250. Put the coconut oil in a roasting pan, and put it in the oven to melt as the oven heats.
In the meanwhile, in a small dish, mix together the coconut aminos, anchovy paste, and tabasco sauce, stirring till the anchovy paste dissolves.
In another small dish, mix together the onion powder, garlic powder, and seasoned salt.
When the coconut oil is melted, pull the pan out and dump the pumpkin seeds in the pan. Stir till they're all coated with the oil. Now pour the coconut amino mixture over them, and stir again. Finally, sprinkle the seasoning blend over the whole thing, and stir to coat.
Slide 'em in the oven, and set the timer for 20 minutes. When it beeps, stir 'em up, put 'em back, and set the timer for another 20. When it beeps again, check that they're dry. If not, give them another ten minutes. Assuming they are, pull them out. Either way, when they're dry and golden, let them cool and put them in a snap top container to store. Hide them in an obscure, hard to reach place if you hope for them to last longer than a day or two!
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8 servings, each with: 299 Calories; 24g Fat ; 19g Protein; 8g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 6 grams usable carb.
Note: Coconut aminos are a sauce quite similar to soy sauce -- to my taste a little sweeter -- but made from coconut sap. Great for those who wish to avoid all soy products, but still love Asian food. I've been using them for this paleo book. You could use soy sauce instead, if you wish; I might add a half-teaspoon or so of sweetener in that case.