The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook

200 Gourmet and Homestyle Recipes for the Food Allergic Family

allergy cookbook

Monday, October 29, 2007


ROASTED PUMPKIN SEEDS

GF/CF, Allergen-Free, Vegan

This year, when you carve your jack-o-lanterns, why not roast up those pumpkin seeds? The following is a basic template that may be adapted any way you like. If you prefer them spicy, add some chili pepper. Or add curry powder. Or use cinnamon and sugar instead of salt. Or replace kosher salt with garlic salt. Follow your imagination! Getting started is as easy as can be. First, scoop out pumpkin's filling into a large bowl. Put seeds into a large colander and place in sink. Place under tap, and with water running, toss seeds. The stringy pumpkin fibers will come to the surface, separating from the seeds. This is the easiest way I've found to clean the seeds. Once you've gotten off all the pumpkin bits, drain seeds and spread them on a cookie sheet. Let dry overnight. From two medium pumpkins, you'll get about 1 1/2 cups of seeds.

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups raw whole pumpkin seeds
2 Tablespoons sunflower oil or canola oil
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt


DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. Toss seeds in a bowl with the oil and salt. Spread the seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet and bake for about 1 hour, or until golden brown, tossing every 15 minutes. Lay out two sheets of paper towel, pour seeds onto paper towels, let cool slightly.

Eat as is, sprinkled into salads, over soups, or make your own trail mix. Yum!

18 Comments:

  • At 4:25 PM, Blogger Robin said…

    Hi Cybele,
    That photo makes me wanted to be sure to roast our pumpkin seeds this year, those look yummy! Your description of the stringy pumpkin fibers reminds me of a funny story. When I was a new bride,I wanted to make "real" pumpkin pie for my in-laws. I took a real pumpkin and scooped out all the inards, spent the time seperating the stringy stuff from the seeds and used the stringy pumpkin stuff for the pie. I personally don't eat pumpkin pie so I never tasted it, I proudly brought it for Thanksgiving dinner. needless to say, it was awful, however no one let on that it was bad. It wasn't until several years later, I was at my son's pre-school and another mom made pumpkin pie from scratch. (she pressure cooked the flesh of the pumpkin, duh). I do remember, though the next Thanksgiving, I was asked to bring potatos...

     
  • At 3:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    wow... i was just saying to my mom a few days ago that we should roast some pumpkin seeds for halloween
    you read my mind i think! :)

     
  • At 2:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    My digestive system loves toasted pumpkin seeds, but my excretory system hates them. Just sayin'.

     
  • At 4:39 AM, Blogger no day but today said…

    As soon as I saw the pumpkin seeds I was like "man, I wish i could have gotton a pumpkin for halloween this year!" because I love the seeds and now I guess I gotta wait till next year and buy myself a pumpkin so I can have the seeds :)
    But anyways hope everything is good and I'll comment you later :)

    <3- marla

     
  • At 2:33 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Roasted pumpkin seeds are always a delicious, cheap and easy option.

    How was your Halloween? Halloween is always a difficult holiday for those of us with food allergies or caring for those with them. It's hard to get a young person to understand the danger that can result from some of these foods, especially when their friends are able to eat candy with no problem. I hope your children were able to dress up as something fun and go trick or treating anyway.

     
  • At 6:10 PM, Blogger Cybele Pascal said…

    Robin, that's a sweet story. I can't imagine what that pie must have tasted like!

    I need to buy more pumpkins... the seeds were a big hit at my house.

    We had a good halloween, Mary, thanks for asking.

     
  • At 10:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Cybele,
    This may not be a proper place to post this, but I was wondering what you thought about inoculating babies and effects (if any) on allergies/behaviors? Any thoughts or experience with this?
    Thanks,
    Tina

     
  • At 5:48 AM, Blogger Dina J said…

    Hi Cybele,
    Thanks for the information regarding sumac. I am in and out of Whole Foods all the time so I will definitely check to see if they have it if not I will look into those websites you suggested.

    My sister and I can have gluten so if you could steer me in the right direction regarding a pie crust I would greatly appreciate it.

    I actually found some recipes for pecan pie and pumpkin pie on the Whole Foods website. They have vegetarian as well as vegan recipes. I am going to try them for Thanksgiving I will let you know how they come out.

    I hope all is well with you and your family. Good to hear from you.

    All the best,
    Dina

     
  • At 6:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    happy thanksgiving!

    there's an article on my blog (click on my name and click on "hartford county psych") that i helped with in my local newspaper about allergies.

     
  • At 9:09 AM, Blogger Cybele Pascal said…

    Lauren:

    I tried commenting on your blog, but it blocked me, saying it doesn't allow anonymous comments. What I tried to say is, WOW, you are so positive! What a great article (re: eosinophilic disorders (APFED)in West Hartford Life. I still want to know why people were upset with the Today Show that you mentioned.

    Thanks for alerting me to this. You do rock!

    cybele

     
  • At 7:06 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    hmmm... i'll have to look into that "no anonymous comments" thing...

    but thanks :)

    and alot of people were upset about the today show for a few reasons... one is that they made it sound like only one person had this condition (i think that even said something along the lines of "lots of people are allergic to cats, but one boy is allergic to everything") when so many people have it.
    another is that there wasn't really much information about it aside form "look at the kid with the weird allergies", they didn't mention either of the two foundations where people could read more about it.
    and yet another (geeze i'm on a roll lol) was that instead if focusing on a child here in the u.s. who had it, they focused on a kid in the u.k.
    not that i have any problem with that, but to people who have never heard of the condition before, seeing a child who has it in another country makes it seem like the condition is so far away that no one in their family could be effected by it.

    another thing that kind of got to me was that it was being made fun of on shows like the coman obien show after the today show was aired.

     
  • At 9:37 PM, Blogger Robin said…

    Lauren,
    I am so sorry about that Today show segment! Its tough when a show finally airs a segment on your problem and then totally botches it. My daughter has a good friend who has eosinophilic disorder ,(you may even know her, she lives in Pebble Beach, CA )and they went through hell trying to figure out what was going on with her. She has missed two years of school so far. last I heard, she was able to introduce turkey and rice back into her diet, but that's it. Cybele's right , you DO rock! take care and keep on getting the word out about this, it can affect anyone at anytime.
    Robin

     
  • At 1:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    i actually do know someone in cali who has it... one of my myspace friends, actually. is her name frankie?

     
  • At 3:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hi Cybele,
    My 19 year old cousin decided to become vegan this summer,(much to most of my family's dismay)and as a 13 year old i thought that it might be kind of gross. To my surprise i liked everything we cooked together!(we are the two cooks of the family)Anyway, she found this really awesome cookie recipe for oatmeal cookies. They turned out AMAZING, and i was wondering if it came from your cookbook...?
    Thanks,
    Amylin

     
  • At 9:33 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Dear Cybele-

    I have sent the link to this to my old cooking teacher. I hope this helps her, I know it has helped me!!

    much love to you, Adam, Monte(y), and Lennon-
    Emily S.

     
  • At 9:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    oh by the way, my e-mail address is ElizaDushku@mac.com if you need to get back to me

    -Emily S.

     
  • At 10:34 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Cybele: did you see this on CNN about food allergies? Copy this link into your browser:

    http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/11/30/teddys.allergies/index.html

     
  • At 3:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Cybele,
    You are an answer to prayer. My failure-to-thrive four-year-old and my twelve-year-old have needed your cookbook since they started solids. I think people with so many food allergies have great cause to rejoice in many ways because by necessity they have to avoid the infamous Standard American Diet and all its noxious toxins. I started keeping honey bees for the health benefits of organic, raw honey, now I have 30 hives, and I second your comment about honey. I have so many people asking to buy my honey for healthy baking purposes. I believe there are many of us that would buy your cookbook filled with recipes that use raw honey. Do you recommend any cracker recipes for the wheat challenged?

    God bless you, you sweet, wonderful lady.

     

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