Q My family loves pumpkin seeds. Can we eat seeds from any kind of squash?

A Yes, squash and pumpkin seeds are edible. To prepare them, first clean the stringy flesh off the seeds (do this manually, and don’t wash them, because it destroys the flavor). To roast them, preheat your oven to 300°F/149°C. Spread them out on a baking pan, drizzle them with olive oil, and sprinkle them with salt. Toast for about 30 minutes, stirring periodically. Take them out when they turn light brown. Or first boil the seeds for about 10 minutes in lightly salted water, then spread a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a baking pan and toast them until they are lightly browned - about 20 minutes - at 300°F/149°C. You can eat the seeds whole, hull and all, or crack them to remove the inside. Better yet, try growing a hull-less, also called naked-seeded, pumpkin, which produces pumpkin seeds that have paperlike hulls.

Reprinted from The Veggie Gardener's Answer Book
Copyright 2008 by Barbara W. Ellis, with permission from Storey Publishing.

Creative Commons photo credit: Mellofood