Smoked Pumpkin Seeds

Smoked Pumpkin Seeds are great as a nutritious snack or added to salads, soups, or trail mixes for some crunch. Season them with just salt or your favorite BBQ rub.

When making a Smoked Pumpkin, we like to save the seeds to smoke. Season them simply with salt or go for extra flavor with some BBQ rub.

Smoked Pumpkin Seeds are delicious by themselves as a snack, but they can also be added to other dishes like a salads, soups, and trail mixes to add some crunch.

Pumpkin seeds are a good source of minerals and fiber.

Jump to:

• Remove the Seeds from the Pumpkin
• Clean the Seeds
• Season the Seeds
• Wood and Wood Pellets
• Smoke the Pumpkin Seeds
• Serving Suggestions
• Storage
• 📖 Recipe

Remove the Seeds from the Pumpkin

Using a sharp knife, cut a pie pumpkin down the center, a little off center from the stem.

Scoop out the pulp and seeds with a metal spoon, scraping the sides with the edge of the spoon.

Transfer the seeds and pulp to a small bowl.

Clean the Seeds

Add water to the bowl containing the pumpkin seeds and pulp.

Swirl the seeds around with your hands and pull out the pulp.

If you have seasonal allergies, you may want to wear food safe gloves when doing this step, as raw pumpkin can sometimes irritate your skin.

Transfer the pumpkin seeds to a strainer. Rinse the seeds with running water to clean off as much pulp as possible.

Lay the pumpkin seeds out on a clean kitchen towel.

Spread them out and allow them to dry partially.

Season the Seeds

Transfer the clean seeds to a foil lined baking sheet and spread them out.

Drizzle the seeds with olive oil. You can use any kind of cooking oil you prefer. Since we are cooking the seeds at a lower temperature, you don't need to stick to a high smoke point oil.

Sprinkle the seeds with either just salt or your favorite BBQ rub.

Here we used a combination of Three Little Pigs Championship BBQ Rub and Blues Hog Original Dry Rub.

We sprinkled both rubs generously over the seeds, then mixed them around.

Wood and Wood Pellets

For pumpkin seeds, we like using a fruitwood like cherry or a nutty wood like pecan.

Electric smokers will use wood chips, which can also be used in a smoker box to smoke on a gas grill or a charcoal grill.

In a pellet grill like a Pit Boss or Traeger, we like Bear Mountain Apple Pellets or Knotty Wood Almond Cabernet Wine Blend Pellets.

When we want more smoke flavor on a pellet grill, we add a pellet tube smoker or a firebox with charcoal and real wood chunks.

We also use real wood chunks when smoking on a charcoal grill.

Smoke the Pumpkin Seeds

Start your smoker and let it run through the start up process. Then set the temperature to 300°F.

We chose a lower temperature for the pumpkin seeds since we were seasoning them with a BBQ rub containing sugar, and we do not want to risk the sugar burning.

For a reminder on how to start your smoker, check out:

• How to Start a Pit Boss
• How to Start a Traeger
• How to Start a ZGrill
• How to Start a Camp Chef
• How to Start a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker

Many models of Masterbuilt electric smokers only go up to 275°F.

If this is the case for you, just set it to 275°F and know the seeds will take longer to cook.

You can smoke your pumpkin seeds right on the foil lined tray.

Make sure to stir the seeds around every 15 minutes or so, flipping them and moving them around the pan to ensure even cooking.

The seeds are done when they are crisp and slightly golden in color.

At 300°F, our pumpkin seeds took about 45 minutes to finish cooking.

Serving Suggestions

We eat smoked pumpkin seeds by themselves as a snack.

You can also serve them on top of a soup or salad. Toss them with some nuts and dried fruit for a trail mix, especially if you kept the seasoning simple with just salt.

Storage

Store the pumpkin seeds in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

📖 Recipe