With autumn upon us, we're entering — both because this is the time of year when they're harvested, and this is the time of year when kids remove their tops, pull out their guts, and carve spooky faces into them. The parents supervising this project often get left with a mess to clean up — and a lot of pumpkin seeds to figure out what to do with. Roasting them with salt is a fall-back option, but pumpkin seeds are a healthy ingredient with a ton of versatility in the kitchen, including in places where other nuts and seeds might be — like pesto.
Speaking of versatile: This bright-green Italian sauce is universally beloved and, as an ingredient, a flavor multiplier in everything from sandwiches to vinaigrettes to noodle dishes (if you've got pesto and cottage cheese, for instance, you have all the ingredients you need for a for that ). Still, the fact that it contains pine nuts — in addition to basil, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese — can pose a problem for folks with nut allergies. If you're looking for a pine nut alternative, in short, here's a place where pumpkin seeds will shine.
The benefits of pumpkin seeds — and how to use them in pesto Even folks who don't otherwise react to tree nuts can have trouble with pine nuts: See the dreaded "pine mouth," which causes an unpleasant metallic taste to develop in sufferers' mouths that can last for weeks. Pumpkin seeds (aka pepitas) don't pose this problem, and like other seeds, such as sesame and poppy, they often don't.