How To Separate Pumpkin Seeds From Pulp Way Easier

Winter squashes, such as pumpkins, make great décor, but they're also delicious and nutritious. Except for its stem, you can eat pretty much every part of the pumpkin, including its skin and its flesh, but the seeds, roasted and salted, make for a particularly tasty snack by the handful, provided you eat them before they go bad. The only issue is how much of a pain it is picking out the seeds individually from the pumpkin's mushy guts. But there is an easier way!

To separate the seeds from the pulp with as little fuss as possible, start by adding both to a bowl of water. Then agitate the water a little bit, removing the larger chunks of pulp from the bowl as you swish your fingers through the water. The seeds will actually begin to float on top of the water, while the pulp that detaches from them sinks to the bottom. Once all the seeds are floating, you can skim them off with a slotted spoon like this one from Newness Focus on Stainless Steel.

If you have an expensive-but-worth-it stand mixer, you can achieve the same results but with less manual labor (and no wet hands). Place the seeds with the pulp still attached into the bowl of your mixer, and then add a little water (you can always add more if you find you need it) and set the mixer to the lowest setting. Let the machine do its work until the seeds are all floating on top of the water. Then you'll detach the whisk and lift the bowl off the mixer. Most of the pulp should be clinging to the whisk, so you can remove that and toss it. Then you can take your slotted spoon and collect the seeds.

You can also use a handheld whisk to remove the seeds manually. You'll want to prop the pumpkin sideways, with the open part hanging over a bowl, then take your whisk in and twist it, so that the seeds start to come out whenever the wires press against the pulp and separate the two. Finally, set a colander with small round holes, like this one from Tablecraft, in your sink and place the seeds and pulp inside the colander. Run cold water over the mixture and agitate it with your hands; the pulp should loosen from the seeds and slip through the holes, while the seeds stay put.