Soaked & Dehydrated Pumpkin Seeds (Pepitas)

I love nuts and seeds and when you soak and dehydrate them it makes them super tasty and extra crunchy -- sort of like roasting, yet much more nutritious.  My favorite ways to have them are to snack on them or sprinkling on salads.

Ingredients:

5 cups pumpkin seeds
filtered water
sea salt
cayenne pepper


Equipment Needed:

Dehydrator


Directions:

Place pumpkin seeds in a large pot.  Add water to cover, plus several inches (extra water is needed since seeds absorb water while soaking).   Add the sea salt and cayenne pepper.  Stir to combine and dissolve salt (when soaking seeds/nuts I sometimes heat up some of the filtered water and add it to the pot to warm it up a little and help with the dissolving and soaking process - if you do this, just warm it up, don't make the soaking water hot).

Soak seeds

Cover pot and set in oven (turned off) or on kitchen counter and leave them so soak for 8 hours.

Next, pour seeds into a collander (or two) and rinse them lightly with running water.

Strain and rinse after soaking

Allow them to sit out for about 15 minutes to allow water to drain off then spread a thin layer of them on your dehydrator sheets.

Place on trays in dehydrator 

Dehydrate for 24 hours or until the seeds are completely crunchy.

Remove after dehydrating

Place in storage containers for storage and enjoy as a great snack or food-topping!

Reuse containers to store them in.