With Halloween upon us you may well find yourself elbow deep in a pumpkin. In the States it's not unheard of to eat pumpkin (the Sugar variety rather than the Jack... oh yes I am well informed) but back in Blighty, where I currently find myself, it's not top of the menu.

Having recently been told about roasting pumpkin seeds as a snack, by a farmer from Jaswell Farm in Johnston, RI, I wanted to post this idea of mine.

This little recipe makes use of a bit of the waste any Pumpkin patron will have this year, whether you eat the flesh or not.

As the title suggests, you can use any squash seeds for this. The seed you see above are butter nut squash seeds.

Ingredients:

The seeds from your pumpkin or squash

Coarse sea salt

Fennel seeds

The amounts you will end up using will depend entirely on how many seeds you start with- I used the seeds from one small (600g) butternut squash.

Method:

After scooping the seeds out of your squash, wash away all the fibrous, stringy bits until you have just the seeds.

Pat the seeds dry and scatter on a baking tray- do not add oil.

Add a teaspoon of coarse sea salt to a pestle and a tea spoon of fennel seeds, pound until they are smashed but not a fine dust.

Add the fennel salt to the seeds and roast in an oven at 190c for 10 minutes.

Serve with a cold drink.