How to quickly clean pumpkin seeds?

The wide demand for pumpkin seeds is explained by their usefulness for the human body. According to doctors, pumpkin seeds may come in handy for the prevention of certain diseases. Their composition is rich in proteins, fats and carbohydrates. A large amount of vitamin E, enough vitamins of group B, and vitamins A, C, D and K are also present. All major trace elements contain seeds.

If you pay attention to cooking, here pumpkin seeds have also found their application. They are used crushed in salads and sauces, whole grains - for baking bread and confectionery. Sunflower seeds have pleasant taste characteristics, so they can be eaten without any combination. Children are very fond of peeled nucleoli in honey.

How to choose good seeds for cleaning?

The best option is to grow the pumpkin yourself, then collect its seeds. But if there is no land for the garden, those who live in the apartment have to take pumpkin seeds in the market. In this case, you should pay attention to the following points.

• The seed should be well washed. To check this, just wet your fingers and touch the seeds with them. A poorly washed seed will stick to your hands. Molds easily settle on the remains of the pulp, and the storage of such grains is difficult.
• There should not be a clear odor. If it is, then perhaps the nuclei are affected, have a bitter aftertaste.
• The seeds you are about to peel must be well dried. Raw husks are soft.

How to get raw peeled pumpkin kernels?

Raw pumpkin seeds are good for medicinal purposes. They are consumed in small quantities, only 10 grams per day. Therefore, cleaning the seeds with your hands is not difficult. If the material is needed for a family of several people, then to speed up the process, the following method is used.

1. Cut the pumpkin in half and get the seeds.
2. Seeds are cleaned of pulp, washed with running water using a colander.
3. Allow water to drain, then spread the seeds on a baking sheet or a surface coated with oilcloth in one layer.
4. Stir occasionally, dry the seeds.
   

   Attention!

   Heat treatments destroy the beneficial elements in any product. Therefore, even for preliminary drying of seeds, it is undesirable to use high temperatures. Ideal drying occurs near the room’s heating devices in winter or in the sun in warm autumn. When drying in the oven, the temperature should be set to a minimum and the door ajar. Feeling the air in the oven should not burn your hand.

5. To clean the seed, it is taken by the thickened edge. Scissors in the direction of the nose cut off sections where the sides of the peel are interconnected. The cut starts from the middle of the seed.
6. Turn the seed over with the cut part down and, gently pressing on the side walls, remove the kernel. In well-dried seeds, the kernel is easily peeled from the husk.

If pumpkin seeds are eaten without pretending to have a therapeutic effect, they are fried, then the peel becomes fragile, easily exfoliates.

How to clean seeds in large quantities?

For cooking, when preference is given to the taste of pumpkin seeds, methods of "mass cleaning" are used.

Quickly free the cores from the husk using the following technology.

1. Buy a pumpkin variety with large seeds or raw seeds. They look spectacular in baking, and the kernels are more easily separated from the husk.
2. A hat is cut off at the pumpkin (the place where the fruit connects to the stem), with the help of a large metal spoon, the seeds are brought out.
3. They are washed in warm water and cleaned well. All fibers must be removed. If there is no running water, you can soak the material in a large tank, changing the water several times.
4. Seeds are laid out on a metal tray, oilcloth or parchment paper in a thin layer. They are allowed to dry. It is undesirable to use ordinary bedding paper; seeds may stick to it.
5. An ordinary rolling pin for dough roll out the layer so as to break the shell without damaging the grain.
6. A large volume of pot is poured into a liter of water per 475 ml of raw seeds. The container is placed on a gas stove over medium heat and the water is brought to a boil.
7. The dried seeds are poured into a saucepan, covered with a lid, allowed to boil for 20 to 30 minutes. The duration of the process depends on how quickly bursting shells float up. Clean cores remain at the bottom of the tank.
8. When all pumpkin seeds have been cleaned, remove the husk with a spoon or strainer and drain the water through a colander above the sink. With colder water, cool the seeds in a colander.
9. Seeds are dried in the same way. After that, they are ready to eat.

It should be noted that there are pumpkin varieties in which the seeds do not have a peel, they do not need to be peeled. In the infield, you can plant several bushes of such a pumpkin and provide yourself with pumpkin seeds in sufficient quantities. Pumpkin is a grateful unpretentious plant.

We recommend that you read the article on how to dry pumpkin seeds