how to de-salt pumpkin seeds?

December 18, 2012 10:51 AM

Help me de-salt these overly salty pumpkin seeds!

I spent some of my very limited food budget on a giant bulk package of roasted salted pumpkin seeds. But they are revoltingly salty! I can't return them and I don't want to waste $3.50 and throw them away. Is there any way to un-saltify them?

I was thinking of soaking them in water and then re-roasting them. Would something bad/ gross happen?

posted by windykites to food & drink (9 answers total)

No problem. I used to do this with salted peanuts (I like them roasted, but not too salty).

Just rinse them (no need to soak) and the salt will come off. There's also no need to roast. You only need to get them dry again. Spread them out on some absorbent paper and put them in a very low oven for a while.
posted by pipeski at 10:54 AM on December 18, 2012 [3 favorites]

If they get too soggy when you rinse them and dry them, you can re-roast, but do it for mere seconds in a shallow pan. They'll taste even nuttier that way.
posted by xingcat at 11:04 AM on December 18, 2012

Rinse and dry, yes. I would suggest doing a small batch first, in case you need to tweak the process. If it de-salts them too much, rinse and dry 2/3 of the bag and mix with the remaining super-salty ones.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:05 AM on December 18, 2012

I'd buy some unsalted ones and mix them half and half (or experiment for the right mix)...
posted by acm at 11:22 AM on December 18, 2012

I don't mind a little salt so I just put a portion in a small sieve and gently shake and stir. It is amazing how much salt comes off!

I would be very hesitant about rinsing ahead of time. Too easy to have moisture seep into the seed or to over roast IMHO.
posted by cat_link at 11:23 AM on December 18, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I would say anything that applies some motion should work. The salt isn't glued on. :)
posted by threeants at 11:40 AM on December 18, 2012

If you want to be really decadent you could swirl the seeds around in a sieve to get off some of the salt and then add some sugar, either brown or white.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 12:21 PM on December 18, 2012

Oh no. Are they they kind that are white and have a weird powder on them? I recently tried to de-salt those, with absolutely no luck. Rinsing them didn't really get rid of any salt (at least I couldn't taste the difference!), but then they also never really dried completely, so they weren't even crunchy.

The only positive I see is that you can only eat a few at a time (otherwise your mouth starts hurting), so they last a lot longer, as opposed to finishing all of them in 2 days. Also, you end up drinking lots of water while you're snacking on them, and water is healthy!
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 1:12 PM on December 18, 2012

They do have weird powder! Augh... I'll do some experimenting and hope for the best.
posted by windykites at 6:53 AM on December 19, 2012