35+ Pumpkin Seed Recipes for Fall

Cinnamon Pumpkin Seed Brittle Recipe

This warmly spiced brittle also makes a crunchy garnish for your holiday pumpkin pie.

Creamy Turmeric Cauliflower Soup Recipe

Briefly cooking the pumpkin seeds and cumin in hot oil—a process known as blooming—draws out the aroma of the seeds and spice and deepens their flavor. Turmeric pairs fantastically with winter produce like cauliflower or root veggies, where its brightness, astringency, and tartness balance the earthy sweetness of the plants. Use plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, if you prefer.

Avocado and Pumpkin Seed Salsa Recipe

The toasted pumpkin seeds give this salsa a great, crunchy texture.

Sweet Potato Casserole with Pumpkin Seed-Oat Crumble Recipe

We use less sugar in this classic casserole and get sweetness instead from fragrant orange rind and vanilla. Turmeric boosts the orange color and adds a subtle earthiness to the sweet potatoes. Instead of an all-nut or marshmallow topping, an oat streusel made with pumpkinseeds adds crunch and contrast to the dish. Evaporated milk has a concentrated dairy flavor without the added sugar of sweetened condensed milk; it will help the potato base to thicken as it bakes.

Roasted Cauliflower with Pumpkin Seeds and Queso Fresco Recipe

Instant Pot Chicken Mole Recipe

Flavorful chicken mole is an exceptionally great use of the Instant Pot. Making traditional mole is typically a labor-intensive process that requires slow simmering to build the sauce’s mellow depth and rich layers of flavor. However, this Instant Pot chicken mole delivers all of the bitter, sweet, toasty, aromatic goodness you want when a mole craving strikes—in a fraction of the time. Serve your speedy chicken mole over rice with black beans, radishes, cilantro, pepitas, and any other desired accouterments. 

Broccoli Rabe and Barley Grain Bowl With Cilantro Pesto Recipe

Broccoli rabe (also called rapini) is a leafy cousin to broccoli known for its bracing bitterness. A quick blanch followed by pan-searing tames its bite and renders the greens meltingly tender. Want to make this dish fully vegan? Just leave off the parmesan cheese—or sub in a touch of nutritional yeast.

Vegan Coconut Cream Tart with White Peaches and Blueberries Recipe

This nutrient-rich twist on coconut cream pie is lusciously smooth and decadent… it’s also vegan, paleo, gluten-fee, and raw. In other words, you’re looking at a tart with a stacked resume. Perfect for a special occasion, especially if you’re looking to clean up your diet a bit, this show-stopping vegan dessert offers rich, toasty flavor and sweet tooth satisfaction—without adding refined sugar. And since there’s no need to crank up the oven to make it, this treat especially ideal for summer. Keep in mind, whipping coconut cream can sometimes be tricky. If you forget to refrigerate your cans overnight or if too much of the liquid gets mixed in, it will most likely separate. But not to worry—mixing in a bit of tapioca flour (arrowroot would also work) can bring the mixture back together in a snap. To save yourself time, go ahead and place your mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the fridge to chill as soon as you are ready to start prepping your tart. 

Chicken and Honeydew Salad Recipe

Rotisserie chicken and pre-diced honeydew help get dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes; pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds) and tortilla strips deliver a satisfying double-crunch factor.

Easy Jasmine Rice Pudding Recipe

Treat yourself to a comforting bowl of warm, creamy rice pudding and enjoy a better night’s sleep. The goji berries sprinkled on top add fruity chew, while the pepitas offer nutty crunch and a tryptophan boost. Look for both at specialty grocery stores. If you can’t find them, sub tart cherries or pomegranates for the goji berries and walnuts for the pepitas; walnuts also contain tryptophan. A mild, less expensive honey works beautifully here; save the pricier, more robust honeys for a recipe where their flavor will be front and center.

Mexican Chocolate-Zucchini Bread Recipe

Got a boatload of zucchini? A loaf of so-simple quick bread is a delightful, kid-friendly way to put it to use. This decadent twist spices up classic zucchini bread with cocoa powder, cinnamon, a rich chocolate glaze, and roasted pepitas. Easy-to-make, incredibly moist, and intensely chocolatey, this Mexican Chocolate Zucchini Bread is sure to be a new favorite. 

Creamy Turmeric Cauliflower Soup Recipe

Briefly cooking the pumpkin seeds and cumin in hot oil—a process known as blooming—draws out the aroma of the seeds and spice and deepens their flavor. Turmeric pairs fantastically with winter produce like cauliflower or root veggies, where its brightness, astringency, and tartness balance the earthy sweetness of the plants. Use plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream, if you prefer.

Candied Pepitas Recipe

Make pepitas (a.k.a. unsalted pumpkin seed kernels) roasted in a cinnamon-cayenne candy coating your new go-to dessert crunch element. Find these tasty green seeds in bulk sections of most grocery stores, as well as on Amazon and other online retailers. Sprinkle onto a few scoops of dark chocolate or dulche de leche ice cream for a treat with Mexican flair.

Mediterranean Salad Jars Recipe

Sunday meal prep just got a whole lot easier. This recipe is as simple as tossing all your ingredients into a large bowl, mixing, and then spooning into jars. Seriously. Swap out any ingredient and substitute for your favorite veggies. You can even reduce the fat by using ¼ cup oil and half of a boiled egg. Just seal and refrigerate, and you’ll have lunch or snacks for the week. Say goodbye to your sad desk salad! This healthy, Pinterest-worthy little lunch will have all your co-workers begging for the recipe. We enlisted Health's contributing nutrition editor Cynthia Sass, MPH, RD, to help us identify some of the health benefits of this deliciously easy meal. RELATED: 7 Health Benefits of a Mediterranean Diet Sass tells us that chickpeas have been shown to support weight loss, improve gut health, and help protect against heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. “They're also chock-full of antioxidants, and people who eat them regularly have higher overall nutrient intakes, including fiber; vitamins A, E, and C; folate; magnesium; potassium; and iron,” she adds. Bonus: Pumpkin seeds provide plant protein, healthy fats, antioxidants, and key minerals, including magnesium, iron, and zinc. They can help reduce blood sugar levels, too. “Quinoa is a whole grain that is also naturally gluten free,” Sass points out. Plus, it’s packed with tons of nutrients like fiber, B vitamins, calcium, vitamin E, antioxidants, plant protein, and slow-burning carbohydrates, which help to control blood sugar and keep you fuller longer. To get our top stories delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Healthy Living newsletter

Beer Cheese Soup Recipe

Our unexpected recipe makeover harnesses the power of comfort food in a nutrient-dense, slurp-worthy bowl of beer cheese bliss. Butternut squash complements the rich, savory notes of beer and two types of mustard, while ribbons of melty cheddar add a silky finish. All of these components fuse together to create a hearty yet delightfully dulcet soup guaranteed to warm you up from the inside out. A pale ale–style beer, such as Bass, is ideal in this dish. Avoid using dark beer, which could make the soup too bitter. Nutritional yeast is commonly sold powdered or in flakes. Find it in most health food stores and well-stocked markets.

Instant Pot Pumpkin Soup with Candied Pepitas Recipe

This velvety smooth soup is easy to make and easy to freeze. The crunchy pepitas steal the show, and are a nice contrast to the spicy, creamy base. Serve with sourdough bread for a nontraditional Thanksgiving dinner, or in small shooters as a holiday party appetizer.

Best Basic Granola  Recipe

Fact: Homemade granola beats the pants off of anything you can buy at the store. And luckily, it’s also just about the easiest baking project that there is. Stir everything together, bake, and boom—you have the toastiest, most munchable granola your morning yogurt has ever seen. The other big perk to our Best Basic Granola recipe (A.K.A. Any-Way-You-Want-It Granola) is that it's completely customizable. Don’t have pumpkin seeds? No worries, you can leave them out. Or hey, throw in some shredded coconut. Mix up the spices according to what you have/like or leave them out altogether. Use melted coconut oil for a little extra flavor. The dry milk powder called for in the ingredient list really helps to promote “clumping,” but if you don’t already have some in the pantry, there’s no need to run out to the grocery store. (You should still get some nice clusters in your granola.) One ingredient you don’t wan to skip out on, however, is the egg white—this helps to create a perfectly crunchy, shellacked coating for your granola. For more tips on making our Best Basic Granola and advice for substitutions, be sure to check out this guide.

Mixed Nut Brittle Recipe

Nut brittle is easy to make, travels well, and actually improves in flavor with age, making it the ideal treat to give as a gift or to fill your own candy dish at home. Some trace the history of peanut brittle to a resourceful Southern housewife who, in the late 1800s, added roasted peanuts and baking soda to a failed batch of taffy, creating brittle instead. Whatever its origins are, nut brittle became a much-loved holiday tradition, not only for its tempting flavor but also for how easy it is to prepare, even for a novice candymaker. Brittle that’s made with peanuts grew even more popular in the 1900s as farmers in Virginia and Georgia increased their production of the nut. We added that other Southern powerhouse—pecans—to this version, as well as a handful or two of cashews and whole almonds for a tasty change of pace.

Roasted Butternut Squash and Poblano Pizza Recipe

This Mexican-inspired twist on flatbread is packed with oven-roasted veggies, delivering almost a third of your daily fiber goal. Buy precubed butternut squash to trim down your prep time; swap goat cheese for the queso fresco, if you prefer.

Copycat RxBars Recipe

We’ve waxed poetic on RxBars before. Packed with protein, fats, and natural sugars, I bet at least one of your friends has an RxBar (or 3) in their bag at all times. Much as we love the packaged version of the energy bar, turns out that making your own isn’t that hard at all. Not only do you get full control of the flavors in DIY energy bars, they also won’t cover your teeth with the sticky residue that we’ve come to expect from the store-bought version. 

You probably already have everything you need to make DIY RxBars (OK, maybe not the egg white protein powder, but that’s easy to find online. And PS: you can use whey or plant-based protein powders if you don’t eat eggs.) Grind almonds, dates, and protein powder, then move on to flavoring: dried fruit, warming spices, maybe a handful of cocoa nibs or chopped chocolate. Press the mixture into a large rectangle, then slice the bars into individual sizes.

Copycat RxBars

Sausage and Mushroom Pasta With Butternut Squash Recipe

How’s this for a hack? Here we slice refrigerated lasagna noodles to get silky pappardelle-style ribbons of pasta that look like they’re homemade. Pick up pre-cubed butternut squash to save yourself peeling and chopping time.

Blue-Berry Salsa Recipe

This sweet and spicy blueberry salsa was absolutely made to spoon over grilled pork chops. OK, technically, it was made to serve as the blue band of our vibrant “Rainbow” Salsa, but it’s really great served over grilled pork too. 

Zucchini and Spinach Chilaquiles Recipe

This verde version of a Mexican brunch classic is the perfect introduction to summer. If you have time, try switching out canned tomatillos for fresh: Remove the papery husks from 8 ounces fresh tomatillos, toss with 1 tablespoon oil on a baking sheet, and broil 6 minutes or until lightly charred. Cool before processing. Queso fresco has the texture of strained ricotta—it won’t quite melt under the broiler, but its mild flavor will be a welcome contrast to the heat in the tomatillo mixture. Add scrambled eggs to each serving for a little extra protein.

Shredded Pork and Pinto Tacos with Pepita Slaw Recipe

Before: Pork Carnitas Plate. Carnitas are a labor of love, as pork simmers in fat for hours until tender, then gets piled onto a plate with refried beans and rice. Very few veggies find their way into this classic dish.

A half-pound of pork is a gracious plenty for these tacos, which are beefed up with pinto beans, Greek yogurt-amped avocado crema, and a crunchy slaw topped with pumpkinseeds. The plant protein sources make up about half the total amount.

Deserted Graveyard Cake Recipe

Prepare this decadent, chocolate-frosted cake for a festive Halloween dessert. 

Yogurt Cheese with Roasted Beets and Feta Recipe

This ultra-creamy, Middle Eastern–style appetizer dip created by cookbook author Janet Fletcher is also excellent with raw cucumbers. If you make your own yogurt cheese, you'll need to start it 24 hours ahead of making this dish.

Wax Beans with Chipotle, Black Beans, and Pepitas Recipe

Southwestern Bowl Recipe

Mango salsa, quinoa, black beans, red pepper, avocado, corn and pumpkin seeds? You can call this the healthy burrito bowl.

Peruvian Totchos with Ají Amarillo Crema Recipe

This fun twist on traditional nachos features potato tots instead of chips for a warm comfort food dish that takes on the role of an out-of-this-world delicious party platter. This dish features flavors reminiscent of Peruvian cuisine, such as cumin, avocado and the essential ají crema sauce, which can be made ahead of time. 

Creamy Squash Soup with Salad Topping Recipe

Some butternut squash soups can be too sweet; here, almond butter, lime juice, and slightly spicy salad mix-ins keep the flavors lively. For a heartier dish, add a few cooked medium shrimp (warmed first in a little hot water) to each bowl.

Nutty Carrot Flatbread Recipe

We were so inspired by the vegetable flatbreads made by David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl of greenkitchenstories.com, we decided to create our own hearty, seed- and nut-packed version. The gluten-free slices are perfect for sandwiches.

Pie-Spiced Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds Recipe

The warm spices of holiday pies are mixed with seeds and a touch of salt for a sweet and savory snack to eat by the handful. It can be shared with any trick-or-treaters on the Halloween trail, since it won't set off peanut allergies.

Spicy Zucchini Salad Recipe

Fiber- and protein-packed chickpeas bulk up this late-summer salad.

Smoky Pumpkin Hummus Recipe

Though pumpkin-flavored dishes are usually sweet, this recipe combines pumpkin purée and chickpeas for a smoky, savory hummus that's perfect for fall entertaining. Serve it in a wide bowl so there's plenty of room for the generous toppings.

Tex-Mex Meatballs in Red Chile Sauce Recipe

Let guests doctor their own plates with crunchy, colorful toppings.

No-Bake Beet Granola Bars Recipe

M ake healthy granola bars at home for a fraction of the cost of store-bought snacks. These no-bake beet granola bars are packed with sunflower seeds, sliced almonds, and shredded coconut for a nourishing grab-and-go breakfast. Plus, there’s no added sugar, besides the chocolate chunks mixed into the batter and drizzled on top. They are naturally sweetened with dates, which work together with the beets to form a sticky ball that acts as a binding agent, keeping the bars intact. If you’re not a fan of beets, don’t click away just yet. Honestly, if you were blindfolded you could never guess that these bars have beets. They lend a fuchsia glow without adding an earthy flavor. 

This no-bake granola bar recipe yields a dozen bars. Customize them to suit your taste by substituting sunflower seeds for pumpkin seeds, or replacing almond butter with peanut butter. Share the love with buds, or keep them all and treat yourself to a week’s worth of breakfasts. 

No-Bake Beet Granola Bars