Premium Grade Pumpkin Seeds 200gm

The most under-eaten seed on the shelf

If one thing here deserves more attention than it gets, it is this.

Pumpkin seeds carry roughly 7.8mg of zinc per 100g — around 20% of the daily requirement in a modest handful. Zinc has the clearest evidence base of any mineral for immune function; it is required for T-cell development, and shortfall is common in largely vegetarian Indian diets because plant zinc is bound up by phytates.

They also bring about 550mg of magnesium per 100g and around 30g of protein.

Raw, never roasted

These are unroasted, and that is deliberate.

Pumpkin seeds are roughly 49% fat, mostly polyunsaturated. Commercial roasting — usually in oil, at temperature, well before you buy them — starts the oxidation clock early and hands you someone else's oil into the bargain. Raw seed keeps the fats intact and leaves the decision with you.

If you want them roasted, do it dry in a pan for three or four minutes. They pop slightly and go nutty. Season after, not before.

The green snap

A good pepita is a clean flat green, snaps rather than bends, and tastes faintly sweet and nutty. Dull, yellowing or limp seeds are old.

Tip some onto a white plate. Husk fragments and fine grey dust mean a lot cleaned in a hurry.

Using them

By the handful. Over a salad, into bread and granola, stirred through dahi, or straight from the pack. They are also among the better plant sources of tryptophan, which is the thread behind the old advice to eat them in the evening.

Around 30g a day is a sensible amount.

Keeping them

That 49% fat is the whole storage problem. Airtight, dark, away from the stove: three months at room temperature, six refrigerated. Fresh pumpkin seeds smell mildly nutty; anything sharp or waxy is oxidised.