Pumpkin Seed Milk

Cucurbita spp.

Pumpkin seed milk is a pale, savory plant milk made from the edible seeds of pumpkins and other winter squashes. In the Northeast, that makes it a useful way to carry the whole squash crop into a second ingredient: the same fruits that supply stored orange flesh also supply seeds that can be dried, toasted, ground, or pressed.¹

The seeds are kernels inside a fibrous seed cavity, protected by a tough hull in many varieties. Hull-less or “naked” squash seeds are especially convenient because the kernel can be eaten without that outer shell, but ordinary pumpkin seeds work too once the hull is removed or softened. Their substantial oil and protein content gives the liquid more body and a rounder flavor than a grain-based milk, while the seed’s green, grassy notes become nuttier with drying and heat.²³

A basic pumpkin seed milk can be made by soaking the seeds overnight and grinding them with about twice the amount of water by weight as the soaked seeds, followed by straining. The remaining solids are not neutral waste: they still carry seed flavor and can thicken a paste, dough, or ferment. In this form, pumpkin seed milk sits between a beverage and a culinary base, closer in character to a loose seed purée than to dairy milk.

Pumpkin seeds are not limited to pie pumpkins. University of Maine notes that seeds from winter squash and pumpkins can be saved and toasted, and USDA food-composition records treat pumpkin and squash seed kernels together as a food category.¹⁴ That shared identity is useful in a regional kitchen, where a buttercup, Hubbard, or other winter squash can yield both a storage vegetable and the raw material for this milk.