Why have we been spitting out watermelon seeds all this time? They’ve got more protein than eggs and taste delicious, silly us.

Maybe it is a sign of our lucky abundance that most of us don’t know (or didn’t until recently) that we can (and should) eat watermelon seeds. Why didn’t we remember that seeds are nutritional powerhouses? Why didn’t we think of eating those from the watermelon before, rather than turning them into mouth-born projectiles to be aimed at pesky siblings?

My lesson came from seeing a package of sprouted watermelon seeds at the supermarket. Having already discovered the wonder of exploring the palatability of other novel-to-me seeds (like butternut squash), I thought, “huh, of course.” And I got to reading and experimenting.

Seeds really are wonder foods. They are tiny little fuel packs waiting to sprout forth and turn into a plant – and because of that, they are loaded with all the good things, like protein, vitamins and minerals, fiber and importantly, healthy unsaturated fats.