It's this time of the year again. Spooky but joyful.
Everywhere you look there are Halloween pet costumes, Halloween home decorations, Halloween costumes for kids and grown ups, and tons of cool looking but rather unhealthy Halloween candy and other sugar loaded treats.
Those who cook their food have a much easier job at throwing a Halloween party than those who prefer to eat their food raw. Maybe it is a little bit more challenging task, but not impossible. Use your imagination to make your raw food party just as spooky as any other.
Here are my ideas for this year's party. I do not offer precise amounts of the ingredients here, just the idea. So experiment and use this post as an inspiration.
~ Spooky Fruit Platter ~
The Spooky Fruity can be arranged on a large tray or served as individual plates. Use whatever you can find at the farmers market or in your store. Plums, pears and even apples can be turned into spooky fun.
Banana Ghosts
They are very easy to make. You will need one to two bananas per person. Peel the bananas. Cut each one in half. To make the eyes, make a small indentations using a drinking straw. Fill the holes with melted raw chocolate and allow to cool. Arrange on a tray or a platter.
Jack-O-Lanterns
For these cute things I used persimmons. Use one persimmon per person. Wash the fruits and cut each into thick slices. If you have a small cookie cutter, cut out the Jack-O-Lantern shapes. I did not have such a small cookie cutter and simply used a sharp paring knife to cut the eyes and mouths. Once you finished cutting, arrange the slices on a tray or a platter.
The Audreys
Figs are still in season and I got the idea of turning them into spooky Audrey flowers inspired by the 1960 horror comedy "The Little Shop of Horrors." Remember the cute, voracious plant screaming "Feed me! Feed me!"
You will need one kiwi fruit per four figs, or so. Ripe figs are not quite easy to work with so I decided not to create the carnivorous mouths. I used a kiwi fruit to make the eyes. Using a very sharp knife, cut the figs about 2/3 deep into halves. Cut each half twice more to create a resemblance of a flower. Peel each kiwi fruit and cut into thick slices. Using a paring knife, crop each slice into an eye shape. Place each green eye in the center of the fig flower. Arrange the figs on a serving tray or on a platter.
To fill out the platter I created spears out of blueberries, physalis and green grapes. Any fruit leftovers from cutting and carving can be used to make a fruit salad or a smoothie.
As far as I am concerned, no day goes by without a salad. Old school raw...
~ Ghost Salad ~
For this salad I used dark purple leaves: Purple Oak Leaf and Lollo Rosso lettuce, black tomatoes, raw black Nyons olives, purple onions, and little ghosts made of daikon radish. You can make a large bowl for a buffet, or portion out the salad for each guest in small salad bowls before the party.
I get inspired by what I find in the grocery store or at the farmers market. Dark leafy greens and the black tomatoes seemed like perfect ingredients for a spooky Halloween salad. You may want to make your salad a little bit more colorful, but for me, this was it.
To make the ghosts, peel a large daikon and cut it into segments long enough for your cookie cutter. Cut each segment into thin slices. Use a cookie cutter to cut out ghosts. If you do not have a cookie cutter small enough, use sharp paring knife to cut the ghost shapes. It will take a little longer, but you can still do it.
The salad needs to be dressed! Once again, you can make a dark dressing like mine, or choose a much brighter, bloody red color for contrast.
~ Halloween Pomegranate Vinaigrette ~
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup freshly pressed pomegranate juice
- 1/3 cup virgin olive oil
- 1 Tbsp hot, chili pepper infused oil
- 1 Tbsp aged balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 tsp pink Himalayan salt
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard (optional)
- 1 tsp raw honey (optional)
Method:
- Whisk the vinaigrette in a mixing bowl. Adjust the taste to your personal liking. Pour the dressing into decorative bottles and make them part of your Halloween buffet decoration.
If you are making a bigger batch of the dressing, multiply the amounts accordingly. You may want to provide a stirring wand of some kind for whisking as the dressing separates pretty quickly. Visit a lab supply store to get the coolest vessels and glass rods for stirring.
I hope that my ideas inspired you to your own spooky, raw creations. Just make sure that whatever you decide to make, make it healthy.
As we are moving into the "dark" season, nothing matters more than your health. Support your immune system with fresh fruit and vegetable, and avoid added sugar whenever you can. If you have a sweet tooth, use local raw honey. Your body will thank you.
Wishing everyone a lot of fun this Halloween - in radiant heath, passionately raw - Dominique
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For more inspiration check out my other Halloween recipes:
Halloween Pumpkin Spice Smoothie
Scary Veggies - Quick And Easy Raw Vegan Halloween Appetizer
Wickedly Good Black Halloween Smoothie
Dominique Allmon©2023