Opinion 31 wickedly easy (& delicious) vegan Halloween recipes

Get your spook on with these scarily tasty dishes for Halloween! Gory snacks, autumnal mains & creepy sweet treats – all 100% plant-based.

Cooking for a Halloween feast is all about tricks, treats, and curating little bursts of horror – but the one thing that shouldn’t feel scary is the process of figuring out what themed dish to make (or what candy to buy).

Whether you’re plant-based and hosting your own spooky evening, contributing to a pot-luck at a party, or simply trying to figure out how to cater for a vegan guest, there are countless plant-based recipes out there that are wildly creative and guaranteed to make a mouthwatering impression.

I’ve rounded up 31 of my absolute favourite plant-based Halloween recipes to help you get started. 

Warning: Some of these look so tempting that the thought of them might haunt you forever…

1. Whole Roasted Stuffed Pumpkin with Gravy

Nothing says Halloween like a big ol’ roast pumpkin. Topped with rich gravy and packed to the brim with a stuffing of garlic, mushrooms, aromatic herbs, nuts, and dried cranberries, this hearty gem is a worthy centrepiece for any spooky feast.

2. Multi-coloured Monster Cookies

I can’t decide if these tri-coloured, googly-eyed monster cookies are creepy or just plain cute. The magical, witchy-looking hues are all-natural, made by mixing sweet potato powder, matcha, and edible charcoal into the dough.

3. Red Velvet Bliss Balls 

There’s something both luxurious and … vampiric about these blood-red velvet bliss balls. The secret to that vivid scarlet colour is beetroot powder. They’re easy to make, super flavourful, and the perfect thing to sink your fangs into this Halloween. 

4. Oven-baked Stuffed Capsicums

With their crisp, easy-to-carve flesh, capsicums make delightful mini jack-o-lanterns! Put them on the table fresh, full of an oozing dip for chips and crackers, or stuffed and baked – their faces are even more haunting once they’ve been through the oven.

5. Creamy Roast Pumpkin Pasta Bake 

Bewitch your guests with this mesmerisingly delicious comfort meal – featuring a creamy roast pumpkin, cashew, and capsicum-infused pasta sauce, and delicate notes of sage. Since it comes out bright orange, this pasta bake looks the part, too.

6. Meringue Ghosts

These fluffy little meringue ghosts are sweet, light, and scarily addictive. You’d never guess they were made without eggs! Instead, they’re made using aquafaba, the silky liquid left behind in your cans of chickpeas, which whips up just like egg whites.  

7. Creamy Spinach Dip & Bread Bowl

This bubbling bread-cauldron of creamy spinach goodness – blended up with lemon juice, onions, garlic, vegan-friendly stock, and vegan mayonnaise for richness – is guaranteed to send a shiver up your spine, simply from how otherworldly it tastes. 

8. Mummy Cookies

You know what’s not scary about these adorable wrapped mummy cookies? The fact that they take less than 30 minutes to make! That sounds like a perfect last-minute snack for trick-or-treaters if you realise you forgot to stock up on lollies.  

9. Pumpkin, Caramelised Onion & Rosemary Tart

This wildly satisfying tart combines sweet and savoury in a way that’ll curse your guests to keep coming back for more. There’s something autumnal-feeling (shh, we know it’s not autumn in the southern hemisphere, but it is in our Halloween-loving hearts!) about the combination of pumpkin, caramelised onions, and rosemary.

10. Chocolate Mousse with Blood Orange & Mint 

This decadent plant-based mousse is all dressed up for the occasion, and has a sinister twist of blood orange throughout – adding a splash of seasonal drama to the rich, velvety chocolate. A bold and crowd-pleasing addition to the dessert table!

11. Frankenstein Rice Krispie Treats

I feel like I don’t need to sell you on these Frankenstein rice krispie treats – you’d have to be a monster not to love them! You’ll just need to source some dairy-free butter, vegan marshmallows, and accusing googly eyes to get the experiment underway.

12. Korean BBQ ‘Ribs’

Add some (100% animal-friendly) gore to the spread with these smoky seitan ribs, made using jackfruit, vital wheat gluten, and a truly mystical blend of droolworthy seasonings. You’ll be goblin these down, enoki mushroom ‘bones’ and all 😉

13. Vegan Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapeño Mummies 

What do you get when you combine fiery jalapeños, dairy-free cream cheese, and olives with wrappings of flaky puff pastry? These spine-chillingly tasty mummies – thematic little morsels that are as much a feast for the stomach as they are for the eyes.

14. Raw Blueberry Macadamia Cheesecake

If you’ve already got several plates of Halloween-themed food in oranges and greens, this vibrant-purple macadamia cheesecake is just what you need for some contrast! It looks like something a garden witch brewed up, and tastes just as spell-binding. 

15. Stuffed Roast Pumpkin Wellington

Wellingtons aren’t just for Christmas, especially not when they’re made with melt-in-your-mouth roast pumpkin. So on-theme! I crack this recipe out at least a few times a year, but it always feels especially right on October 31st.

16. Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Spiders

These chocolatey spiders (with pretzel stick legs 🕷️) are frighteningly indulgent. You could also make them with peanut butter-stuffed dates as the body instead of just peanut butter. They’ll disappear so quickly, you’ll wonder if they scuttled away…

17. High-protein Activated Charcoal Smoothie 

Double, double, toil and trouble – banana blend and charcoal bubble. This macabre, jet-black smoothie calls for only 5 ingredients, making it an easy and eerie way to keep your energy up during Halloween festivities.

18. Pumpkin, Sage, & Cheesy Walnut Crumble 

With the cosy, earthy flavours of sage, pumpkin (of course) and a cheesy walnut topping, this savoury dish is right on-theme. The fact that you can’t quite tell if it’s in costume as a stuffing, crumble, or casserole is all part of the trick.

19. Green Witch Finger Cookies

Not to point fingers, but these gruesome green cookies shaped like severed witch fingers, complete with raspberry jam ‘blood’ at the knuckle, are spooky, deceptively simple to make, and irresistible – a must-have for your sweet Halloween lineup.

20. Roast Tomato & Capsicum Soup

You see the vision, right? A vat of steaming, sanguine soup, artfully placed next to a few of your gorier props … I suspect that Dracula himself would be enticed to feast on a few mouthfuls of this one, only to meet his swift downfall because of the sneaky garlic 😬

21. Vegan Vampire Teeth Halloween Cookies 

Speaking of vampires, these blood-thirsty cookie sandwiches are fangtastic sweet treats that are ridiculously easy to make. The only tricky part might be finding vegan marshmallows, but you can usually hunt them down in health/eco stores or online. 

22. Cinnamon Pumpkin Punch

What’s Halloween without punch to get the party started? This cinnamon pumpkin punch is cosiness and contentment in a cup – deliciously spicy and full of enchanting October flavours to get you in the festive spirit.

23. Vegan Caramel Apples

This plant-based take on caramel apples tastes just like the nostalgic, get-your-teeth-stuck version you remember. The caramel is made using sugar, coconut oil, cream of tartar, and soy milk … and just a little extra sprinkle of seasonal magic.

24. Classic Pumpkin Soup 

A timeless favourite, this warm, silky pumpkin soup is like a potion for the soul – perfect for keeping the chills and ghouls away on Halloween eve! For added creep-factor, carve button mushrooms into skulls, roast them, and drop a few into each bowl as a garnish. 

25. Peanut Butterscotch Slice

These gooey peanut butterscotch slices are wildly decadent – who needs candy when you have these? OK, me, but I’ll take both, thank you very much. This is the one night of the year you get to truly unleash your sweet tooth, after all!

26. Zero-waste Roast Pumpkin with Chilli, Thyme & Garlic

Not to go all Wednesday Addams on you, but the impact food waste has on our environment is actually scary – so a zero-waste pumpkin recipe is just the ticket for a sustainable Halloween feast. You’ll even use the seeds to make a moreish pumpkin seed praline for drizzling on top.

27. Superfood Green Curry

Thanks to its bright green colour, this curry makes a convincingly ‘toxic’ witch’s brew – despite the fact that the ingredients are all actually quite wholesome and nourishing. Serve it up in a makeshift cauldron with some tortilla bats on the side for dipping.

28. Strawberries & Cream Doughnuts

These plump, cream-filled doughnuts, with their succulent ‘bloody’ strawberry filling, are an ideally gory treat for the table. You could even spear each one through the top with a knife for an extra murderous effect.

29. Pumpkin, Chickpea & Spinach Curry 

Sure, Halloween’s all about the sweets and ghoulish theming, but it can be nice to have at least one filling and nutritious option for people to choose from. Just add a little note-card calling this curry a ‘healing brew’, and you’ll win points for immersion!

30. Spicy Beetroot Harissa

This deep-red harissa has a juicy, blood-like appearance that makes it the perfect choice for a quick and creepy Halloween appetiser – especially when paired with crunchy breadstick bones for dipping.

31. Roast Pumpkins Stuffed with Quinoa & Pomegranate

Make your own edible pumpkin patch by roasting up a few small pumpkins or squashes, and filling them with pomegranate-studded quinoa. This recipe is simple and speedy to follow – leaving you more time to put the final touches on your costume. 

A frighteningly delicious feast – all 100% plant-based

By now, your Halloween table must be quaking at the thought of holding all these creepy dishes, so if you’re anything like me (prone to getting carried away 😅), it’s probably time to whittle down your wishlist and pick a few favourites. 

The problem is, it’s always so fun getting to show people how creative we can get with vegan cooking and baking, and to see their reactions! Who knows which recipe might be the one that leaves your friends spellbound, and perhaps a little curious about plant-based eating – even if they found the idea scary before.

Don’t forget to stock up on vegan-friendly lollies and chocolates for the trick-or-treaters … or just for yourself 👀

Header image: © Vegan Food & Living