It’s not often you get to make food with weird colors like frightful orange and bile green, or weird shapes like eyeballs and fingers, so this is an opportunity worth seizing. (Well, technically, you could eat vegan eyeballs every day, but your friends would talk.)
Halloween is all about celebrating the dark side in a fun way. It’s a way to eat body parts without actually … eating body parts. Our food system traffics in the body parts of billions of dead animals. Smart, social pigs, inquisitive chickens, and gentle, caring cows and bulls are all raised in cramped, unhealthy conditions that prevent them from enjoying their lives before they’re killed.
An animal-friendly Halloween lets you have fun with a clean conscience, knowing that your choices are not supporting this cycle of suffering.
Here are some inspirations to get you in the mood. You can serve any of these at your vegan Halloween party. For especially kid-friendly vegan Halloween recipes, take a look at this list from PETA Kids. Just remember: Don’t give out homemade treats to trick-or-treating kids whose families don’t know you. They’ll just toss them.
Vegan Halloween Cookies
There’s something about holidays and cookies. Here, Halloween gets the seasonal cookie treatment with some truly inventive vegan cookies.
Spider Cookies
Classic flavors of peanut butter and chocolate, in a Halloween-approved creepy-cute cookie.
Bleeding Eyeballs
What’s Halloween without raspberry jam-filled eyeballs?
Frankencookies
This vegan Halloween recipe includes a really clever method for making multicolor cookies. These Halloween Frankencookies taste as amazing as they look.
Witch Fingers
Finger cookies are fast becoming a Halloween tradition. These ones skip the dye for natural matcha green.
Vegan Halloween Mains
These vegan Halloween recipes are ideal for a Halloween party or post-trick-or-treat intimate dinner. Not only are they so delicious you’ll probably make them sometime during the rest of the year too, just without the eyes.
Spooky Spaghetti
It turns out, all you need to do to make something spooky is to put eyes on it. In this case, they’re on the mushrooms, turning them into cute little edible skulls.
Personal Edible Jack-O-Lanterns
Super cute and on-theme. Mexican-inspired black bean and quinoa filling is a savory contrast to sweet peppers. All you need to do to make this a year-round favorite is skip the jack-o-lantern carving.
Vegan Halloween Sides
Round out your dinner with these thematic vegan Halloween recipes. They combine familiar flavors with shocking presentation.
Cinnamon Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
Make this part of your annual jack-o-lantern carving tradition. Save the seeds for roasting, and enjoy their crispy nuttiness, here set off with warming cinnamon.
Brainslaw
Roasted red cabbage makes these vegan brains sweet and succulent, just the way zombies love.
Vegan Halloween Drinks
Everyone works up a thirst at Halloween—costumes can be sweltering! These punches are great for a crowd, and work with or without alcohol.
Eyeball Punch
One of those vegan Halloween recipes that looks horrifying yet tastes incredible. Blackberry, lychee, blueberry, and acai make this fruity, drinkable punch a crowd pleaser—even with floating eyeballs. Rum or gin optional.
Cinnamon Pumpkin Punch
A warming punch (rum optional) that evokes the seasonal flavors of Mexico. Serve hot or cold.
Vegan Halloween Dessert
On a day so full of candy, dessert might sound superfluous. But these ones look amazing and are a lot more complex and interesting than straight candy. And they’re mostly healthy.
Wormy Dirt
Vegan pudding cups with crumbled sandwich cookies and gelatin-free gummy worms. Halloween is the perfect excuse to have candy for dinner.
Toffee Apples
This is a true Halloween classic beloved by all, and relatively healthy, too. Fun to make, looks great on the table, and delicious!
Tangerine Jack-O-Lanterns
Cute and healthy—and easy to make—these succulent little noggins will disappear the moment you bring them out.
Whether you’re making them for your own party, to bring to someone else’s, or just to have fun at home, these vegan Halloween recipes are whimsical and delicious nods to a lot of things we try not to think about the rest of the year.
They’re inspiring not just because they’re cute/scary and tasty. These recipes also show that humans only need plants to make delicious and creative foods that everyone can enjoy.
If you’re vegan, you already knew that. If you’re not …
Text VEG to 73822 to get the latest vegan lifestyle tips, recipes, and urgent action alerts texted right to your phone.
Terms for automated texts/calls from PETA: https://peta.vg/txt. Text STOP to end, HELP for more info. Msg/data rates may apply. U.S. only.
A roundup of the year’s most exciting titles, from street food adventures to protein-packed meals.
These tantalizing vegan wings are tackling the competition, delivering game-changing flavor while leaving chickens in peace.
These Super Bowl snack spots make every touchdown taste even better.
Learn how whole, paleo-style foods and compassion can live on the same plate.
