Vegan Dinner Recipes for Halloween

Spooky jaunts through the neighborhood, candy-laden pillowcases, costume soirees, bobbing for apples and wary treks through haunted houses. Halloween means fun for all, vegans included. However, amidst all that candy and festivity, don't let dinner fall to the wayside. Below are three vegan dinner recipes to please any crowd you may be entertaining.

Colcannon

If traditional Halloween fare is on your menu, I would suggest trying colcannon, a potato dish from Ireland served during Samhain.

Ingredients
1lb. potatoes, peeled, cubed, and boiled
2 T. Earth Balance (plus extra, melted)
¼ c. soy milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 T. olive oil
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 head of green cabbage, cored, chopped, and boiled

1. Mash the potatoes, adding in Earth Balance, soy milk, salt, and pepper.

2. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Sauté the garlic for about 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the onions and cook until soft.

3. In a large bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, onion and garlic mixture, and boiled green cabbage.

4. Dish up the colcannon into a serving bowl. Make a small well in the top of the mashed potatoes and fill it with melted Earth Balance. To eat, dip each bite of colcannon into the melted Earth Balance, and enjoy!

Taco Salad with Eyeballs

For a more modern take on Halloween dinner, whip up a super easy, and delightfully twisted, version of a taco salad.

Ingredients
15-20 tortilla chips
½ c. Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers Recipe Crumbles
½ t. taco seasoning
chopped avocado, shredded lettuce, and diced onion
2 tomato slices
vegan sour cream (Try Tofutti Better Than Sour Cream)
sliced black olives

1. Crunch up the tortilla chips slightly and place on a plate.

2. Mix the Morningstar Farms Meal Starters Grillers Recipe Crumbles and the taco seasoning in a bowl and microwave until heated. Add to the tortilla chips.

3. Add the avocado, lettuce, and onion on top of the crumbles.

4. Place the two tomato slices side-by-side on top of the taco salad.

5. Put a dollop of vegan sour cream in the middle of each tomato slice, making sure the sour cream dollop is nicely rounded, like the white of an eyeball.

6. Lastly, set one slice of black olive into each dollop of vegan sour cream to finish off the taco salad with eyeballs. Dig in!

Mummy Fingers

Crowds of little ghouls and goblins, hungry from hours of trick-or-treating, will goggle up these mummy fingers before you can say, "BOO!"

Ingredients
1 pack of vegan hotdogs (Try Tofu Pups by Lightlife)
1 roll of vegan crescent rolls (Make sure to check the label for animal ingredients)
ketchup (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375° F.

2. Unroll the crescent rolls, being careful not to break apart the pre-cut dough pieces. Press the dough pieces together at their seams so you have one rectangular slab of crescent dough. Using a pizza cutter (or a knife), cut the crescent dough into long strips. The number of strips you cut should coincide with the number of hotdogs that came in the package.

3. Starting at one end of a hotdog, begin wrapping the strip of dough around the hotdog, overlapping the dough so it looks like mummy wrap. Make sure, however, to leave about one inch of hotdog exposed at the top to create the illusion of an exposed fingertip.

4. Repeat step three with the other hotdogs.

5. Place the mummy fingers on a cookie sheet and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the dough is golden brown.

6. Remove from the oven and let cool for five minutes. Serve with a bowl of "blood" (ketchup).

Happy Halloween!

Sources:
www.foodtimeline.org/halloween.html