Finally I’ve decided on my Halloween menu: It’s really healthy. And good. And great for your skin. And also spooky and delicious!

BEAUTY FOOD HALLOWEEN MENU
Cold starter: The Swamp Thing Salad
Warm starter: Drunk Hot Pumpkin Purée
Main course: White or Plum Sauce Chanterelles Pizza
Dessert: Plum Velvet Financiers on Vanilla Cream with Melting Berry Punch

Halloween for me

I don’t host a Halloween party, but I like to have a themed dinner with my partner or our friends.

Halloween for me is Samhain, the ancient pagan festival, the beginning of the dark season, the transient period, and I appreciate that moment of feeling close with nature and it’s spirits. I love me a peaceful Halloween… with a lot of not-too-gory horror movies. The good ol’ stuff, you know. Or maybe I’ll finally watch the latest True Blood seasons… The pile they’re in looks so dusty. Is it a SPIDER!?

The Swamp Thing Salad

It’s simple seaweed: Wakame.
Pure, delicious and so powerful for our health. It contains fucoxanthin that helps burn fat tissue; omega-3 fatty acids that are great for our health (and supple, soft skin); calcium and iodine.
But it does look weird, just perfect for Halloween:  Wakame taste the best with a sauce that’s salty and sweet and a little sour. To obtain that, whisk together Japanese soy sauce (I use one that’s gluten-free) and white miso for a sweet-salty-and-sour topping. Sprinkle with sesame seeds – another little beauty wonder. And you’re set! Mmmmh. Our Halloween menu starts in Japan 😀

Drunk Hot Pumpkin Purée

Apart from the salad, the menu colours are fiery. And so is the taste!
For my delicious and healthy (betacarotenes, vitamins, minerals…) Drunk Hot Pumpkin Purée I use organic spice blends by Herbaria; Graf Lax (organic sugar, hickory smoke salt, black pepper, lemon zest, cayenne pepper, juniper…) and Cajun Spice (hickory smoke salt – ha, double strike – pepper, garlic, chilis, oregano, thyme…).The recipe itself is really simple: for two people you’ll need one middle sized Hokkaido, one sweet potato, one red onion and one small clove of garlic you cut in half. Preheated oven, 210°C, 30 minutes – time to rock your blender (and one cup of veggie broth + 1 glass of white wine). Leave a few bits of sweet potato and pumpkin for decorating, and use the residual heat to roast pumpkin seeds (store bought ones, Hokkaido is not a safe bet for roasted seeds; they can be a bit wood-like, and you don’t want that type of horror menu).  Well and then serve it topped with pumpkin seeds, a few chewy chunky sweet and spicy bits of pumpkin and sweet potato… Mmmh. And drizzle with delicious pumpkin seed oil. (Which is then the only oil added, how cool’s that?)

P.S. You could make it a Pumpkin Soup by adding more veggie broth 🙂

White (or Plum Sauce) Chanterelles Pizza

It’s still the season for chanterelles. Also: the colour screams Halloween.
Chanterelles, rich in vitamin C and D, and potassium, are real beauty food. Individual pizzas would be better of course 🙂 These photos are, uhm, archival 🙂
The pizza dough is pretty standard.
For white spread, I use a homemade sour cream after the Forks over Knives Cookbook recipe; for the plum spread, I make plum “ketchup” sweetened with xylitol and spiced with a hint of chili.The topping with chanterelles, red onion and bright green scallions has all those colours of an autumnal park (and amazing anti-inflammatory benefits).

Plum Velvet Financiers on Vanilla Cream with Melting Berry Punch

Look. At. Them! These spooky blood-red little critters are actually frozen spicy berry punch. (The spice mix is close to that of mulled wine.) The sweet and sour mix of apple juice, agave sirup and berry juices (elderberry, blueberry…) melts in clear drinks to a bloodcurling effect:But I made them to join these: These are vegan mini financiers. With trimmed sides, admittedly, I cut off the muffin-like tops for a more stylish look. And also to have an excuse to feed on this delicious dough all while making the dessert!!To bake these, you’ll need a (platinum) silicone mould tray that serves 16 mini financiers. Or mini gugl cakes. Or mini madeleines – mini cupcakes should do the trick as well, just make sure the moulds are not too deep.
Preheat the oven (180°C).
Using a hand mixer, blend either 4 tablespoons puréed plums or 2 preserved plums and about 3 tablespoons of the sirupy liquid, 30 g coconut sugar (the dried nectar that looks like brown sugar and has that divine caramel taste), one teaspoon of xylitol with vanilla and 4 tablespoons coconut oil.
Add a pinch of salt, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 80 g gluten-free flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder. Blend well. The dough is going to be really thick, so the best way to get it into the moulds is a piping bag.
Bake for about 13-15 minutes, it really depends on the individual oven.Once the mini financiers are ready, let them cool and maybe trim them like I did. They’re also great with a cinnamon or cinnamon/chocolate frosting, but I will serve them with sweet vanilla pudding in which I put the funny fruit punch buddies. They melt rather fast, which creates a somewhat eerie, yet totally delicious look.This dessert is of course the least healthiest thing on the menu, but the serving per person is really small. Also: gosh, it’s a dessert! 😀 Still, red berry juice, plums, cinnamon, coconut oil and coconut sugar have their health benefits too.
I’m considering to use diary- and gluten-free vanilla ice instead of vanilla pudding, but I don’t know yet.

Hope it was helpful and… an appropriate bit spooky, dear Adventurers 😉
What are your plans for Halloween?