Adorable jack o’ lantern salads are perfect for your next Halloween dinner party. Or serve them to ghosts and goblins before a night of trick or treating. They are topped with a tangy peanut dressing. Vegan & gluten-free.
I have a confession to make.
You know how every year the Christmas decorations show up in stores earlier and earlier? And invariably there’s a woman pushing her cart past those aisles and saying grumpily, “Christmas decorations? It’s not even Halloween yet!!”
Well, I’m the person who is skipping through those aisles, pressing all of the buttons on the musical snow globes and dancing snowmen.
As that lady with the cart bemoans the extending season, I’m cooing over ornaments, perusing the stocking stuffers, and making my case to my husband, David, about how this should be the year he puts together an advent calendar for me.
Truth be told, for many years I made a point to go to stores on October 31st, because I knew that’s when the Halloween items would get relegated to sale shelves and all of the Christmas stuff would come out in earnest.
It was like a starting gun on the holidays.
The way I feel about Christmas is the way David feels about Halloween.
He loves the smell of rubber masks, admiring all of the costumes and jealously admitting that kids today have it so much better where costumes are concerned.
(“You want to be Strawberry Shortcake? Here’s a hard plastic mask and a plastic apron with her picture on it.”)
For years when we lived in an apartment he’d fantasize about living in a house, where he could decorate for Halloween right with goblins hanging in the trees and carved pumpkins on the stoop.
So while we’ve been in a house a couple of years now, this year we’ve done it all.
We’ve carved the pumpkins. Ghost lights are lining the walkway. There’s a light-up bat in the window. There’s a ghostly figure hanging in our tree.
David is thrilled to the gills. All that’s left is to check costumes off the list, and we’ve done it.
Jack o’ lantern salad with tangy peanut dressing
I got extra holiday bonus points by carving not only a pumpkin, but also this orange.
Just cut off the top, and hollow out the middle (saving the inner portions to use in the salad). Then use a small knife to cut a silly, scary, or angry face.
After making a salad of green leaf lettuce, carrots, celery, orange, and peanuts, I added a tangy peanut dressing.
I served these jack o’lantern salads at our annual pumpkin carving party. They’d also be a terrific starter alongside vegan fried rice.
If you decide to make them for your Halloween party, I recommend carving the orange lanterns ahead of time and keeping them in the refrigerator. Then add the salad into each one just before serving.
You can carve a variety of faces, and then guests can pick the one that suits them best.
These jack o’lantern salads are a mixture of nutty and sweet. And hey, that’s Halloween in a nutshell.
Jack o’ lantern salad with tangy peanut dressing
Ingredients
For the jack o' lantern salad
- 4 oranges medium-sized
- 2 cups green leaf lettuce chopped
- 1 stalk celery chopped small
- 1 carrot grated
- ½ red bell pepper chopped small
- ¼ cup peanuts
For the tangy peanut dressing
- 3 Tablespoons natural peanut butter unsalted
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons brown rice vinegar
- ½ teaspoon sriracha or hot sauce
- 2 teaspoons low-sodium tamari
- 3 Tablespoons water
- Salt to taste
Instructions
To make the jack o' lantern salad
- Cut the tops off of four oranges about a quarter of the way from the top. Use a knife to carefully cut around the edges of the inside of the orange. Remove as much of the orange flesh as possible and dice it, removing any seeds you find. To clean out the oranges the rest of the way, use a handheld juicer to juice the oranges and tops. You can drink the orange juice or use it for another recipe. After the oranges are cleaned out, use a small knife to cut jack o' lantern-style faces onto them.
- Fill each orange with some green leaf lettuce, celery, carrot, and bell pepper. Top with a pinch of peanuts and diced orange. (You will likely have more orange left over than you need.) Serve with Asian-style peanut dressing that guests can pour on their salads.
To make the tangy peanut dressing
- Whisk peanut butter, toasted sesame oil, brown rice vinegar, hot sauce, tamari, and three tablespoons of water in a small bowl until smooth.
- If the dressing is too thick, add additional water (up to one tablespoon) until the dressing has reached your desired smoothness and intensity of flavor. If the dressing is too thin, add an additional teaspoon of peanut butter. Keep in mind that the dressing will thicken in the refrigerator, and don't add additional water until you're about to serve, if necessary. Taste the dressing and add salt, if needed.
Caitlin
i’m a secret christmas lover, too. i usually am excited for halloween because then christmas season starts!!
dayv is similar to david. i have a feeling that next year, after we’ve been settled into our house, dayv will go crazy with the halloween decorations!
i love that you carved an orange rather than using a bell pepper(the usual). the peanut dressing sounds delicious. i’m pretty sure i could just drink it straight 😉
Cadry
Hello, fellow Christmas lover! 🙂 I think Halloween is okay, but Christmas is definitely what gets me going. In fact, I kind of wish it was a little further into winter, because it makes the snow and cold a little easier to swallow. It feels like it’s for the greater good, you know? Instead, after Christmas ends, the pretty lights go away, and it’s still cold!
Dayv will really enjoy decorating your new house! It will be fun to see what magic he makes happen! 🙂
Richa
i love the crunchy asian salad and that orange is super happy:) We go around some of the seattle neighborhoods just to see all the decorations. some of the areas are known for their enthusiastic displays. there was an awesome techno display on thriller last year. hope the guy comes up with something super fun this year too!
Cadry
A techno Thriller display sounds very cool! That would be really fun to drive around and see all of the displays. People here have some ghosts & pumpkins out, but there were definitely much bigger displays when I lived in Los Angeles. Once a blanket of snow covers everything, though, the Christmas displays are definitely more charming here than in California, where it seemed strange to see lit up snowmen & reindeer when everyone was walking by in tank tops!
KellyC
Haha! I totally commented that Hallween hadn’t even happened yet when I spotted all the Christmas stuff out at the bookstore today. I’m so not a Scrooge but I just want each holiday to get its fifteen minutes you know! Haha! Your pumpkins are adorable and that salad looks super tasty as usual! When are you going to put all these tasty recipes in a book?
Cadry
Totally understandable that you feel each holiday should get its due time! I’m definitely not putting up the Christmas tree just yet. That won’t go up until the end of November, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a little ornament eye candy at the store!
I don’t have any book plans in the works currently, but I like the way you think! 🙂
Rose
I’m definitely that grumpy woman moaning about the Christmas decorations! 😛
The salad is beautiful and sounds delicious. I love pairing of those fruits and veggies with the Asian flavor profile.
Cadry
Hello, Grumpy Woman! It’s nice that we finally get introduced at last. Sorry about all of the Christmas songs I’ve been humming! 🙂
Mandee
Bert & Ernie pumpkins!! Halloween is really not a big thing here but I wish that it was. We used to trick or treat as kids but didn’t get a good response from the people living in our suburb!
Cadry
I can imagine people being a bit surprised by a stranger’s request at the door for candy if they weren’t prepared for it! 😀
chow vegan
It doesn’t bother me when retailers put out the holiday stuff but I do like to push the buttons on all of the musical / moveable things too. 🙂 The carved orange is such a great idea and so cute!
Cadry
Those buttons are irresistible! 🙂
Maggie Muggins
Peanut dressing? Sold! That’s the cutest salad ever! I commend your patience for carving an orange, ha ha.
I’m totally the grumpy lady in the store. I find that if it all starts up too early, by the time it gets here I’m already done. Although, I do find that it motivates me to buy gifts earlier, which is something I should do every year so that there’s no last minute stressing 🙂
Cadry
Thanks, Maggie! Actually, the pumpkin was a cake walk! The real patience was required for carving that Ernie! It was my first time using a pattern, and I have come to the decision that freehand is more my style.
There seems to be a team of grumpy ladies who visit my blog. You’re in good company! 🙂
VeganLisa
I love this! So absolutely adorable.
Cadry
Thanks, Lisa! And welcome back from your trip!
luminousvegans
I need more salad in my life. This looks like a fun way to have it! It’s hard for me to feel salad-y in the fall but the cute jack-o-lantern puts me in the salad mood 🙂
Cadry
I know what you mean about being drawn to warmer foods when the temperatures drop. Maybe try adding some roasted squash in the salad to heat things up a little!
Stephanie
Love this!! And I love all the holidays, you name it, I’m excited about it!
Cadry
Yay! A woman after my own heart!
Somer
So funny, my husband is Australian and doesn’t get my fascination with Halloween (it’s totally NOT a big deal there, kids don’t even go trick or treating). I’m a little bit obsessed but have learned to tone it down a bit. Cadry, I love this cute salad, and the dressing, I could DRINK it! Yum!
Cadry
That’s awesome that you’re such a Halloween lover! Why tone it down? I say embrace it whole-heartedly! You’re the second person to say that you could drink the dressing. Maybe I should have labeled it as a smoothie! 😉
Somer
As a child my family used to bbq hot dogs on the front porch to give to all the neighbor kids while they were trick or treating. Our next door neighbor dressed up as a witch and gave out homemade root beer out of a “steaming” cauldron filled with dry ice. It was awesome. I’ve wanted to do something similar, but I don’t think the kids would dig veggie dogs like we do 😉
Cadry
That is SUCH a fun idea! I bet your house was very popular! Do you think kids would even notice the difference or care? It seems like as long as they’re the right shape and come off the grill, they wouldn’t even know the difference. The frankfurters from Field Roast are my personal favorite, but that would make for a mighty pricey Halloween!
Kristy
What a cute dish! Your anthropomorphic dishes always put such a big smile on my face- they remind me of the way my grandpa would make pancakes with faces on them for me when I was a kid. So cool.
I used to be a huge Christmas person until about ten years ago (has it been ten years!!!) my friends and I began celebrating Festivus every year. Now, I look forward to Festivus more than any other holiday. Christmas is a very, very close second, though. 🙂
Cadry
Yes, anthropomorphizing food definitely ups its fun factor! I like it that your grandpa would make faces on your pancakes for you. 🙂
How did you and your friends happen to start celebrating Festivus? That’s a holiday I don’t know much about. What do you do to celebrate?
ameyfm
what a great post. I like Halloween okay, but I am way more jazzed about Christmas. One year I actually made homemade advent calendars as xmas cards and had to send them all out before the end of November! It was wonderful, and also, never to be repeated. Happy Holiday season to both of you!
Cadry
Homemade advent calendars!! What a neat idea! Did you make little paper flaps with your cartoons behind them? I imagine that took a lot of cutting, pasting, and folding!
Melissa
Ok these jack o’ lanterns may seriously be the cutest things I have ever seen!!
Cadry
Yay! Thanks, Melissa!