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Get ready for some fun this Halloween with a jack-o-lantern vegetable tray! It’s a fantastic way to sneak in some healthy snacks alongside all those sweet treats. Although you only need a couple of ingredients to create it, this kid-friendly Halloween veggie platter is well worth making! Black olives and baby carrots pair up on this pumpkin veggie tray, making it a much healthier alternative to all the Halloween candy. The olives are arranged to look like eyes and a mouth and the baby carrots form the rest of the skull of the jack-o-lantern. It’s a quick and easy Halloween appetizer that will thrill Halloween party guests of all ages.
You can throw this easy jack-o-lantern veggie platter together in a few minutes with minimal supplies. It’s Halloween themed, fun to make and definitely yummy to eat.
More fun ideas include apple cider punch, mummy stromboli, leftover candy brownies, and haunted Halloween pretzel snacks!
Why You’ll Love It
So easy to create: With just two ingredients and no baking or cooking required, this Jack-O-Lantern veggie tray just couldn’t be simpler.
A healthy alternative: Although it’s just as delicious as Halloween candy (maybe more so!) this carrot and olive platter is more nutritious.
A crowd-pleaser: Everyone will want to munch on this tasty appetizer, even the kids.
Halloween Pumpkin Veggie Tray Ingredients
A complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Baby carrots: Using peeled baby carrots means this jack-o-lantern veggie tray super-speedy to make.
Black olives: Use pitted medium-sized black olives.
How to Make a Veggie Tray for Halloween
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card.
Make the eyes: Put a round cookie cutter on the platter and fill with olives to make an eye. Arrange the baby carrots around the olives. Remove the cookie cutter and repeat to make the other eye.
Finish the platter: Add a line of baby carrots under the eyes and another line along the bottom. Repeat so each line has 2 layers. Fill the empty space at the bottom with black olives to make the mouth.
Substitutions and Variations
Different olives: You can use green olives if they’re the only kind you like.
Regular carrots: Peel, trim and chop regular carrots if you can’t get baby ones. The baby ones are cuter though, and you don’t have to peel or chop them.
No carrots: Swap the baby carrots for mini hot dog sausages.
More Halloween veggie tray ideas: Swap the carrots for cauliflower florets and sliced mushrooms and use a cherry tomato for each of the eyes and maybe sliced red bell peppers, broccoli florets or sugar snap peas for the mouth. You can get as creative as you like when making this Halloween party Veggie skeleton!
Serving Suggestions
More Appetizers: Panna cotta eyeballs are easy, or you could make one of these Halloween appetizers.
Main course: This black-crust spider pizza is an awesome dish for Halloween.
Side dish: How about these skull potatoes?
Sweet treats: Along with Halloween candy, you might like to make a Halloween rum cocktail (for the grownups!) and Snickers mummy treats for the little ones.
How to Store a Pumpkin Vegetable Tray
Store: Keep leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator and eat within 2 days.
Freeze: This isn’t suitable for freezing.
Top Tips
Platter and cookie cutter: A 10-inch round black serving platter (this one is great or these ones) is perfect for this recipe, and you’ll need a triangle cookie cutter (I used the candy corn one in this set), too.
Carrots dried out? Put them in a bowl of water for 5 minutes before making the skeleton veggie tray.
Time to serve: Tongs are the easiest way for people to serve themselves and you can offer a bowl of ranch for dipping too.
Have fun and get creative: Want to swap the carrots and olives for cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks, or broccoli florets? Go ahead and see what you can come up with. It’s fun and easy to transform veggies into a cute Halloween appetizer!
Halloween Themed Veggie Tray FAQs
Yes, you can wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it refrigerated. Make sure the plastic is wrapped tightly, otherwise the vegetables will start to dry out. This Halloween veggie tray is best served shortly after assembly though, so make it just before serving if possible.
Yes you can. Position the carrots into place and then add the olives in the spaces.
You can. Just use a different size platter and make sure you have the right amount of carrots and olives. If you have more platter space than veggies, simply add an outer circle of any other vegetable (radish slices, cucumber slices, broccoli florets – anything you like!)
Halloween Vegetable Platter
Halloween Veggie Platter
Ingredients
- 2 Pounds baby carrots
- 12 Ounces black olives, pitted, drained
Instructions
- Put the cookie cutter in the top left part of the plate, about 1 inch from the top and fill the cookie cutter with black olives to make the left eye.
- Next, assemble the carrots around the cookie cutter and try to have them all facing the same direction. Don't start the right eye just yet, you're making a dam around the cutter first.
- Press on the olives gently, and carefully slide out the cookie cutter to remove.
- Repeat these steps to make the other eye on the top right side.
- Arrange a line of carrots lengthwise under the eyes and then run a line of carrots along the bottom part of the platter until the left and right sides meet the baby carrots at the top. Each line of carrots should be 2 layers.
- Now you can fill the empty space at the bottom of the plate with olives, and arrange them as needed to fill in any holes.
Notes
Carrots dried out? Put them in a bowl of water for 5 minutes before making the skeleton veggie tray.
Time to serve: Tongs are the easiest way for people to serve themselves and you can offer a bowl of ranch for dipping too.
Have fun and get creative: Want to swap the carrots and olives for cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks, or broccoli florets? Go ahead and see what you can come up with. It’s fun and easy to transform veggies into a cute Halloween appetizer!
Nutrition
This cute Halloween veggie tray is super-cute. It’s quick and easy to prepare and offers a healthy contrast to the sweet treats and Halloween candy always found at Halloween parties. A Halloween pumpkin veggie platter is a great idea if you’re having guests over. It’s simply finger food which everyone can enjoy, served with your preferred veggie dip. You can even make several veggie trays and use different vegetables on each one.
Other Recipes to Try
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
The jack-o-lantern veggie tray is a healthy Halloween must-have! Loved how creative and easy it was.
I love this idea! Halloween doesn’t have to be all about the candies and sweets.