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Are you looking for fun Halloween side dish or appetizer ideas? Consider these Halloween skull potatoes, which will bring the scare factor into your festive celebrations! These shrunken head spooky potatoes pair with any kind of meal. The spices and seasonings ensure they’ll be delicious.
Shrunken head Halloween skull potatoes are a carved potato Halloween side dish or appetizer which is fun to make. You can let your creative side run wild by making scary skulls, funny skulls, jack-o-lanterns or anything else you like.
Love making Halloween treats? Also try chocolate frogs, Halloween panna cotta eyeballs or perhaps mummy Halloween hot dogs.
Ingredients for Halloween Skull Potatoes
The main ingredient for making spooky potatoes is the potatoes themselves, of course. And you’ll need to make sure you get the right type. Look for ‘creamer potatoes’.
Not only are Halloween skull potatoes fun but they’re also really tasty. For the most flavourful result, you’ll need lemon juice, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, regular or smoked paprika, and perhaps some parsley to garnish. Water and olive oil are the only other ingredients.
Feel free to change up any of the seasonings. You can use either regular or smoked paprika (or swap it for cayenne for a spicier result).
Lime juice or even orange rather than the lemon works too, or you could omit either the onion or garlic powder (or both) to suit your palate. You can also adjust the amount of salt according to your preference.
How to Make Halloween Skull Potatoes
Combine the lemon juice with water. This is to stop the potatoes oxidising and going brown. Carve the potatoes into skulls using a sharp carving knife. It goes without saying be VERY careful! You won’t want to cut yourself while making this Halloween side dish or appetizer.
As each one is done, put them in the lemon water mixture to stop them oxidising and going brown. Mix the oil, seasonings and some lemon juice in a bowl then toss the drained, carved potato skulls in there.
Arrange the spooky potatoes on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake in a preheated oven until golden. This should take about half an hour, depending on the size of your potatoes and your oven. Serve the carved potato skulls hot.
How to Serve Halloween Skull Potatoes
This fun shrunken head dish can be topped with shredded cheese, minced fresh herbs, green onions, or anything else you like.
Of course you won’t want to cover up the details of your carving with piles of toppings, but you can sit a few of the potatoes on top facing up.
Another idea, if you’re short on time, is to only carve some of the potatoes. That way, you can cover the non-carved ones with cheese, bacon bits, green onions, or whatever, then arranged the carved spooky potatoes on top! This is something you can do even if you’re not short of time and will be just as impressive.
Something else you can do is put each one on a wooden skewer as finger food.
Shrunken Head Potatoes FAQs
Look for small red creamer potatoes or mini Yukon golds. These should be about an inch in diameter. The flesh holds together well (unlike with mashing potatoes) so your shrunken head design won’t disintegrate! Creamer potatoes are typically served in cream sauces (hence the name) with onions and green beans or peas. They’re also perfect for carved potato recipes like these spooky potatoes.
If you can’t get those, any waxy potato suitable for boiling and about an inch in size should work here. Another idea is to cut larger ones down, but then you’re making even more prep work for yourself!
It’s honestly up to you. The simplest way would be to cut out a pair of eyes, nose and mouth. They would be recognizable as faces/skulls. If you want a fancier result, you can cut more, making individual teeth and so on. Not convinced about your artistic skills?
You could ask (older) kids to have a go or else just keep things simple or just cut a few of the potatoes into skulls instead of all of them. But maybe you don’t really know your inner artist until you try making this exciting Halloween side dish or appetizer!
Easy Fun Halloween Potatoes Recipe
Spooky Halloween Skull Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Pounds potatoes, red mini creamer or similar mini potato
- 4 Cups water
- 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 1 Teaspoon salt
- 1 Teaspoon onion powder
- 1 Teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 Teaspoon paprika, smoked or regular
- ½ Teaspoon black pepper
- parsley flakes, fresh or dried, optional for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 385 degrees F.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Wash potatoes, then set aside.
- In a large bowl pour 4 cups cold water and mix in 2 Tablespoons of the lemon juice.
- Using a paring knife, carefully carve skull faces into each mini potato. Place the carved potato into the bowl of lemon water.
- In another bowl, mix together the oil, 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, and the seasoning.
- Drain the potatoes then toss them in the seasoning oil.
- Place the potatoes on a baking sheet, face side up. Bake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes or until golden and tender.
- Garnish with your favorite toppings, and additional salt as preferred.
Notes
The lemon water keeps the potatoes from browning before you bake them. Garnish with your favorite toppings such as cheddar, sour cream, parsley, chives, green onions, bacon bits, ketchup, BBQ, buffalo…etc. Be VERY careful when carving so you don’t get cut! Use any tools you want, I found a small paring knife to work the best. Deeper features result in better faces. Make any kind of faces you like, they can be jack-o-lanterns or skulls!
Nutrition
Halloween skull potatoes absolutely deserve pride of place on your Halloween table. They’re fun to make and the seasonings infuse them with so much wonderful flavour. Everyone will be so impressed when you bring out these!
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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.
Honestly I was going to skip this one because they looked really fiddly to make and I’m not the best at using a sharp knife but I got my daughter in law to help out and she told me they were super easy to carve and guess what, they looked just like in the photos, so everyone loved them a lot
These were so cute and clever! I did a test run and am now going to make them for Halloween!!!
Glad I am not the only one that gets excited about all the fun Halloween foods!
I have to try these for my party!