{"id":23833,"date":"2024-10-30T10:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T14:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=23833"},"modified":"2024-10-18T11:52:03","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T15:52:03","slug":"celebrate-halloween-tomorrow-with-a-spooky-vegan-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2024\/10\/30\/celebrate-halloween-tomorrow-with-a-spooky-vegan-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate Halloween Tomorrow with a Spooky Vegan Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n

Imagine a pair of spooky eyes staring up at you from a plate of pale orange strands (or, could it be hair?), topped with red sauce. Then picture \u201cbones\u201d to dip into more red sauce (blood?) and you have the makings of a Halloween dinner.<\/p>\n

Vegan Eye Balls<\/strong> (Adapted from Vive le Vegan! <\/em>By Dreena Burton)<\/p>\n

(makes 18 balls)<\/p>\n

7 ounces firm or extra-firm tofu, torn or cut into pieces<\/p>\n

1 Tablespoon cider vinegar<\/p>\n

1 Tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce<\/p>\n

1\u00bd Tablespoons catsup<\/p>\n

1 teaspoon minced garlic (or to taste)<\/p>\n

1 teaspoon oregano<\/p>\n

1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast flakes<\/p>\n

1 Tablespoon olive oil plus additional oil for baking sheet<\/p>\n

Pepper to taste<\/p>\n

1\u00bd cups breadcrumbs<\/p>\n

\u00bd cup quick-cooking oats (uncooked)<\/p>\n

18 pitted olives (pimiento stuffed olives are a nice touch, but black or green olives would also work)<\/p>\n

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and drizzle on a little olive oil. In a food processor, pur\u00e9e tofu until smooth. Add remaining ingredients except breadcrumbs, oats and olives and process until smooth. Transfer mixture to a bowl and stir in breadcrumbs and oats. Let sit for 5 minutes to firm up. The mixture should hold together \u2013 add more breadcrumbs if necessary.\u00a0 Form mixture into balls about the size of a golf ball, carefully pressing an olive into each ball, and place on the baking sheet, olive facing up. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.<\/p>\n

Spaghetti Squash<\/p>\n

You can start baking this while you prepare the \u201ceye balls.\u201d Cut a spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and place cut-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes, until squash is soft. Remove from oven and let cool enough to handle. Remove seeds. Use a fork to comb through the squash, separating the strands. Place the strands in a serving bowl.<\/p>\n

Top the spaghetti squash (or you can use regular spaghetti) with pasta sauce (homemade or your favorite vegan brand) and then add a couple of \u201ceye balls.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Breadstick \u201cBones\u201d<\/strong> (Adapted from The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook<\/em>, edited by Louise Hagler)<\/p>\n

(makes 15 small breadsticks)<\/p>\n

1 teaspoon vegan sugar<\/p>\n

1 Tablespoon baking yeast<\/p>\n

6 Tablespoons warm water<\/p>\n

1 Tablespoon olive oil<\/p>\n

1 cup all-purpose flour<\/p>\n

\u00bd cup wheat flour<\/p>\n

\u00bd teaspoon salt<\/p>\n

2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes<\/p>\n

In a medium bowl, combine sugar and baking yeast and add warm water. Stir and let proof for 5 minutes. Add olive oil, all-purpose flour, wheat flour, salt, and nutritional yeast and stir, adding water or flour to make a smooth dough. Knead dough for 5 minutes. Form dough into relatively thin bones shapes (or just make thin breadsticks), place on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet, and let rise for an hour. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake for 9 minutes or until done. Serve with a small bowl of pasta sauce for dipping.<\/p>\n

Happy Halloween!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD Imagine a pair of spooky eyes staring up at you from a plate of pale orange strands (or, could it be hair?), topped with red sauce. Then picture \u201cbones\u201d to dip into more red sauce (blood?) and you have the makings of a Halloween dinner. Vegan Eye Balls (Adapted from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23835,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23833\/revisions\/23835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}