Turn raw veggies—crudités to foodies—into a creative Halloween platter designed in the shape of Frankenstein, a jack o’lantern, owl, skeleton, scary cat, spider or witch. Believe us, these will enchant the adults as well as the kids.

If you don’t want to make a shape, ForkAndBeans.com created a Creepy Crudités platter by Halloween-ing the vegetables themselves: carrot witch’s fingers, cauliflower brains, cucumber eyeballs, tortilla chip tombstones.

These ideas and more come from a simple Pinterest search.
 
RECIPE: MUMMY DIP FOR CRUDITÉS

This cheese dip mummy was created by Phyllis Hoffman at Celebrate magazine, as posted on Blog.HWTM.com.

It’s not kid stuff: with goat cheese, capers and two different types of olives, it’s sophisticated fare.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. BEAT 1 package cream cheese and the goat cheese in a medium bowl with an electric mixer. Beat at medium speed until smooth.

2. ADD the olives, capers, garlic and pepper, beating until combined. Refrigerate the mixture for a least 1 hour; then place the firmed dip on a serving plate and form it into a mummy shape.

3. BEAT the remaining cream cheese at medium speed until smooth. Place the cream cheese in a pastry bag fitted with a flat leaf tip. Pipe the mummy “bandages” onto the mummy figure. Refrigerate until ready to serve with the vegetables and the optional crackers.
 
FOR THE DIP: ORANGE OR BLOOD-RED HUMMUS

What to serve with the creepy crudités? Orange or red dip, of course!

Carrot-ginger hummus and sundried tomato hummus also provide a harvest shade of orange; beet hummus makes “blood dip.”

If you’re not a hummus fan, there are options like this carrot and white bean dip.
 
RECIPE #2: “BLOODY BEET” DIP
This recipe is not hummus: Although it does use tahini, there are no chickpeas.

Alternatively, you can add the pureed beets to hummus. With either technique, if it isn’t “bloody” enough for you, add a drop of red food color.

Because Halloween is a busy time, we used canned beets. We’ll roast our own for Thanksgiving.
 
Ingredients For 1 Cup

[1] Invite Frankenstein to the party (photo and recipe from TheProduceMom.com). [2] Skeletal and vegetal: There are numerous scarecrow designs on Pinterest (photo courtesy Woman’s Day). [3] The scarecrow face is made from a tortilla. You can turn this design into individual cheese-and-vegetable or salad plates (photo courtesy ItsWrittenOnTheWall.com). [4] Think of this mummy as a cheese ball with a flatter shape (photo courtesy Celebrate magazine. If you don’t have an appropriate serving plate, get a black plastic platter from a party store.

1. DRAIN the beets. You can reserve the beet juice for beverages, red mashed potatoes, and other uses.

2. BLEND all ingredients in a food processor until smooth (or chunky, as you prefer). If the dip isn’t thin enough, you can add some water, one tablespoon at a time as needed (we’ve also used orange juice).

3. TASTE and adjust seasonings. The canned beets juice is typically salted, so you may not need more salt.