Whether you’ve switched to a vegan lifestyle for reasons of conscience or health, you now want to throw a spooktacular Halloween party. But you don’t want to scare your guests out the door with lackluster snacks.

How can you throw a vegan Halloween party even the carnivores in your tribe will enjoy? Easily! All you need is a touch of creativity, planning and fun. Here’s what to do.

How to Plan Your Vegan Halloween Party

The first step in party planning is selecting your venue and date. You’re most likely hosting your soiree at your home, but remain open to alternative ideas. For example, you could gather outdoors as the sun sets by renting a pavilion at a local playground if weather permits and then hit up a fun Halloween scream park later in the evening.

Halloween events typically occur after dark. But if your budget is tight, consider a daytime event. Guests tend to imbibe less at daytime events, so you’ll save money at your local wine shop. If you live in a rural area and enjoy friendships with area farmers, you may even convince one of them to let you use a cornfield for a haunted maze!

Suggested Recipes for Meals and Snacks

The trickiest part of planning your vegan Halloween party is designing your menu. You want to delight everyone’s taste buds without engaging in animal cruelty. Here are some suggested recipes so terrifyingly good that your guests will scream for more:

• Graveyard taco cups. Whether you serve these as an appetizer or as finger food, these treats satisfy, nourish and taste frighteningly good. You can use store-bought guacamole to ease your workload. The beans and healthy fats will keep your guests well-nourished for any grave sites or haunted houses you may wish to explore.
• Raw zucchini noodles and veggies with marinara “blood.” If you haven’t invested in a vegetable spiral-maker yet, what are you waiting for? You can whip up this spooky dish that provides more fiber than traditional pasta. The veggies — particularly the leafy greens — provide many nutritional benefits, such as added protein and even a natural teeth cleaning! Break out the vegan parmesan and let your guests sprinkle “bone dust” on their meal.
• Stuffed mushroom eyeballs. What goes better with pasta than stuffed mushrooms? These get you in the Halloween spirit because they look like little eyeballs — the meat-free variety, of course. Your guests won’t even know they’re eating tofu!
• Frankenstein avocado toast. Who says you have to wait until the morning-after party to get your avocado toast groove on? Avocado is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which are the good fats your body needs to lower cholesterol and maintain brain function. Plus, it pairs wonderfully with pasta and the red and green together create some creepy plating — just the look you want!

Remember the Eerie Elixers, Too

What’s a party without some quality adult beverages? While you can stick with classic red wines, some people suffer from allergies to tannins. Plus, it’s harder to mingle with guests when you’re constantly playing sommelier.

Why not put together a horrifying punch bowl or two instead? Your guests can refill their own beverages and you get to spend your time chatting, rather than filling cups like a tavern wench. Here are two spine-chilling sauces to concoct:

Banana “Ghost” Punch can help your guests ward off any morning-after queasiness. Bananas rank as one of the top foods for busting stomach acid, which is a problem when you overindulge. The mint sprigs in the beverage further help to calm upset tummies.

What’s autumn without pumpkin pie everything? Not much, right? Whip up a batch of pumpkin pie punch to make your guests forget about hitting the Starbucks drive-thru on their way home. Just remind them to go easy on the hard stuff to prevent a DUI.

Fun Ideas Beyond the Kitchen

Your vegan Halloween bash doesn’t have to end with the dessert course. Why not plan some spooky party games to keep the fun going?

Do you know of a haunted location that’s open to the public? Why not grab your phones, head out with your friends and record your own version of “Ghost Adventures?” You can download apps such as Ghost Radar for free on iPhone and enjoy picking up communications from the other side.

Maybe you have witches in your coven of friends. Samhain itself is considered sacred, but you can ask them about their spiritual path. Many are happy to fill you in when you inquire about their faith. You’ll learn that many pagan religions have little to do with casting spells and much more with celebrating our connection with the earth.

Throwing a Spooktacular Vegan Halloween Bash

You can throw a frighteningly fantastic Halloween bash without abandoning your commitment to a cruelty-free lifestyle. Simply follow the tips above to design a vegan Halloween party your friends will remember!