I have, historically, been a bit of a Halloween hater. Buying an ill-fitting, ready-made costume to wear once always struck me as wasteful, but D.I.Y.-ing something I could be proud of required foresight and patience I simply do not possess. Under the pressure to come up with a topical, maybe scary and definitely silly costume, I’d crack.
This year has been different. For months, as I’ve watched a friend put thought, effort and creativity into an original costume, I could feel inspiration and whimsy replace the holiday cynicism coursing through my body. In the course of a Saturday afternoon, I bargain-shopped and epoxy-glued my way into a costume.
No matter where you fall on the spooky spectrum, there are ways to invoke the spirit of Halloween in your kitchen. I won’t ask you to dress up. I will ask you to dress up your vegetables.
Hear me out. Cauliflower dressed up as the classic Chinese American dish sweet and sour chicken, à la Hetty Lui McKinnon? Or cabbage dressed up as chicken Parm, another creative swap from Hetty? Costume-contest winners, if I do say so myself.
Ali Slagle’s lemon-pepper tofu and snap peas (above) especially caught my ATLien eye. She didn’t exactly set out to put tofu in a lemon-pepper wing costume, but the combination of piquant black pepper and zippy lemon evokes the flavors of the game-day classic.
Lemon-Pepper Tofu and Snap Peas
The lemon-pepper seasoning you can find at the store was a touch too salty for Ali’s taste, so she instead dredges tofu in cornstarch, sesame seeds, a lot of black pepper and a bit of salt, and seasons the golden tofu with fresh lemon zest. A mix of tahini, soy sauce, ginger and lemon juice stretches those citrusy flavors across the tofu and lightly blistered snap peas.
Tofu or cauliflower, both adored for their chameleonic nature, would fit perfectly into a kung pao chicken costume. In his five-star recipe for kung pao tofu, Ham El-Waylly applies a few tricks to ensure the vegetarian protein soaks up the surrounding flavors, achieves a dense, bouncy texture and crisps up sufficiently. “With a recipe like this, it’s easy becoming a vegetarian!” wrote Janet, a reader.
While you’re at it, go ahead and extend the spirit of Halloween to grains. Dress your rice up as pizza! This dish of baked arborio rice, from Anna Francese Gass, is alla pizzaiola, meaning it features the flavors of a tomato sauce that typically cloaks a round of pizza dough.
Because it relies on only a handful of pantry-friendly ingredients and is relatively hands-off, you could even make it today. Whether you’re off to chaperone trick-or-treating or tear up the dance floor at a costume party, it’s just the kind of food you want to eat before you drift into the night.
Cabbage Parm
Kung Pao Tofu
Riso al Forno alla Pizzaiola (Pizza Rice)
One More Thing!
Diwali and Halloween overlap this year, so your sweet tooth should be abundantly satisfied by the week’s end. Should you need some help, Priya Krishna has collected a handful of mithai recipes that are a touch more subtle than the more traditionally sweet treats. These toasty, nutty peda made with an ice-cream base are texturally rich but not saccharine, while this modern take on badam burfi gives the confection the bark treatment by tempering the almondy sweetness with ruby chocolate and freeze-dried strawberries.
A little light, amid the spooky darkness! Thanks for reading, and see you next week.
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