Halloween Harvest Grazing Board
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Mozzarella Eyeballs and Pumpkin Hummus
My Halloween harvest-inspired grazing board is a fun and healthy way to feed your guests on Halloween!
You are probably already eating too much candy, and with Thanksgiving next, and Christmas
This Pumpkin Hummus recipe from Food and Wine and the Mozzarella Eyeballs recipe from Dabbled were easy to make and yummy to eat. With the addition of the Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart from Trader Joe’s, the components of the board brought together rich fall colors and flavors.
Mozzarella Eyeballs
Recipe
Ingredients
12 0z Marinated Mozzarella Eyeballs (save some oil marinade from the container)
8 oz Castelvetrano Olives
6 oz Black Pitted Olives
2-3 Roma Tomatoes
Directions
Slice Roma tomatoes 1/4 inch thick and arrange on a plate. Set aside.
Cut Castelvetrano olives in half. Use a straw to make a hole in the center of the olives. Set aside.
Slice black olives long ways and use a straw to punch holes into the olives to make round dots.
Insert the black olive round dots into the holes of the green olives.
Place a green olive stuffed with black olives on top of the mozzarella balls to create the look of an “eyeball” If needed, use a toothpick to hold them together.
Place one mozzarella “eyeball” on each sliced tomato.
Drizzle with some marinade from the mozzarella container.
Looking for a family-friendly appetizer that’s easy to assemble and won’t cost a lot, unless you like to splurge on varieties from an olive bar (guilty of this!)
I kept it simple. My favorite green olives are Castelvetrano jarred by Mezzetta, and you can find those anywhere. Whole black olives, Roma tomatoes, and fresh mozzarella balls marinated in oil and herbs all from Trader Joe’s.
Putting these Mozzarella Eyeballs together with my 4-year-old was very easy. I followed the tips from the recipe at Dabbled by using a straw to shape the eyeballs. After cutting the green olives in half to make the “iris.” we used the straw to make the hole on the cross end of the green olives bigger. Then the straw was used to make little round “pupils” from the black olives. My kid’s little fingers were perfect at grabbing the black “pupils” and sticking them in the center of the “iris”. We set the discarded black olives aside for later.
We sliced the tomatoes to serve as the backdrop for the eyeballs and arranged them around a plate. Next, we assembled the eyeballs on the mozzarella. Each mozzarella ball was topped with a green olive stuffed with a black olive to shape them into eyeballs. Then we drizzled the mozzarella marinade from the container over all the eyes.
Pumpkin Hummus
This quick and easy hummus has simple ingredients: chickpeas, pumpkin puree, garlic, lemon juice, and cayenne make up this hummus. This recipe is a wonderful base for adding your own preferred hummus seasonings.
I blended and added more lemon juice until I achieved the desired consistency. Using a slim rubber paddle every couple of pulses really helped break up the garlic and chickpeas.
The discarded black olives were used to make a quick tapenade and a cute jack-o-lantern face on the hummus. I chopped the olives up and drizzled with a little herb olive oil that marinated the mozzarella.
Halloween Harvest Grazing Board
I love rainbow finger carrots and they looked great on a grazing board! We scattered the fingers along with pita chips around the onion tart and hummus, then sprinkled the olive tapenade over the carrots. The bright red tomatoes topped with the white mozzarella and green olives really make the “eyeballs” pop on the board.
This healthy grazing board has a little bit of something for everyone. It’s a vegetarian platter that can easily be made vegan by substituting pearl onions in place of mozzarella. But it doesn’t have to be all healthy. Adding your favorite charcuterie for meat lovers, or candied fruit for some sweetness will make everyone’s taste buds happy.
Cin Cin!
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