Raspberry and Lychee Vegan Halloween Tart
Have you ever made a delicious pie or cake, left it to cool and came back only to find that one of your housemates had taken a sneaky slice? I assure you that won’t happen with this vegan Halloween tart- it’s got its eyes out for confectionary thieves. Actually, it’s watching everything as it’s studded with bloodied eyeballs. Vegan eyeballs of course- made with lychee and blueberries. The tart its self is made with a cookie crust, and has a filling made with coconut milk, raspberries, and a hint of rose. It’s rich, creamy, and sweet. The flavor of the rose complements the floral notes of the lychee for the most delicate, exquisite eyeball tart ever.
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Cooking for Spooky Season
Most major holidays involve gathering around a table for a family meal, but Halloween doesn’t have that same communal food culture. In the United States kids will go trick or treating for candy, but once you’ve outgrown the trick or treating time of life there isn’t as much of a focus on food celebrations. But we should really change that. Millennials and Gen Z are both turning out to be bigger fans of celebrating and decorating for Halloween than previous generations, and I think that has to be a positive. So let’s talk about spooky season foods, and how we can extend the sweet and scary into our eating.
The Sweet is a classic way to celebrate the Halloween season as it’s the foundation of trick or treating. But we can do better than cheap, fun-sized candy bars. One of my favorite things to do is make my own candy bars, that have a higher quality chocolate and customized fillings. Not to mention, they’re vegan. Carmel apples are another amazing Halloween time treat, although as a person who has fillings I tend to avoid them. Dipping smaller slices in caramel is a better grown-up option for not losing fillings, with the added benefit of getting more caramel in each apple bite.
The Seasonal is another simple way to celebrate Halloween and Fall, in general. Squash and pumpkin are what comes to my mind first when I think about Autumn foods. A few other great vegetable options to inspire you are sweet potatoes, beets, brussels sprouts, celery root, sunchokes, seasonal wild mushrooms, parsnips and tomatillos. Some fruit options include apples, cranberries, grapes, persimmons, and figs.
The Spooky and Gory is of course the most fun category, and it can be tied into both the seasonal and the sweet. While we are ideally still making treats (you do want to eat it after all), the visual impact is a bit of a trick. Take this recipe, for example. It’s a sweet and fruity tart, with a creamy coconut, raspberry and rose filling and tropical lychees on top. That’s a treat. But looking at it, you might think you were being served a bloodied dish of eyeballs. It is just about the only time of year that I, as a recipe developer, get to explore making my food look icky, instead of meticulously arranging a dish to be as appealing as possible. It’s a freeing way to create, so join me in thinking about how we can create a spooky and gory look to our food.
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Looking for Vegan Halloween Recipes? Try one of these!
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Looking for Vegan Tarts and Pies? Try one of these!
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How to Make this Vegan Halloween Tart
This vegan Halloween tart is actually pretty simple to make- it’s a no-bake recipe with three components to put together- the crust, the filling, and the eyeballs and decorations. Some of the less common ingredients you will need include canned lychee and rosewater. I found my canned lychee at the local Asian grocery, and rosewater at our Indian grocery store. You can also of course get those ingredients online- here is a link to rosewater and another for canned lychee.
To start you’re going to make a crust for our tart. It only requires 2 ingredients- digestive biscuits and plant-based butter. You could also use gram crackers, but they often contain honey and so are not vegan. Plus I do actually think the flavor of the digestive biscuits is little nicer here. It works by crushing the biscuits into a flour like texture, and then mixing it with vegan butter. Press it into a tart case and refrigerate. Once that butter cools, it will harden and allow the crust to set. If you wanted to skip this part and opt for a pre-made crust, that is also a perfectly fine option.
You’ll want to make your lychee eyeballs next, as they need to be ready to go once the filling is made. Drain the lychee from the syrup in the can. The eyeballs are made simply by placing a blueberry into the center of the lychee to look like the pupil- for particularly long lychee I added two blueberries just to fill the empty space.
The filling itself is a puree of frozen (or fresh, if you have them) raspberries, coconut milk, a little sugar, rosewater, vanilla, and cornstarch. Blend it all together to get a smooth texture. The cornstarch is key here, as that is what will thicken the filling so it will set to a pudding consistency. In order for the filling to set, it needs heat so we cook it on the stove top for a few minutes, making sure to scrape the bottom and stir to get even heating, until it’s thickened. Into the prepared tart shell it will go, topped with the lychee eyeballs, and put in the fridge or freezer to set.
Once everything is set, come back in with a little red food coloring to decorate. I added small pools of “blood” around some of the eyeballs, and used a toothpick to draw in the veins on each of the lychee eyeballs. The only thing left is to slice up your dessert- make sure you get some nice, clean slices out of it since all eyes will be on you.
Raspberry and Lychee Vegan Halloween Tart
Ingredients
- 200 g. digestive biscuits (about 13 cookies)
- ½ cup melted vegan butter
- 10-15 seeded lychee (canned is great)
- 10-15 blueberries
- 1 can full fat coconut milk (13.5 oz)
- ½ cup frozen raspberries
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. rosewater
- Red food coloring, for decorating (optional)
Instructions
- Start with the crust. Prepare a 9-inch tart tin with a removeable bottom by lining the base with a wax or parchment paper circle. Add the biscuits to a food processor and process until it’s finely ground. You can also put the cookies in a ziplock bag and crush with a rolling pin if you prefer. Add them to a bowl and combine with the melted vegan butter. Stir until you have a consistent texture. Add the mixture to the prepared tart tin and use a flat-bottomed cup to press the crust into a even layer. Let sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set.
- While the crust sets, lets get started on the decorative element. If you’re using canned lychee drain the liquid. Place a blueberry into the center of each lychee to create an eyeball.
- To make the filling, combine the coconut milk, raspberries, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, and rosewater in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to the stovetop and cook for a few minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom, until thickened (about a minute after it starts to simmer). Pour into the cooled crust, and use a spatula to flatten. Place the lychee eyeballs in the filling. Place in the fridge until fully cooled and set. Use red food coloring and a toothpick to draw veins in the lychee eyeballs. Add more coloring as spots of blood if desired.
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