Stuffed Jack-o’-Lanterns
Pasta-stuffed peppers cut into jack-o-lanterns. Made with raw zucchini or brown rice spaghetti and smothered in a 5 minute simple raw red sauce.
Recipe type: Vegan, Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Sugar-free, Yeast-free, Corn-free, Grain-free (option), Nut-free
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 15 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients
Noodles:
- 4 medium zucchinis, cut into noodle shape
- or 8 oz. gluten-free brown rice spaghetti, cooked according to package instructions
Jack-o-Lanterns:
- 4 bell peppers
- pumpkin carver
Raw red sauce:
- 1 large hot house tomato
- ½ cup (85 grams) sun dried tomatoes, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes
- ½ red pepper
- ¼ red onion
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds, soaked for a couple of hours
- 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1½ teaspoons gluten-free soy sauce – I used Braggs All Purpose Seasoning
- 1½ teaspoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 pitted medjool date
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- Instructions
Begin preparing pasta. Once cooked, set aside.
Meanwhile, carve faces in your peppers. To do this, cut a round section on the top of the pepper. Discard the seeds and scrape away the insides. Being very careful, begin to carve the jack-o’-lantern face. When complete, set aside.
To prepare pasta sauce – add all ingredients to the bowl of your food processor. Process for 1 minute, or until smooth.
Transfer to a large bowl, add pasta and stir to coat.
Divide pasta amongst prepared peppers and pull strands of pasta through the mouths or eyes of the jack-o-lanterns.
Serve.
Round up all of your ingredients. The sauce will take just seconds to prepare, so get your noodles ready while you carve the bell peppers.
I highly advise getting a pumpkin carver for the job. I’m pretty sure using a knife could lead to a catastrophe. Bell peppers are very fragile. They’re soft so they carve much easier than a pumpkin. Either way, this would be a fun activity for the kids!
Once the jack-o-lanterns are complete, get to preparing your sauce. Place everything in the bowl of your food processor and process until smooth. Set aside.
You can choose to use a couple of different noodles. I made my jack-o-lantern with zucchini noddles for a grain-free alternative and Kevin chose brown rice pasta. Kelp noodles would have been really good, too.
To make the zucchini noodles, I used the spiralizer that I purchased from Amazon over 4 years ago. It does the trick!
Once the noodles are done, mix with the sauce, and stuff in the peppers.
Pull a couple of strands of pasta through to make it look cool and you’re done!
Simple, healthy and spooky!
