Seven Halloween and Bonfire Night Recipe Ideas

Want something quick and easy (and gluten-free and vegan) to make on Halloween and Bonfire Night? Do you have friends and family coming round or need to take a dish to a buffet or pot-luck party? These Seven Halloween and Bonfire Night Recipe Ideas will give you easy, gluten-free, vegan recipes to make your Halloween and Bonfire Night celebrations fabulous!!!

Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder treason and plot…

Bonfire Night/ Guy Fawkes Night/ Fireworks Night – whatever is all about setting fire to stuff – old furniture, fireworks or effigies of a 17th century Catholic. When I was young Bonfire Night was a much bigger deal than Halloween. Now, Halloween is bigger than Bonfire Night.

When I was a child Bonfire Night was almost as exciting as Christmas. Way back when Bonfire Night started in early October by making a ‘Guy’. The Guy was someone’s Dad’s old shirt/ jumper and jeans/ cords stuffed with newspaper, topped with a football for a head and plonked on a trolley. The Guy was usually pushed around town by a crowd of feral children shouting ‘penny for the Guy’. The most interesting and motivating part of Bonfire Night was the collecting of money to spend on sweets and fireworks (age limits no problem in the 1970s) to let off in the street (usually in daylight) for the month or so preceding Bonfire Night. I haven’t seen ‘penny for the Guy’ in many, many years – it’s so difficult for children to buy fireworks now. The Guy (or what was left of it after the inevitable rain) was either dumped in someone’s back garden or thrown on top of the a bonfire on and burnt on Bonfire Night.

For me Bonfire Night is forever associated with jacket potatoes, toffee apples, bonfire toffee and cinder toffee. Burnt sugar. Very evocative. Very bad for the teeth.

What is Bonfire Night?

Bonfire Night (Guy Fawkes Night) is the 05 November in Great Britain. On 05 November 1605, Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. The story is that to celebrate the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London. Months later the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot’s failure was introduced.

Gunpowder Treason Day (the original name of Guy Fawkes Night) was the predominant English state commemoration. Carrying strong Protestant religious overtones it was a focus for anti-Catholic sentiment. Puritans delivered sermons regarding the perceived dangers of popery, and as part of increasingly raucous celebrations effigies of popular hate-figures, such as the pope, were burnt. By the end of the 18th century children begged for money with effigies of Guy Fawkes and 05 November became known as Guy Fawkes Day. Changing attitudes resulted in the toning down of much of the day’s anti-Catholic rhetoric, and the Observance of 5th November Act was repealed in 1859.

As with many celebrations and festivities Guy Fawkes Day/ Night became a social commemoration, far removed from its original focus. Nowadays Bonfire Night/ Guy Fawkes Night is often celebrated at large organised events, centred on a bonfire and crap/ extravagant firework displays.

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Seven Seven Halloween and Bonfire Night Recipe Ideas

This Bonfire Night I am definitely having all of the things below. I adore jacket potatoes with chilli and of course the sweet stuff that makes Halloween and Bonfire Night complete. A lot of sugar but… So, here’s Seven Halloween and Bonfire Night Recipe Ideas.

1. Vegan Bonfire Toffee

Vegan Bonfire Toffee tastes amazing!!! The smell and taste of Bonfire Toffee take me back to childhood Bonfire Nights. Just divine. And just appalling for your teeth!!! It is super easy to make but do be super careful with the hot toffee!!!

2. Parsnip and Walnut Soup with Walnut Pesto

Parsnip and Walnut Soup with Walnut Pesto is great for making ahead and serving up in cups to guests. Easy to make, delicious and super autumnal. It makes the most of the tail-end of autumn produce.

3. Smoky Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup

You can’t go wrong with soup and you really can’t go wrong with Smoky Sweet Potato and Lentil Soup. So delicious. Serve it in a mug!

4. Chilli Sin Carne

Chilli Sin Carne is the perfect topping for fresh from the oven, crispy jacket potatoes. Or load up some tortilla chips with Chilli Sin Carne, Houmous and guacamole. Yum!

5. Sweet Potato Doughnuts

Make a batch of mini Sweet Potato Doughnuts to share. Crispy on the outside and soft in the middle these Sweet Potato Doughnuts will go down a treat!!!
Sweet Potato Doughnuts are one of the recipes in my latest book FriFran’s 30-Minute Autumn:

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6. Home Made Toffee Apples

I can’t resist more sweet stuff – that is what Halloween and Bonfire Night are all about. Toffee Apples are so good!!!! (Be careful of the hot sugar!).