25 Crowd-Pleasing Halloween Potluck Foods
Planning a Halloween potluck? Whether you're bringing spooky snacks or festive treats, choosing the right Halloween potluck foods can make your gathering fun and memorable.
From creepy appetizers to sweet desserts, here are 25 Halloween food ideas to help you create a delicious and crowd-pleasing menu perfect for any spooky celebration. Get ready to impress your guests with these easy, festive dishes!
How does a potluck dinner work?
The potluck, or “bring-a-dish,” dinner is very popular in the United States. A potluck dinner is a great way to get together as a family or with a group of friends, without one person having to bear the cost of feeding the hordes. For a potluck meal, everyone brings a course or a dish. With a bit of communication and pre-planning, you can arrange a block party that’s fun, abundant and doesn’t break the bank!
Table of contents:
1. Spidery guacamole
Spiderwebs are a quick way to turn just about any potluck contribution into a DIY Halloween party food. Simply pipe a sour cream spiderweb onto your guacamole dip.
2. Mummy-wrapped brie
Grab a roll of puff pastry and a wheel of Camembert or brie. Wrap your cheese in puff pastry, then brush the pastry with beaten egg. Slice the remaining puff pastry into strips and decorate the top mummy-style. Pop it into the oven at 400 °F for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Decorate with some apple and raisin eyes. Now, your mummy-wrapped brie is ready to serve!
3. Roast pumpkin nachos
Here’s a Halloween spin on one of the best party foods ever: Substitute oven-baked cubes of pumpkin or butternut squash for the corn on a platter of nachos. Spice up the pumpkin with a sprinkle of chili flakes, ground coriander and ground cumin. Save on prep time with pre-cut butternut cubes.
4. Deviled egg eyeballs
Hard-boiled eggs are filled with a colorful yolk mixture in this savory Halloween dish, then decorated with red food coloring veins and candy eyes to look like creepy eyeballs. These easy-to-make appetizers are great finger foods for Halloween potlucks and spooky gatherings.
5. Monster veggie platter
Create a playful, healthy veggie platter inspired by a monster’s face, using broccoli, cauliflower, olives and bell peppers. Serve with a tasty dip and extra veggies on the side to encourage kids to enjoy their vegetables during Halloween.
6. Mummy hot dogs
Crescent-wrapped Vienna sausages are playful and scary Halloween foods that bake up golden and snackable. Tiny mustard eyes complete the faces for a spooky look, while the simple assembly makes it easy to feed a crowd at a Halloween party.
7. Jalapeño popper mummies
Try these jalapeño poppers for a ghoulish appetizer. Wrap your jalapeño poppers in strips of puff pastry to create mummy-inspired Halloween foods that add a festive touch to your party menu.
8. Ghoulish potato skins
Take this classic appetizer to the next level for Halloween. Decorate your potato skins to look like ghosts with a smear of cream cheese, using bacon bits or chives for eyes!
9. Mushroom eyeballs
For an eye-catching appetizer, turn regular stuffed mushrooms into creepy eyeballs! To create the eyeball effect, simply pop an olive slice onto the soft cheese right after baking.
10. Bloody mozzarella sticks
Pretty much anything served with a ketchup or marinara sauce can look quite ghoulish. To make this Halloween food idea even easier, stock up on frozen mozzarella sticks to have at the ready when it’s suddenly your turn to turn up with snacks.
11. Pumpkin and feta phyllo cups
This is the perfect pumpkin-themed appetizer for a Halloween party! Cut phyllo pastry into 6-by-6-inch squares. Layer two to three squares on top of each other with a brush of olive oil. Place in a muffin pan to shape and bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden. Fill these cups with roasted pumpkin, feta and a drizzle of pesto.
12. Halloween finger hot dogs
Use a knife to make a few lines on a hot dog to look like the creases on a finger, then add a triangle of red pepper as a fingernail, or cut the sausage in the shape of a nail. Ketchup “blood” makes them look extra creepy!
13. Spiderweb pizzas
Use string cheese to shape a cheesy web onto mini pizzas. Make little spiders out of olive slices for the finishing touch.
14. Vegetable soup
Nothing says autumn quite like a roasted fall vegetable soup. Just check with your host about whether they have enough bowls. Better yet, save them the washing up and bring disposable Halloween-themed party cups to serve the soup in!
15. Roasted pumpkin salad
Guests often tend to bring carb-heavy dishes to a potluck. Breathe fresh air into proceedings with a light salad. Roast pumpkin cubes with olive oil, salt, cumin, coriander and cinnamon, then toss the cubes into a salad of arugula and baby spinach leaves. Add some cherry tomatoes for zing and color and crumbled feta for creaminess.
16. Butternut tabbouleh
Another delicious salad idea: Toss cooked bulgur wheat, roasted butternut squash, one finely chopped shallot, 1/4 cup cranberries, 1 cup chopped fresh mint and 1/2 cup chopped cilantro together in a bowl. Dress with olive oil and fresh lemon juice.
Grab it now on Instacart
17. Halloween sandwiches
Looking for Halloween food ideas for kids? Use Halloween cookie cutters to cut spooky shapes out of your sandwiches. This snack is super simple to make but still brings festive vibes to the potluck.
18. Pumpkin mac and cheese
This creamy pumpkin mac and cheese combines al dente pasta with a rich cheese sauce infused with pumpkin puree. It’s one of the most comforting Halloween-themed foods for potlucks that’s simple to prepare and delicious.
19. Monster or bat cookies
If you’re on dessert duty, whip up a batch of your favorite sugar cookies and use cute bat, monster or witch hat cookie cutters to make them into festive shapes. Pop some candy eyeballs on them for a spooky sweet!
20. Pumpkin pie
For a Halloween-themed dinner, pumpkin pie is always a good idea! To make your dessert even more festive, cut out some ghost or bat shapes with any extra pie dough and place them on the pie before baking.
21. Halloween brownies
This may be the ultimate Halloween dessert. Bake a batch of your best brownies and top with chocolate candies, mini marshmallows, crumbled pretzels, candy corn or butterscotch chips. Let your imagination run wild!
22. Toasted oat cereal treats
Add pumpkin-flavored O-shaped cereal to your melted marshmallows to make a fall-themed spin on crispy rice treats. Sprinkle with pumpkin spice and orange sanding sugar for extra festiveness.
23. Pumpkin spice cookies
For a Halloween-themed teatime treat, try pumpkin spice cookies. They’re filled with cozy fall spices with a chewy texture — perfect for a Halloween potluck!
24. Witch hat cupcakes
Whip up a batch of chocolate cupcakes. Then use black, purple or chocolate-dipped ice cream sugar cone tips to decorate the cupcakes to look like witch hats.
25. Witch’s brew punch
This spooky, kid-friendly punch combines lime sherbet, ginger ale and pineapple juice for a vibrant green cascade of bubbles. Garnish with gummy eyeballs or candy eyes and add a smoky effect with a splash of dry ice around the edges for a festive Halloween centerpiece.
Tips for a successful Halloween potluck menu
If you’re hosting a potluck dinner, it’s your responsibility to make sure everything runs smoothly and that there’s a nice balance of dishes. Consider these tips:
- Set a theme for the meal. Do you want the dishes to all be Halloween-themed, or do you want to go for a foodie theme? For example, you might opt for Italian or Southeast Asian flavors.
- Is it going to be a sit-down dinner or finger foods? If you plan on doing a more formal meal, make sure you ask guests to bring a variety of appetizers, side dishes, mains and desserts.
- Assign people certain types of dishes. For example, delegate meat, fish, veg, salad and carbs. That way, you don’t have three guests arrive with their version of a potato bake.
- Find out from your guests whether they will need to make final touches to their dishes before serving. Ask them if they’ll require any special equipment or utensils, or perhaps need to use the oven to warm something up.
Shop for Halloween potluck foods with Instacart
Order your Halloween potluck foods from trusted grocery stores in your area. Stock up on your Halloween party supplies, fresh foods and convenience foods without having to cruise the aisles. An Instacart shopper will select your items and get them ready for you. Choose convenient, contactless delivery or pick-up within two hours of placing your order.
Looking for more dishes to add to your menu? Try these Halloween potluck dishes and make your party unforgettable.
Mel Hull
Author
Mel is a seasoned content strategist and food writer with over a decade of experience helping brands tell compelling stories. Inspired by her hometown of Houston, TX, she brings her love of bold flavors and Southern hospitality to the table. In the kitchen, she loves baking (especially banana bread!) and experimenting with Tex-Mex dishes.
Heather Matley
Editor
Heather Matley is an editor at Instacart whose passion for food and cooking has inspired her work on everything from grocery guides to recipe development. With over eight years of experience in editing, content creation, and search engine optimization, she strives to empower readers with the most effective tools, guides, and ideas to transform their home cooking.
Instacart Recommends
View most recent posts →
