Spooky Halloween Deviled Eggs

Halloween inspired spooky eyeball deviled eggs

Whether you’re entertaining a hoard of pre-teen goblins or a group of masked adults for this ghoulish holiday, you’ll want some tasty Halloween snacks and appetizers to feed the crowd.

These macabre Halloween deviled eggs will be a sure fire hit for any party.

The flavor is amazing when spiked with a little real wasabi paste OR you can use this more traditional deviled egg recipe for the filling.

You don’t need any fancy equipment or years of art-school lessons to make these spooky eyeball deviled eggs. They’re ridiculously easy, convincingly creepy and undeniably delicious! Perfect for Halloween celebrations.

I’ve scaled this recipe down — using only half a dozen eggs (because I’m actually making these eyeball deviled eggs in August and I don’t need a bevy of Halloween appetizers at the moment). However, you can easily double or triple the recipe for the size of your crowd.

Start by boiling the eggs

The first step in making these Halloween eggs is hard boiling them.

You want the egg yolks to be cooked through without over-cooking. Overcooking can result in that unsightly tell-tale grayish-green ring around the yolks. Additionally, overcooked egg yolks taste dry and chalky and the egg whites get rubbery… That’s not what we’re going for with these spooky deviled eggs.

Ingredients you’ll need for spooky Halloween deviled eggs:

1. Place the eggs in a large saucepan and add enough cool water to cover the eggs by one inch.
2. Bring the pot to a rolling boil and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Remove the pot from the heat and let the eggs rest in the hot water. Set a timer for 13 minutes.
4. After resting, transfer the eggs to an ice bath and set the timer for another 13 minutes.
5. Crack and peel the eggs. (Peel under running water if they stick).

Why I like this method for making hard boiled eggs

By only boiling the eggs for 2 minutes, you reduce the amount of clanging, which in turn, reduces the chances of cracking the eggs prematurely.

Resting the eggs in the hot water gently cooks them all the way through (and gives them the perfect consistency for making deviled eggs) without the gray-green yolk and plunging them into the ice bath gradually stops the cooking and chills them to the core, which makes them easier to peel.

I’ve also found that the older your eggs are, the more air pockets are present inside the shells, so when you peel the eggs, they’ve already got a little shimmy room and slip out of their shells more easily.

Use real wasabi for deviled egg filling:

If you’ve ever tasted “wasabi” from your local sushi place, you might think I’m crazy adding a whole tablespoon of wasabi paste to this deviled egg filling. Trust me, I’m not. That’s because I’m using real wasabi paste, which has a cleaner, smoother and less sinus-clearing effect than the manufactured stuff.

Real wasabi is native to Japan and is made by grating the underground stem of the wasabi plant.

The stuff that’s commonly passed off as wasabi, here in the states, is actually grated horseradish with flavor and coloring added.

If you can’t find a tube of real wasabi at your grocery store, order it on Amazon.

If you decide to go with the wannabe (no judgement here), be careful of the amount you add as it’s much more potent than the real wasabi.

I would start by adding a half teaspoon at a time to the deviled egg filling and tasting along the way, until you reach your desired flavoring. I mean, you want these Halloween deviled eggs to look scary, but not TASTE scary.

How to make the filling for spooky deviled eggs

1. Pop the yolks out of the eggs and transfer to a bowl.
2. Use a fork to mash the yolks very finely, then stir in the mayonnaise, wasabi and lemon juice.
3. Stir until the filling is very smooth, then add the food coloring and mix to combine.

Taste the filling for seasoning. If you want more spice, add more wasabi paste. For more tang, add a touch more lemon juice.

Rinse the egg whites before filling the spooky deviled eggs

For truly bewitching eyeball deviled eggs, you want the “sclera” to be pure white… the better to make the green “iris” really pop!

Therefore, I recommend rinsing the cooked egg whites (in the ice water bath) before filling them with the spooky green deviled egg filling.

I do this because I find that there’s always a few remnant bits of the yolk that cling to the egg whites after slicing which can mar the effect of the Halloween eggs. (Be sure to blot the whites dry with a paper towel before filling the Halloween eggs with the green deviled yolks.)

Decorate the Halloween eggs with classic “eyeball” features

Many people like to use little candy eyes for decorating, but since these spooky deviled eggs are supposed to be savory, I prefer to garnish them with ingredients that go with the Halloween appetizer.

Black olives are a fairly neutral, but perfectly colored accompaniment.

Radishes, with their magenta skin and pale white interior make a perfect canvas for the black iris. (Plus, radishes are in the same family as Japanese wasabi, consequently, they go well together.)

How to assemble the spooky deviled eggs

1. Fill the cavity of the egg whites with wasabi filling and spread it into a flat, even layer.
2. Thinly slice the radishes, vertically from the root to the tip – this will give you one pointy end.
3. Place the radish slice in the wasabi filling with the pointy end aiming into the corner of the eyeball.
4. Slice the olives in half vertically, then slice into thin strips horizontally. This is the spooky pupil. Arrange on the radish to create a spooky mood with the deviled eggs.
5. If the olives aren’t staying put or if they roll to one side or another, use a little of the wasabi filling as “glue” to stick the olive to the radish.

FAQ’s for Halloween deviled eggs

More Halloween appetizers, cocktails and desserts you might like: