From Pumpkin Soup to Butternut Squash Lasagna, These Are the Recipes to Make in October

Persimmons’ sweetness rounds out the slightly bitter greens, salty blue cheese, and citrusy dressing in this salad. Meyer lemon, diced peel and all, provides bursts of flavor; if you can’t find it, use regular lemon and a touch more honey.

This recipe is just as wonderful with kabocha squash. Mushroom dashi is available online.

A puréed salsa made with roasted pumpkin seeds helps give this posole a rich flavor and chowder-like texture.

A rich and flavorful dish with a spicy kick, this miso-glazed eggplant is perfect for sharing or as a hearty side dish.

Give your Halloween party some personality with these carved edible “bowls.” Make them as goofy or as scary as you like, depending on your mood! Not only do these jack o’lantern snacks add a festive touch, they will make sure kids and adults alike will continue to snack on vegetables in between bites of Halloween candy. This healthy Halloween snack is a must. 

These handheld savory pies are perfect for a party, with your favorite chutney on the side. Empanadas get their name from the Spanish word empanar, “to bake in pastry.” We’ve used pie dough for a more delicate, buttery crust.

The rich cheese and ginger-apple cider dressing unite the fruit with the greens.

The naturally sweet squash is seared and roasted to perfection, then finished with a rich brown butter infused with sage and the tang of malt vinegar.

Turns out that spinach wrapped in pie dough passes the picky-eater test! For these Halloween riffs on the classic calzone, use 4- by 5-in. pumpkin-shaped cookie cutters (find at cooking or craft stores and online). Or cut out a pumpkin-shaped template from paper, set it on the dough, and cut around it with a thin, sharp knife.

Not quite enough pumpkin for you? Serve it in Mini Pumpkin Bowls.

Rich lamb meets rich legumes in a seasonal, hearty, and life-affirming meat dish that can anchor any celebration.

We made good old chicken pot pie Halloween party-worthy by loading up the filling with fresh vegetables and herbs, and decorating the top with bones and skulls cut from puff pastry. You’ll need special cookie cutters; or you can create your own skull and bones from cardboard and cut around them on the pastry with a knife. For the best “puff,” keep the pastry cold as you work.

Brilliant orange roasted pumpkin replaces the traditional mashed-potato topping here, giving new life to classic English pub grub.

These little cakes are a snap to make and, with the salad, create a great vegetarian entrée for fall.

Here’s a recipe to add to your go-to list: easy enough to pull off for a Tuesday night dinner but special enough to serve to guests.

What’s more fall than a salsa made of apples? The apples are seared slightly alongside chopped shallots before being tossed in a dressing of lemon juice, dijon mustard, and fresh herbs. The texture plays nicely alongside the hazelnut crust on a soft white fish like halibut.

You can assemble and chill the lasagna a day ahead, but add 10 to 15 minutes to the baking time. You can also freeze the lasagna, wrapped well in plastic wrap, for up to 1 month and bake it frozen (add 1 1/4 hours to the oven time).

This dish delivers a lot of sophistication for not much time spent in the kitchen. The chicken rests on a bed of mild autumn vegetables, enriched with cream and wine. If the chicken you buy weighs more than 2 pounds, you may need to simmer it a few more minutes.

Red curry paste–a flavorful mix of chiles, lemongrass, ground shrimp, and more–is one of the great creations of the Thai kitchen. And it’s available in jars, making it possible to cook this complex-tasting dish in just a half-hour.

Using a slow-cooker to braise pork means you can start this recipe in the morning, go about your day, and just sizzle the meat right before dinner. Store any leftover carnitas in the cooking liquid and use for sandwiches, or serve over polenta.

We tested and then tested some more to arrive at the perfect proportions of buttery oat topping and sweetly spiced filling ingredients for this family-friendly recipe. If you’re in the mood to amp up the flavors even more, try the variation, Apple Crisp with Brandy and Spices.

Your little human monsters will love decorating brownies with chocolate, marshmallows, and M&M’s to make these sweet treats. For the base, we doubled the recipe for Dark Chocolate Brownies, baking it in a 9- by 13-in. pan and omitting the glaze. Thin, flat chocolate bars work best for the faces.

Spun-sugar recipes typically involve flinging hot liquid sugar across a setup of dowels and newspaper. It’s messy and, frankly, a little bit frightening. Here’s a much easier method that requires nothing more than a few forks and a small upturned bowl, and you can do it on your kitchen counter. The results–golden, airy sugar webs–make excellent Halloween cupcake toppers. (This recipe makes extra, so you can choose the prettiest ones.) For a bigger cobweb to top a cake, just use a large bowl. Make sure you do this on a dry day, though; humidity will make the webs collapse.

These bars make a fun Halloween treat, and they’re very flavorful: the green tea frosting cloaks a chewy-soft coconut-lime cookie. They’re easy enough that the kids can help you make them.

This warmly spiced brittle also makes a crunchy garnish for your holiday pumpkin pie.