DIY Jack O’Lantern Bell Peppers

These little DIY Jack O’Lantern Bell Peppers are such cute and festive decorations for your Halloween table.

Jack O’Lantern Bell Peppers

It’s Jack O’Lantern Season

A couple days ago I went to one of my favorite towns in the Napa Valley of Northern California – Saint Helena. As in most places right now, there were pumpkins and cool looking squashes and gourds everywhere it seemed.

At the Farmer’s Market, one of the vendors had 10 -15 varieties of peppers – some hot peppers and some bell peppers – but all of them so beautifully colorful. It definitely got me in that autumn harvest season mood!

I’m not a huge Halloween fan, especially not the scary stuff! But I couldn’t resist making these cute and colorful carved Jack O’Lantern bell peppers to add a little joy to the fall season. There are so many different colors of peppers to choose from, just take your pick!

They make me smile, how about you? Cuteness overload? Almost.

These Jack O’Lantern bell peppers make such a unique and festive way to serve veggie sticks and dip during this time of year. This may be a great way to get your kids to eat more raw veggies (adults too!).

Tips for making Jack O’Lantern Bell Peppers

They really aren’t very difficult to carve but you do need a knife with a sharp point and one that isn’t too big – a pointy paring knife is perfect for doing this.
When looking for peppers to use for these little guys, make sure you find ones that are somewhat even on the bottom so it’s not difficult for them to stand. I would call the perfect type sort of squatty, short or tall, and not the long skinny or twisted types of peppers.
Another important thing is to make sure there’s at least one side of the pepper that’s relatively flat so you can use that as the face.
After I’ve chosen my peppers, I sit them on the counter in a group to see how they look together – how they lean can affect their personality and cuteness factor! After you’ve decided that…

Let the carving begin!

The first thing I do is cut off the top
Next insert your knife into the core and cut away the ribs that hold it inside the pepper and remove the core and any seeds that remain.

What I like to do is take a pen and put dots on the pepper face side for the eyes and the nose and then draw whatever mouth shape I want. If there are any pen marks left after cutting, they easily wipe off.

Insert your knife carefully into where you want to begin and go slowly with your cuts because it’s easy to mess up with a sharp pointy knife!
After they’re done, just fill them with contrasting color veggie sticks and serve with a yummy dip. I used an olive hummus for mine.
So I hope this was helpful. Try your hand at some – they’re really fun to make and they cause people to smile – who doesn’t need more reasons to smile, right? They add a bit of joy and light-heartedness to your table and they’re great conversation starters too!

Happy Fall everyone!

xo   ~Debra