Pumpkin Head Relish Tray

by Nancy

A pumpkin head relish tray appetizer that’s so cute it doubles as a holiday decoration.

Bring an appetizer to life with this holiday themed relish tray.

The vibrant colors of fresh vegetables make artwork easy when it comes to themed relish trays.

This relish tray is so festive that it not only serves as an appetizer, but also a table decoration for Halloween and Thanksgiving.

About the Ingredients

Carrots are the perfect color of orange for making a pumpkin.

The pumpkin head is made with peeled baby carrots (from a prepackaged bag) that are cut in half lengthwise.

This shows off the various layers of orange colors from the inside of the carrots and also gives some dimension to the pumpkin.

The pumpkin’s mouth and eyes are made with whole black olives (the small size).

And the stem is made with green olives stuffed with pimentos.

Two slices of green olive finish off the eyes and last but not least, a radish rosette is added for the nose.

Below are step-by-step instructions for making a radish rosette.

I actually made a couple of these relish trays.

And one of the pumpkins looks a bit happier than the other (but the happy pumpkin looks like it was up too late the night before…I noticed some bags under its eyes).

The unhappy pumpkin looks a scarier because it has some carrot eyebrows that look a little angry.

Let’s check out the ingredients.

A large radish, carrots, black olives and green olives with pimentos

HOW TO MAKE THIS RECIPE

A printable recipe with the measurements and instructions is located at the bottom of this post.

For the Radish Rosette:

Make a radish rosette by first cutting off the top and the tip of the radish.

Looking at the radish from top to bottom, imagine that it is a square with 4 sides.

Then with a small knife, make a cut down one side of the radish that is about halfway down to the bottom of the radish.

Don’t cut the radish all of the way down.

Next, on the other side of the radish make another cut that is about halfway down, making sure not to cut the radish all of the way down.

Then repeat by making the same type of cuts down the next two sides.

Add water and a couple pieces of ice to a small bowl.

Then add the radishes to the bowl.

Let sit in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes or until the radish opens up like a flower (I made some extra radishes for the sole purpose of snacking).

For the Relish Tray:

Cut the carrots in half lengthwise (if cutting the carrots ahead of time, put them in a zipper lock plastic bag with some water so they don’t dry out).

On a flat large plate or platter, form the outline of the pumpkin with the carrots (round side of the carrot down).

For the Smile – Make the smile for the pumpkin by using about 10 black olives for the “bottom lip” of the smile.

For the “inside” of the smile, add about 5 black olives.

Lastly, for the “top lip” of the smile, use 4 more black olives and leave spaces on each side of the two olives in the middle for the pumpkin’s “teeth”.

Teeth – Cut a couple of the carrots in half and lay them in between the black olives forming the “top lip”.

Eyes – For each eye, use 4 black olives to make a diamond shape.

Nose – Add the radish rosette to make the nose.

Face – Fill in the rest of the face with the remaining carrots.

Stem – To make the stem, lay two green olives along the top edge at the top of the pumpkin.

Top with two more green olives.

Eyeballs – Cut the remaining green olive in about ½ inch slices.

Remove the pimento and lay one slice over each of the diamond shaped black olive eyes.

Serve with your favorite dip.

…here’s the scary pumpkin relish tray.

…here’s the happy pumpkin relish tray.

Thank you so much for stopping by CCC!

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