Pumpkin Shaped Rice Balls Recipe
There was a time when during the week of Halloween I would busy myself frosting pumpkin cookies, snacking on my secret Halloween candy stash, and eating candy corn color by color. Not this year! This week, less sugar for all of us. Friday night we’ll all have enough to induce a coma. Why start early?
In trying to think what I could shape into Halloween images that didn’t involve 1 cup of butter, I thought about our Japanese exchange student that taught us how to make rice balls this summer. Then I thought I could make some pumpkins out of the rice.
Step 1: In a rice cooker, I put rice and soaked it in water. Then, I added some color to the water. After rinsing the rice, I put more carrot juice in the cooking water.
Step 2: While rice was still warm, I sprinkled a piece of plastic wrap with salt. Then put a dollop of rice in the wrap.
Step 3: Wrap the rice ball and move it between your hands back and forth while packing the rice really well.
Step 4: Unwrap ball and shape into a pumpkin. Add any greens (this is celery) for the stem. You can decorate a Jack-o-lantern face using things such as dried sea weed (that is what they would use if we were in Japan)
The kids loved these for a snack. They can eat them with their fingers. Try it tonight!
Natalie Monson
I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.
Learn More about Natalie
Wow Amy! Such artistic creativity and imagination. You really did it this time – I love the less sugar Halloween treat idea.
You rock! These are so cute and creative! The girls asked me to make rice balls just the other night and I wasn’t sure if there was more to it than this, that I missed when our student made them. She also put half a package of seaweed and who knows what in the middle, but we don’t need to do that…
Okay, now THAT is cute!!! I love fun snacks like that. We will definitely be trying it this week! Thanx for the fun idea.
How clever – and cute too!
I’m not completely confident my kids will be willing to give up all of their Halloween candy in place of this eye-catching pumpkin, but this will certainly make for a healthy and festive way to fill their bellies before trick or treating! Thanks.
Oh heavens! I would never expect my kids to give up their Halloween candy. I’m just trying not to make Halloween treats all week like I used to.
This is such a cute idea!
So creative and so cute!
This is awesome and I love the idea of making the face details with nori! Its so smart!
Sooo Cute, did you use plain old rice?
Those are darling!! You are so creative!
Ashley,
Yes, the plainest, cheapest, white rice.
These are too cute!! How creative!
Very cute, and I love rice balls, but I’m not sure I’d call something made entirely of white rice healthy. Empty calories are empty calories, and white rice causes a bigger blood sugar spike than many types of candy.
Actually, candy does cause a greater spike in blood sugar, and its usually fed with HFCS, fat, and other chemicals. Rice (even white rice) is less processed than any candy I know of, and comes with vitamins such as Vitamin B
[…] Rice balls. This may sound funny, but our Japanese students would make these to take with them anywhere! It was a great and filling snack or part of their lunch. […]
[…] Pumpkin Rice Balls […]
I love eating Ongiri and I must say this is a very creative recipe for making Onigiri for the Halloween!
I’m the Editorial Assistant for Fun Family Crafts and I wanted to let you know that we have featured your clever treat! You can see it here:
http://funfamilycrafts.com/pumpkin-shaped-rice-ball/
If you have other kid-friendly crafts, we’d love it if you would submit them. If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above. Thanks for a wonderful project idea!
Thanks for sharing @Cindy! I love this idea too!!