Bonfire Night calls for food that is warm, comforting and easy to eat, preferably without anyone having to balance a complicated dinner plate while wearing gloves. Whether you are heading outside to watch fireworks or having people over at home, the best Bonfire Night recipes are dishes that can be prepared ahead, kept warm and served without too much last-minute work.
Think steaming bowls of chilli, crisp jacket potatoes, sticky sausages and proper autumn puddings. Add a few traditional favourites such as toffee apples and parkin, plus something hot to drink, and you have everything needed for a cold November evening.
Easy Bonfire Night Dinner Ideas
Sticky Sausage Hot Dogs With Caramelised Onions
Hot dogs are almost perfect Bonfire Night food. They are warming, filling and can be eaten outside with one hand, making them far more practical than anything requiring a knife and fork.
Serves: 4
- 8 good-quality pork or vegetarian sausages
- 4 large hot dog rolls
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 tbsp soft brown sugar or honey
- 2 tbsp apple juice or 1 tbsp cider vinegar
Cook the sausages according to the packet instructions until thoroughly cooked. Meanwhile, gently fry the onions in the oil for around 15 minutes until soft and golden. Stir in the mustard, sugar or honey and apple juice, then cook for another few minutes until sticky.
Split the rolls, add two sausages to each and pile the onions on top. Ketchup, mustard and grated cheese can all be put on the table for people to add themselves.
Smoky Chilli Con Carne
Chilli is particularly useful when feeding a crowd because it actually benefits from being cooked earlier in the day and reheated when everybody is ready to eat. It can also be served in several ways, so one large pot can cover different appetites.
Serves: 6
- 500g beef mince
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
- 1 x 400g tin kidney beans, drained
- 2 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- Chilli powder to taste
Brown the mince in a large pan, then add the onion and pepper and cook until softened. Stir in the tomato purée and spices, followed by the tomatoes and kidney beans. Add a small splash of water, cover loosely and simmer for around 40 minutes until thick and rich.
Serve with rice, tortilla chips or jacket potatoes and bowls of grated cheese, soured cream and sliced spring onions. For a vegetarian version, leave out the beef and use an extra tin of mixed beans or your preferred meat-free mince.
Loaded Bonfire Night Jacket Potatoes
Jacket potatoes are one of the easiest ways to feed a mixed group because the potatoes provide the same inexpensive base while everyone chooses their own topping. They can also be baked ahead and kept warm until needed.
Allow one large baking potato per person. Prick the skins, rub with a little oil and salt and bake at 200°C, 180°C fan, for around an hour to an hour and a half, depending on size, until the skins are crisp and the centres are soft.
Set out two or three toppings rather than trying to provide everything imaginable. Good Bonfire Night combinations include:
- Smoky chilli and grated cheese
- Barbecue-style beans
- Cheddar and caramelised onions
- Pulled chicken
- Tuna, sweetcorn and cheese
If you are serving a crowd, split the potatoes just before eating and let everyone finish their own. It keeps the preparation simple and makes vegetarian options easy.
Sausage and Root Vegetable Traybake
This is a good choice if everyone is eating indoors before heading out to the fireworks. Everything cooks on one tray, there is very little washing up and the root vegetables give it a proper November feel.
Serves: 4
- 8 sausages
- 500g potatoes, cut into chunks
- 3 carrots, cut into chunks
- 2 parsnips, cut into chunks
- 1 red onion, cut into wedges
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
Roast the potatoes, carrots, parsnips and onion at 200°C, 180°C fan, with the oil for around 20 minutes. Add the sausages, mix together the honey and mustard and spoon it over everything. Return to the oven for around 30 minutes, turning once, until the vegetables are golden and the sausages are cooked through.
Vegetarian sausages can be substituted without changing the rest of the recipe.
Easy Autumn Vegetable Soup With Cheese Toasties
For a meat-free option that can be made completely in advance, a thick autumn soup is difficult to beat. Butternut squash and carrots provide natural sweetness, while a cheese toastie turns a bowl of soup into a substantial dinner.
Serves: 4–6
Cook one chopped onion with a little oil until soft, then add around 800g of chopped butternut squash and carrots. Pour over approximately one litre of vegetable stock, season and simmer for 25–30 minutes until everything is tender. Blend until smooth and add a splash of milk or cream if you want a richer finish.
Reheat when needed and serve with toasted sandwiches filled with mature Cheddar. For an outdoor gathering, the soup can also be poured into insulated mugs and eaten without bowls.
Bonfire Night Party Food You Can Eat Outside
Mini Sausage Rolls
Homemade sausage rolls sound considerably more impressive than the amount of work involved when you use ready-rolled puff pastry. They can be prepared ahead, baked before guests arrive and served warm or at room temperature.
Remove the skins from around 450g of sausages and form the meat into long sausage shapes. Cut a sheet of ready-rolled puff pastry lengthways, place the filling along each strip and add a thin line of mustard or caramelised onion chutney if you like.
Roll the pastry around the filling, seal the edge and cut into small pieces. Brush with beaten egg and bake at 200°C, 180°C fan, for around 20–25 minutes until golden and thoroughly cooked. Vegetarian sausage meat works equally well.
Sticky Honey and Mustard Sausages
Cocktail sausages are ideal when people are standing outside because they can simply be served with cocktail sticks and eaten in a couple of bites. A sticky glaze makes them feel a little more special without adding much preparation.
Mix two tablespoons of honey with two tablespoons of wholegrain mustard and a small splash of soy sauce. Toss around 500g of cocktail sausages in the mixture, then roast according to the sausage instructions until cooked through, sticky and caramelised.
Serve them warm in a large bowl with plenty of cocktail sticks. If children are eating them, allow the sausages to cool slightly first; the sugary glaze can remain extremely hot straight from the oven.
Catherine Wheel Toad-in-the-Hole
Toad-in-the-hole already feels right for Bonfire Night, but arranging the sausage in a spiral gives it a simple Catherine wheel connection without turning dinner into novelty food.
Serves: 4
Use a long coiled sausage if you can find one, or arrange six to eight sausages into a rough spiral in a roasting dish. Cook them in a little oil for around 15 minutes at 220°C, 200°C fan.
Meanwhile, whisk together 140g plain flour, four eggs and 200ml milk to make a smooth Yorkshire pudding batter. Carefully pour the batter around the hot sausages and return the dish to the oven for around 25 minutes without opening the door, until dramatically risen and golden.
Serve immediately with onion gravy and seasonal vegetables. This one is definitely better eaten around a table than beside the bonfire.
Traditional Bonfire Night Sweet Treats
Homemade Toffee Apples
Toffee apples are one of the foods most closely associated with Bonfire Night and they are surprisingly straightforward to make. The only part requiring real care is the extremely hot sugar syrup.
Makes: 6
- 6 small eating apples
- 300g golden caster sugar
- 100ml water
- 3 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 tsp vinegar
- Wooden lolly sticks
Push a stick firmly into each apple and place them on baking paper. Heat the sugar and water gently until dissolved, then add the golden syrup and vinegar and boil without stirring until the mixture reaches the hard-crack stage at around 150°C.
Carefully dip and rotate each apple in the hot toffee, then place it on the paper to set. Chopped nuts or sprinkles can be added immediately after dipping if you want them. Children can help decorate once the apples are safe to touch, but boiling caramel should always be handled by an adult.
Sticky Ginger Parkin
Parkin is a traditional ginger and oat cake strongly associated with Bonfire Night, and it has another major advantage for entertaining: it is better made in advance. The cake becomes stickier and the ginger flavour develops as it rests.
Makes: Around 16 squares
Gently melt 175g butter with 175g golden syrup, 75g black treacle and 100g soft brown sugar. In another bowl combine 200g self-raising flour, 150g medium oatmeal, two teaspoons of ground ginger and one teaspoon of mixed spice.
Stir the melted mixture into the dry ingredients, then mix in one beaten egg and around 100ml milk. Pour into a lined square tin and bake at 160°C, 140°C fan, for around 50–60 minutes.
Cool completely before cutting. If possible, store the parkin in an airtight container overnight before serving rather than eating it straight from the oven.
Easy Bonfire S’mores
You do not need American graham crackers to make s’mores. Ordinary digestive biscuits work perfectly well with toasted marshmallows and squares of chocolate.
If you have a safe, suitable fire and appropriate supervision, toast marshmallows and sandwich them between two digestives with a square of milk or dark chocolate. The heat from the marshmallow will begin to melt the chocolate as everything is pressed together.
For an indoor version, place chocolate and marshmallows on digestive biscuits and cook briefly under a hot grill until the marshmallows begin to toast. Add another biscuit on top and serve immediately.
They are messy, sweet and almost impossible to eat elegantly, which is largely the point.
Toffee Apple Crumble
If toffee apples sound appealing but eating one outdoors in November does not, turn the same flavours into a warm pudding instead.
Serves: 6
Peel and slice around six eating or cooking apples and place them in a baking dish with two tablespoons of soft brown sugar and a little cinnamon. Dot over a few spoonfuls of caramel sauce.
For the crumble, rub 100g butter into 175g plain flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in 75g brown sugar and 50g rolled oats. Scatter over the apples and bake at 190°C, 170°C fan, for around 35–40 minutes until bubbling and golden.
Serve it properly hot with custard, cream or vanilla ice cream. It is far better suited to a Bonfire Night gathering at home than trying to carry pudding outside while watching fireworks.
Warming Bonfire Night Drinks
Classic Hot Chocolate
For a richer hot chocolate, warm one litre of milk gently with three tablespoons of cocoa powder and around 150g of chopped milk or dark chocolate, whisking until smooth. Sweeten to taste and add marshmallows or whipped cream if required.
If you are heading to a fireworks display, pour it into a pre-warmed insulated flask. It will be considerably more welcome half an hour into a cold November evening than another bottle of water.
Spiced Apple Warmer
For something lighter, heat a litre of cloudy apple juice with a cinnamon stick, a few strips of orange peel and a couple of cloves. Keep it just below a simmer for around 15 minutes, then strain before serving.
It is completely alcohol free, works for adults and children and can also be prepared ahead and gently reheated when needed.
How to Plan an Easy Bonfire Night Menu
The easiest way to make Bonfire Night food stressful is to attempt five different hot dishes at the same time. Pick one substantial main and let everything else support it. A large pot of chilli with jacket potatoes can feed a crowd perfectly well without also needing soup, traybakes and toad-in-the-hole.
If guests will be outside, add one or two handheld options such as hot dogs, sausage rolls or sticky cocktail sausages. Choose food that can be eaten from a napkin or small bowl rather than anything requiring several pieces of cutlery.
Make desserts ahead wherever possible. Parkin improves with time, brownies and cakes can be baked the previous day and toffee apples can be prepared before guests arrive. Chilli and soup are equally useful because they can sit ready to be reheated rather than demanding attention when everyone wants to see the fireworks.
Include at least one proper vegetarian option rather than relying on side dishes. Vegetarian sausages work in hot dogs, sausage rolls and traybakes, while bean chilli, jacket potatoes and autumn soup can easily feed anyone avoiding meat.
An Easy Bonfire Night Menu for a Crowd
If you want a straightforward menu without trying to cook every recipe above, this combination covers a substantial dinner, easy outdoor food and traditional Bonfire Night treats.
Main
- Smoky chilli con carne
- Loaded jacket potatoes with cheese, beans and other toppings
Handheld Food
- Sticky sausage hot dogs with caramelised onions
- Mini sausage rolls
Sweet
- Sticky ginger parkin
- Homemade toffee apples
- Easy digestive-biscuit s’mores
Drinks
- Classic hot chocolate
- Spiced apple warmer
Almost everything can be prepared before anybody arrives. Make the chilli and parkin earlier, bake the potatoes in advance, prepare the sausage rolls and have the drinks ready to warm through. Then, when the first fireworks start appearing over the rooftops, you can actually go outside and enjoy them instead of spending Bonfire Night standing in the kitchen.