The Best Star Wars-Themed Eats in the Galaxy
From Yoda cocktails and Darth malt shakes to Boba feta salad and Wookiee cookies, these May the 4th-worthy recipes are as much fun as outrunning Imperial starships
Baby Yoda Cocktail from Home Cooked Harvest
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I was just out of toddlerhood when my parents took me to see Star Wars in the movie theater. For the duration of nursery school, I required Leia’s Danish coiffure on the daily. (Lucky for my parents I wasn’t a prequel-era baby, because Padme’s ’dos were intense. Did I mention I hated having my hair detangled?) At bedtime, I’d arrange myself à la unconscious Luke post-Tusken Raider attack. At the public library, where the rolling kick stools made excellent R2 units, I’d slip into the stacks to feed them imploring messages for Obi Wan.
Several states away, my eventual spouse was similarly Star Wars-obsessed. After school, he’d stage elaborate battles with a vast action figure collection, then fall asleep listening to the audio recording of A New Hope on cassette.
Still, it took a pandemic to make us jump on board the May the 4th space cruiser. It was 2020, we were about a month into lockdown, toilet paper and yeast were in short supply, and we hadn’t managed to shoehorn in a single Fabulous! Virtual! Adventure!!! The kids were having a rough day, especially once they remembered it was the same date our ancient feline (I mean, she was practically Yoda-old in cat years ... ) had become one with the Force. Playing with the kittens we’d since adopted wasn’t helping much, so drastic cheer-up measures were in order.
On a whim I googled Star Wars recipes and cobbled together a kitschy menu that put smiles on our faces and helped lift some of the C-3PO-level anxiety we were all feeling. Now three years later, with vaccines and boosters rolled out, things are feeling a little less Rogue One and more The Force Awakens. We’re still on team Mando/Zorii Bliss and keeping masks at the ready, but we’re excited to make Star Wars Day a yearly tradition. That isn’t to say we won’t find any viable excuse — from movie marathons and living room light saber battles to future themed parties(!) or series launches — to put these recipes into regular rotation throughout the year.
Is Star Wars Day some made-up marketing thing?
Improbable as it may sound, “May the Fourth Be With You” first appeared in a congratulatory newspaper ad in honor of Margaret Thatcher, who was elected England’s first female Prime Minister on May 4, 1979. The Iron Lady would’ve probably felt right at home with General Organa, Mon Mothma, and Vice Admiral Holdo, so maybe it’s not as weird as it sounds. In any case, the punny phrase planted the seeds for future grassroots fan celebrations. In 2011, the now-defunct Toronto Underground Cinema organized the first official Star Wars Day movie screening; since then, events have popped up around the world — and in space! (Astronauts on the International Space Station need movie breaks, too.) Of course, Disney and Lucasfilm are savvy to Star Wars Day’s fan appeal, so they’ve gotten in on the game — though they didn’t start it. Incidentally, if “The Imperial March” gets you going, your day is 5/5, aka Revenge of the 5th.
We’re all for celebrating with food, so we’ve rounded up a quirky batch of Star Wars-themed recipes to help you channel the Force, too.
Jump ahead to:
Wookiee cookies & creature cakes >>
Star Wars savories & snacks >>
Star Warsiverse recipe riffs >>
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Yoda yummiest recipes
As if Jedi Master Yoda weren’t phenomenal enough, along comes The Mandalorian with its toddler version of … whatever mystery species Yoda is. All we know is: The Child/Grogu/Baby Yoda is so cute we want to eat him up. Literally.
Yoda Cucumber Bites
Who knew it was so easy to turn guac-filled cukes into Yoda heads? If you want a veggie version, just skip the turkey.
Baby Yoda Deviled Eggs with Avocado
If there’s anything more adorable than Baby Yoda, it’s Baby Yoda floating in his pod. Hard-boiled eggs make a brilliant stand-in for his levitating travel contraption, and the pea pod ears are beyond adorable.
Baby Yoda Cocktail
Does a black olive garnish on a muddled kiwi cocktail sound iffy? Kinda. Who cares when it’s this cute?
Baby Yoda Cookies
I can vouch for the chop-the-head-off-an-angel-cookie trick — you really will end up with Baby Yoda-shaped cookies, though surely by now someone’s selling an actual Grogu cookie cutter. Matcha and cocoa powder, by the way, make great natural frosting tints.
Revenge of the 5th recipes
If you vibe with the dark side, Grogu cocktails probably aren’t your thing. We’ve got you (and your sweet tooth) covered.
Darth Malt Milkshakes
There are some seriously creepy Darth Maul-inspired recipes out there. If you’re not keen on eating the Sith Lord’s face (or a disturbing amount of red food dye), try this punnily-dubbed malted instead. Use a clear glass to get the Dathomirian face tattoo effect from your chocolate syrup, and have fun sculpting some horns in the whipped cream.
Death Star Whoopie Pies
A round fondant cutter and a couple of skewers are all it takes to lend these whoopie pies a foreboding battle station look. (No silver food spray? Try dusting with confectioners’ sugar.) If you feel the need to devour ... er ... destroy a second Death Star in fidelity to the plot, we won’t tell.
White Hot Chocolate with Storm Trooper Marshmallows
Stormtroopers are notoriously bad shots, so they’re pretty easy to pop off — kind of like these mallows. You don’t need major artistic skill — just a food marker and a steady hand — to make them.
TIE Fighter Oreo Pops
This no-bake recipe starts with crushed Oreos and uses packaged wafer cookies to mimic TIE fighters’ distinctive shape. Thanks to their on-a-stickness, you can stage a little dogfight before you eat them.
Wookiee cookies & creature cakes
“Wookiee Cookies” sounds so catchy, it’s actually the title of a cookbook. We’ll use it liberally as a catch-all phrase for any cookie-like Star Wars treat, though literalists will find lots of Chewbacca-inspired versions. If you want bigger-scale sweets, we’ve got cake recipes, too.
Star Wars Cheerio Treats
These sweet cereal bars are topped with chocolate-dipped pretzel lightsabers. If you don’t have colored candy melts, try rolling white chocolate-dipped pretzels in saber-hued sanding sugar or sprinkles.
Wookiee Cookies
Transform chewy oatmeal cookies into Chewie oatmeal cookies with a little strategically placed frosting and white chocolate.
Ewok Granola Bars
It’s uncanny how well Tootsie Rolls and melted chocolate can transform granola bars into Ewok doppelgangers. It’s also a little unnerving, considering that if Leia hadn’t befriended Wicket with a granola bar-ish snack, his furry little warrior clan would have roasted Han and Chewie. And Ewoks are supposedly related to Wookiees, soooo …
Star Wars Sarlacc Bundt Cake
Getting eaten by a Sarlacc is a singularly lousy fate, and frankly, we’d prefer to eat cake to death — especially if caramel and Biscoff are involved. Want simpler sarlaccs? These cupcakes start with cake mix.
Star Wars Wampa Cake
Per Mark Hamill’s #StillAngry2017 tweet, no wampas should have been harmed in that infamous Hoth scene. So, if you’ve got a Luke action figure kicking around, feel free to exercise a little creative revisionism and cozy him up to this easy cake.
Star Wars savories & snacks
Bring balance to the sweet side with salads, sammies, and snacks that lean more savory
Boba Feta Salad
Everyone’s favorite bounty hunter gets the savory salad treatment.
Porgwich
A bunch of jokesters on the ’net have posted recipes for roasted porg that’s really just chicken, but even Chewie couldn’t bring himself to eat the real deal after he looked into their big eyes. We’ll happily tuck into a vegetarian sandwich that looks like the adorable seabird, though.
Porg Potatoes
These porg potatoes require precise placement of individual sesame seeds, but they’re so absurdly adorable the fussy prep may be worth it.
Star Wars Bento
If you’re feeling ambitious and/or have R2-D2 hard-boiled egg molds (who doesn’t?), here’s some bento box inspo.
Jabba the Houmous
The notion of eating Jabba, no less sculpting the famously bad Hutt out of hummus, is both hilarious and gross … kind of like the notoriously vile gangster himself. FYI, the recipe uses metric measures; you’ll need a generous half cup of tahini and 2 (15-ounce) cans of chickpeas to make it.
Princess Leia Apple Snacks
Listen up, nerf herders: no more half-witted attempts to “pay tribute” to her highness with smiley cupcakes and scruffy-looking cinnamon buns. General Organa deserves better. Snappy apple slices piped with cocoa-cinnamon cream cheese are much more on point.
Delicious droids
Whether they’re spunky, snide, anxious, or adorable, Star Wars’ droids are big on personality and so much fun. If you’ve got a soft spot for the hardware, these are the recipes you’re looking for.
Star Wars Popcorn
R2 is the obvious inspiration for this sweet-and-salty mix of candied popcorn, pretzels, and blue and red M&Ms.
C-3PO Lemon Tarts
C-3PO gets a little puckery when stressed, which is most of the time, so the lemon curd filling just feels spot-on.
BB-8 Bruschetta
Baguette, baby bell peppers, black olives, "everything but the bagel" seasoning — brilliant! (Hey, that’s 8 B's!)
Star Warsiverse recipe riffs
If you want to truly immerse yourself in a galaxy far, far away, you need these screen-to-table recipes
Jakku Ration Bread
This recipe was the anchor of our Star Wars Day 2020 menu. I sacrificed the last of my flour and spinach to make it, half expecting it to be a bust, albeit a thematic one. Turns out it’s good stuff, and after gobbling it down like Rey after a scavenging run, my kids made me promise to make “portions” again.
Luke Skywalker’s Blue Milk
In exile on Ahch-To Island, Luke famously milks a thala-siren for its blue milk. But his penchant for dairy goes back to his Tatooine farm boy days, when he pours blue bantha milk into a Tupperware tumbler. (Apparently, Aunt Beru and my mom had similar taste in kitchenware … ) This recipe is especially cool because it uses butterfly pea flowers, which are purple but turn liquid blue, and are entirely more intergalactic than food coloring.
Aunt Beru’s Blue Milk
I never imagined Aunt Beru kicking back with a cocktail, but if you fancy a more grown-up version of blue milk (and want to imagine Beru with an inner life), well, here you go.
Vanilla Roasted Pears with Cranberries
That bizarre prequel moment when Anakin steals Padme’s raw pear, then cuts it weirdly with a fork and knife inspires the sort of irrational exasperation that makes me want to yell at the screen or have a Kylo Ren-style temper tantrum. Cooked pears like these would have made so much more sense, especially with burst cranberries to foreshadow Mustafar’s volcanic surface and Anakin’s slide into general Sithiness.
Black Rice + Romanesco Bowl
Romanesco lovers, hands up if you got a little “Hey! I know that weird veggie!” thrill when you saw it on the table in Maz’s castle. Rey ate the fractal-spiraled veggie in a hollowed out apple, but served atop a bowl of purple-black rice, it still looks Takodana menu-worthy.
Kiwano Orange Eggless Ice Cream
Kiwanos (aka horned melons) also had a cameo on the Takodana Castle table. Of course, their Darth Maul-esque spikes make them equal opportunity for fans of the dark side.
Tandoori Chicken Wings with Yogurt Sauce
If chicken can pretend to be porg, it can be mynock, too. This recipe comes from son Ben (Ford, not Solo), but close enough. Since Han’s backstory involves spice running (yeah, yeah, not that kind of spice, we’re stretching here), we’re pretty sure Harrison would approve. Don’t everybody thank us at once.
More fun eats
If Stars Wars-themed food gets you excited, check out more fun food topics below.