Veggie Pops at Mister Donut Japan, and Frighteningly Delicious Halloween Donuts

Mister Donut's "veggie pops" blend strawberries, apples, and pineapple with carrots, pumpkin, tomatoes, and spinach for a healthy treat.

The Japanese people are generally known as being very healthy, given their diet, level of activity, and impressive concentration of centenarians. However they still love to indulge in karaage (fried chicken), ramen, and tempura, too. In this day and age we are faced with a plethora of both healthy and "comfort food" options at stores and restaurants, but why not put two and two together? Mister Donut did just that, creating "veggie pops", petite-sized, brightly colored donuts with tofu cream filling. It's an effort to feel "healthy" while snacking on fried balls of dough, because if you think you're eating carrots and spinach, it must be healthy no matter how much oil and sugar is in it, right? They're also tiny (hence the name "pops"), which also makes you feel healthier, so win-win!

Three pops available in red, orange, and green.

The donuts are a blend of vegetable and fruit flavors. They're available in three different flavors: carrot-strawberry-tomato, pumpkin-apple-carrot, and Japanese mustard spinach-pineapple-spinach.

Carrot-Strawberry-Tomato

Carrot-strawberry-tomato veggie pops

Having "strawberry" in its name is bound to mean this pretty red donut must taste the best in spite of the carrot and tomato (technically tomatoes are fruit, so this donut only has one vegetable). The two donut halves are made from carrot dough, while the filling is a mixture of whipped strawberries, tomatoes, and tofu. Did I mention tofu?! Another level of healthiness added. This donut definitely looks appetizing, but how about the taste? According to my source in Japan, it was pretty good.

Pumpkin-Apple-Carrot

Pumpkin-apple-carrot veggie pops

Now this one sounds like a winner! Pumpkin as in pumpkin pie, right, plus apples? You probably can't even taste the carrot. Fortunately this donut tasted pretty good, although pumpkins in Japan (which are green outside and a little closer to the squash family) aren't usually associated with sweets. This time the dough is pumpkin flavored while the tofu whip on the inside blends carrots and apples.

Japanese Mustard Spinach-Pineapple-Spinach

Japanese mustard spinach-pineapple-spinach veggie pops.

And now we come upon the spinach. Basically this one has double spinach. It also looks too healthy to be sweet and tasty, doesn't it? The dough is made from komatsuna, Japanese mustard spinach, and the tofu whip has pineapple and even more spinach. Apparently this one was not appetizing at all, which is not too surprising.

Overall, the veggie flavors were subtle and all except the spinach one were good! Maybe you were able to try them if you were in Japan last month. If you missed it, Mister Donut is currently running a Halloween donut campaign.

Halloween donuts at Mister Donut include jack-o-lanterns and monsters.

The donuts are pretty cute! I would definitely buy the jack-o-lantern one. The other donuts are supposed to look like monsters. There are also donut "eyeballs", which come in a few different flavors: beni'imo (purple sweet potato), cookies and cream, pumpkin, and custard.

Donut hole "eyeballs".

You can even buy yourself a whole bucket o' eyeballs.

How many eyeballs would you like? Sounds like something out of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

They're also partnering with Hello Kitty to give us these adorable kitty-jack-o-lanterns and ghosts.

Hello Kitty line of donuts.

If you're in Japan through Halloween, stop by Mister Donut and try one! I can honestly say Mister Donut is my favorite donut place of all time. You can read more about Halloween in Japan here. Happy haunting!