Whatever the occasion, serving tasty appetizers are the perfect way to get the party started. With a little thought, the right recipes, and some careful preparation, you can create gourmet appetizer recipes in the comfort of your own kitchen. Making amazing appetizers at home is easy. Now you can make dips, dumplings, nibbles, nuts, salsas, soups, spreads, tarts, wraps and much more at home within minutes.
Home chefs all over the world are combining exotic flavors and, using their culinary skills as well as their imagination, creating some of the most breathtaking and mouthwatering dishes. Appetizers do not have to be fiddly or difficult to make and neither do they have to be boring.
Plan your menu according to the type of gathering, have fun, use your imagination and you will leave your diners in awe. If you are going to be creating appetizers for a big party, it is a good idea to do as much of the planning and preparation as possible beforehand.
EasyAppetizerRecipes.net presents a growing collection of truly wonderful, time-tested, easy to prepare appetizers, which are certain to please any crowd.
Appetizers are exactly as the word suggests - appetizing snacks. Appetizers are served between the time your guests arrive and the time the main meal is served. Appetizers keep your guests happy while they wait for the food. They are not supposed to fill your guests up, but they are meant to take the edge off their hunger and be something to nibble while the first drinks are served.
Appetizers, which are known as canapés or hors d'oeuvres in French or starters in British English, can also be served instead of a meal. Perhaps you have attended a cocktail party or reception and been offered nibbles and drinks only. Appetizers might be served at the dinner table or they might be passed around by the host. At a cocktail party there might be bowls or plates of appetizers placed around the room for people to help themselves to.
Appetizers can refer to many different types of snacks. They can be sweet, salty, spicy or a mixture of these. They can be hot, chilled or room temperature. There are cold appetizer recipes like shrimp appetizers, seafood appetizers and cold cuts.
There are light, refreshing summer appetizer recipes, elaborate and fancy appetizer recipes and tasty hot appetizer recipes made with beef, pork, cheese and more. Some appetizers are served on little squares of toast or bread and others might be secured with a toothpick. Some appetizers are finger foods and for others your guests will need a fork.
The type of appetizer recipes you make depends on the gathering. If you have a combination of adults and children, you might want to provide different appetizers than if you had just adults. Before you start making appetizers, you need to ask yourself a few questions. How many people will there be? How many of them might be vegetarian? Do any of your guests have allergies?
What is the main meal going to be? If you are going to serve roast beef as the main meal, you will not want to make a roast beef appetizer. Spend a few moments considering the get-together you are going to cater for and you can pick out the best and most easy appetizer recipes.
Bon Appétit, and thanks for visiting,
Christine and everyone here at Easy Appetizer Recipes
The best appetizers are those that make the mouth water in anticipation and these hot, salty bacon and cheese appetizers do just that. Bacon-wrapped nibbles are always popular and you can choose from scallop wrapped in bacon appetizers, a bacon wrapped prune appetizer, a recipe for bacon wrapped sausage appetizer and more. If you want to combine salty bacon with something sweet you could wrap the bacon around dates or banana chunks. Bacon-wrapped cheese is a great appetizer and you can use any kind of cheese you like.
Gorgonzola is an especially tasty cheese to use in this bacon appetizers recipe because it is naturally salty. It is also firm enough to hold its shape when heated. If you want to add some sweetness, feel free to put a small piece of banana in each appetizer. When you put the toothpicks through the cheese and bacon, make sure they go through the banana too, so the appetizers do not fall apart in the deep fryer. You might want to put two toothpicks through each one, in a cross shape, just to make sure. You can serve these appetizers with fresh toothpicks or let them cool down enough so people can use their fingers to pick them up.
This bacon appetizer recipe shows you how simple it is to make easy party appetizers with just a few ingredients. You only need cheese, bacon, and oil to make these and you can make them in five minutes. It is important to let this gorgonzola bacon appetizer rest for at least five minutes after cooking it. This is both so the fat can drain off and so they are not too hot for your guests to eat.
Ingredients -
2 lbs gorgonzola cheese
12 strips smoked bacon
Oil for deep-frying
12 toothpicks
1 lb sour cream
1 teaspoon concentrated tomato puree
1 oz package ranch dressing mix
Preparation:
Preheat a deep fryer to 400 degrees F.
Cut the cheese into 12 pieces.
Wrap a strip of bacon around each piece of cheese and secure it with a toothpick.
Drop the bacon-wrapped cheese blocks carefully into the hot oil and cook them until the bacon is browned and crispy.
This will take about 4 minutes.
Use tongs to remove the appetizers and drain them on brown paper.
Let them cool for 5 minutes, and then remove the toothpicks.
Stir the ranch dressing mix and tomato puree into the sour cream and transfer this dip into a small dish.
Arrange the bacon-wrapped gorgonzola appetizers on a serving platter and put the dish of dip in the center.
Serve the bacon-wrapped gorgonzola appetizers warm.
(Serves 12)
Photo Description:
Something as simple as bacon-wrapped cheese can make a wonderful appetizer. Fancy appetizer recipes do not have to take all day to create and you can make this gorgonzola and bacon appetizer in five minutes. Mix the dip ingredients while these bacon-wrapped cheese bites fry and you will have an attractive and appealing dish ready before you know it. Easy party appetizers like this always go down well at any gathering. They might look difficult to make but that could not be further from the truth. These appetizers are easy to put together and they are guaranteed to taste absolutely amazing.
If the prospect of having to make appetizers fills you with fear, you can relax. If you are imagining little elaborate treats, made by spending hours fiddling with ingredients and making complicated garnishes, think again. Appetizers can be as easy or as tricky as you want them to be.
Yes, of course there are complicated appetizers. We have all been to parties and seen elaborate centerpieces, carved garnishes and food that looks too artistic to eat but not all appetizers have to be that way. The definition of an appetizer is something to fire up your appetite. If the main course is an hour away but your stomach is rumbling, an appetizer is a small amount of food to take the edge off your hunger without spoiling your appetite for the main meal.
If you think of an appetizer as a little snack, pretty much anything can be regarded as one. A cube of cheese is an appetizer. A spear of asparagus is an appetizer. Even a handful of peanuts is an appetizer!
If you have guests coming over, you might want to serve them something a little more impressive than a chunk of cheddar and a couple of peanuts, which is why learning a few easy party appetizers is such a great idea.
Maybe you want to make a cold appetizer recipe like shrimp appetizers or seafood appetizers. You do not need to make fancy appetizer recipes but these are simpler than you might anticipate.
In order to make easy party appetizers, which look and taste good, you will need to think about what your guests will like. If family or close friends are coming over, you will probably be aware of most of their likes and dislikes. If you have an assortment of guests, you might like to make a few different appetizers. Do you want to make summer appetizer recipes or hot holiday appetizer recipes?
Perhaps one of the guests is a vegetarian and another is allergic to seafood appetizers. This is why it is always prudent to make several different appetizers or at least a couple of different ones if you are serving the appetizers buffet-style or if the host is going to be walking around the room, offering them to people. If you are doing this, finger food is obviously better than messy food, which is liable to drip.
If you are serving the appetizer at the table, maybe you can also have bread, butter, nuts and olives on the table so people can nibble at those as well as the appetizer or instead of the appetizer you are serving. This is also a good idea because different people eat different amounts. There might be a woman with a naturally small appetite who ate a couple of hours ago. Next to her might be a big man who has not eaten in several hours and will want the appetizer and a couple of bread rolls to fill him up before the main course arrives.
Being a good host is about anticipating the needs and desires of your guests and using good judgment is a great way to make sure your guests have a wonderful time. Great food, as well as a good atmosphere, is what makes a gathering special and appetizers are the first food to be served so they will pave the way to a successful gathering or party and start the event off perfectly.
Shrimp Appetizers
The Best Shrimp Appetizers - Shrimp is a versatile ingredient and it can even be matched with unlikely sounding ingredients. Bacon wrapped shrimp is a classic appetizer recipe and, even though you might not have thought of combining these two ingredients, the combination is sublime. Shrimp also goes nicely with cheese, fruit, or vegetables and is always popular in appetizers.
Easy Party Appetizers
Easy Party Appetizers for Everyone - Unless you are making something, which requires lots of preparation, you will find that most appetizers are easy party appetizers. If you are making a lot of appetizers at once, the easiest way is to prepare the ingredients and then make up the appetizers in a methodical way. Choose simple appetizers with three or four ingredients to simplify the process further.
Cold Appetizer Recipe
Choosing a Tasty Cold Appetizer Recipe - Perhaps you are thinking about serving a cold appetizer recipe and there are many to choose from. A lot of easy party appetizers do not require baking and are designed to be served chilled. Examples include hummus, chicken salad, shrimp and mango stuffed tomatoes and lots more. A cold appetizer recipe is great for kick starting your guests' appetites.
Appetizer Recipes
Favorite Appetizer Recipes - Everybody has their own favorite flavors. Some people adore seafood, some love to try dip recipes and others like to start the meal with a classic salad or soup recipe. If you are catering for a buffet or big party, you can make a selection of favorite appetizer recipes, else you can just choose something that you think will appeal to everyone.
Seafood Appetizers
Simple Seafood Appetizers - Seafood does not have to be complicated and whether you are serving a shrimp cocktail, bacon wrapped shrimp or steamed mussels, you can make seafood appetizers in minutes. Seafood appetizers go with all kinds of main course, whether you are going to be eating meat, fish, or another type of seafood or even vegetarian.
Summer Appetizer Recipes
Light Summer Appetizer Recipes - Many of us like to eat outside in the summer which means that summer appetizer recipes should be something that can withstand a bit of warm weather and does not collapse or melt the minute it leaves the refrigerator! There are also some easy party appetizers you can make on the grill, such as chicken satay or spicy shrimp skewers.
Holiday Appetizer Recipes
Special Holiday Appetizer Recipes - Holidays are a time of having fun and enjoying food and drink to the maximum. Making easy party appetizers for a special holiday is fun and you can make a few different appetizers so your guests can mix and match. Pretty much any kinds of appetizer recipes are great for the holidays.
Fancy Appetizer Recipes
Creative and Fancy Appetizer Recipes - Fancy appetizer recipes are just as much about presentation as flavor but it is not difficult to transform a plain looking appetizer into a creative one by adding some garnish or another colorful ingredient to jazz it up a bit. There are many different fancy appetizer recipes to choose from.
Make Ahead Appetizers
Timesaving Make Ahead Appetizers - If you have a lot to do, make ahead appetizers can be really useful because, as the phrase implies, you simply make them ahead of time and chill them until you are ready to serve them. There are plenty of make ahead appetizers you can create, all of which are flavorful and easy to make.
Dip Recipes
Dip Recipes for Bread or Crudités - There are plenty of delicious dip recipes you can make for dipping crackers, bread, or crudités, which are chopped vegetables. Good crudités for dipping include asparagus, celery, and mushroom. From creamy hummus to spicy salsa, there are lots of homemade dips you can make and dips are a good example of easy party appetizers.
Hot Appetizer Recipes
Sizzling Hot Appetizer Recipes - Appetizers do not have to be chilled and, in fact, some of the most flavorsome and easy party appetizers are served hot from the oven. You can choose from hot dips, bacon wrapped scallops and many more if you want to serve some hot appetizer recipes to whet your guests' appetites for more.
Superbowl Party Recipes
Classic Superbowl Party Recipes - Although there are thousands of different appetizer recipes, there are certain snacks that everybody wants and expects on Superbowl Sunday. If you are looking for a new recipe for buffalo wings, an easy way to make mini pizzas, a quick recipe for a hot cheese dip or something else, we have all your Superbowl party recipes covered right here. Combine easy party appetizers with a couple of hot appetizer recipes and your guests will be absolutely delighted.
Appetizer Articles
Helpful Appetizer Articles - If you are new to making appetizers, our appetizer articles should help you. We have hot and cold appetizer ideas, appetizer tips, guides on how to present appetizers and much more. The best appetizer recipes are simple to create and delicious to eat and our appetizer articles can help ensure that your easy party appetizers come out perfect.
1. It Shows You Have Made an Effort
If you want to impress your guests, you are not going to do that by serving a plate of thawed grocery store appetizers. The appetizers you serve makes a statement and homemade appetizers shows your guests that you are happy to make the effort. There are easy party appetizers and make ahead appetizers, so there is no excuse not to at least have a try at making your own appetizers!
2. There are Lots of Easy Party Appetizers to Choose From
Whether you want to make a cold appetizer recipe, hot appetizer recipes, summer appetizer recipes, shrimp appetizers, or something else, the sky is the limit when it comes to appetizer options.
3. Make Ahead Appetizers Taste Great Too
If you have to make a main meal and dessert too, why not make the appetizers ahead. Chilled appetizers can usually be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them.
4. Homemade Appetizers are More Economical Than Bought Ones
You can save money by making your own appetizers. Why pay five dollars for a packet of tiny appetizers you have to throw in the deep fryer, when you can make your own delicious and easy party appetizers for one or two dollars? Even if you are not on a tight budget, serving tasty homemade food is still better than serving store-bought things.
5. Nothing Beats the Taste of Homemade Appetizers
With homemade easy party appetizers, you can put your own stamp on them. You choose what to make, how many to make and how to garnish the serving platters. Making your own appetizers shows your guests that you feel they are worth the effort and starts the evening off in a great way.
Here is just a sampling of our delicious easy appetizer recipes you'll find plenty more inside the site.
Shrimp Appetizers in a Zesty Sauce
Eggplant Easy Party Appetizers
Cold Appetizer Recipe with Fruit
Easy Cheese Balls with Indian Green Chutney
One of the Best Summer Appetizer Recipes - Zesty Tuna Ceviche
One of the Best Holiday Appetizer Recipes - Apple Filo Appetizers
Appetizers date back two thousand years to ancient Persia. The upper classes in Rome in 1 AD were served snacks like fruit and eggs before their main meal. More than a hundred years ago, appetizers were usually canapés, which are small open sandwiches, oysters on the half-shell or bowls of soup. They were served at the dinner table.
American cocktail appetizers are thought to originate from free nibbles, which were served in bars. In the prohibition era, people drank in their own homes rather than in bars, so small snacks were served with the drinks.
Hors d'oeuvres have been popular for decades and the trend for cocktail parties enhanced their popularity even more. Guests were forced to circulate at such parties and juggling napkins, drinks, cigarettes and purses meant that easy finger food was the simplest snack to serve.
Celery stuffed with sardine paste was a popular appetizer before 1920, before celery stuffed with cheese appeared. By the 1940s, you would find stuffed eggs, stuffed dill pickles, stuffed artichokes, and stuffed mushroom caps too.
Dips achieved popularity in the 1950s and a blend of dry onion soup mix and sour cream was an early favorite. A cream cheese and clam dip was said to be one of the president's favorite appetizers. Dips are still very welcome today and crunchy bread sticks, pretzels or potato chips are wonderful dipped into creamy or cheesy dips. It is a good idea to have napkins on hand if you want to serve dips!
Appetizers developed in different ways in different countries but an appetizer is basically a small snack to take the edge off your hunger if you are not ready to eat a main meal. They are nice to nibble if you are enjoying a cocktail or a glass of wine before dinner.
More Appetizer History >>> History of the Word Appetizer
There is a lot to be said for sticking to classic appetizer recipes. Everyone loves chips, olives, cheese, chicken wings and cold cuts after all, don't they? Even though this might seem like the safe route to take when planning easy party appetizers, it is fun to create memorable appetizers too.
Obviously, you want your appetizers to be memorable for all the right reasons, not because one of your guests suffered third degree burns when biting into a piping hot appetizer or stained his shirt with a messy red dip because you forgot to provide napkins!
An appetizer might be memorable because of the way it is presented, the fine ingredients you have used to make it or because you are serving an interesting mixture of classic appetizers and exciting exotic ones.
If you get the ingredients right and the presentation right, your appetizers are going to be a resounding success. Choose easy party appetizers and plan what you are going to make in plenty of time. This means you have time to assemble your ingredients and create the appetizers.
Running out of appetizers is never a good idea so make sure you have plenty. A lot of appetizers can also be enjoyed the following day if you have leftovers. Maybe you just want to make two or three kinds of appetizers and this is fine, so long as you follow the recipes carefully and present them in an attractive way.
If you are not sure how many people you will be catering for, you can have nuts, bread, cheese, and olives on standby and get these out if you do not think you have enough appetizers. Hungry people will snack on any tasty-looking food you leave around them.
Appetizers play a part in every culture and these little snacks are served all over the globe. The types of appetizers vary from country to country and it can be fun to incorporate an international flavor into your appetizer recipes.
This might mean making a fusion appetizer, where you take a traditional appetizer recipe and add some spice from another cuisine or it might mean serving Asian appetizers with Spanish tapas or serving an Italian bread with a Greek style dip. The best appetizers are those, which you make when you are not afraid to use your imagination and creativity.
A plate of appetizers is something that people can help themselves to. If they want to taste one of your appetizers, they can do so. If you have a buffet style layer, people tend to help themselves to a variety of foods and make their own flavor combinations anyway. So, what are some of the most popular appetizers around the world?
If you think about Asian appetizers, maybe you think of Chinese dim sum or Japanese sushi. Shrimp appetizers with a tangy chili sauce are always popular, as are miniature egg rolls, chicken satay and fancy appetizer recipes with exotic garnishes.
In Italy, appetizers are known as antipasto. The words antipasto and antipasti, which literally translates to mean "before the meal" have appeared on menus in the United States since the early twentieth century. Antipasti might be cured meats, cheeses, sun dried tomatoes or an Italian salad like insalata tricolore, which is tomatoes, mozzarella and basil. In Spain, appetizers are known as tapas and olives, cheese and cured meats are all popular.
Swedish appetizers are known as a smorgasbord and this word has been used since 1936 in the United States to mean a buffet. In Sweden, it is traditional to start with bread, butter, and cheese and then fish appetizers such as herring, eel and salmon. Next, the Swedes will eat more cold dishes, followed by hot ones.
In the UK, appetizers are known as starters. British starters are very similar to popular North American appetizers. In France, appetizers are known by a variety of names, including canapés, hors d’oeuvres, and amuse-bouche. An amuse-bouche is usually something you eat in one bite.
In Greece, Turkey and most Arab countries, the word meze applies to appetizers. Interestingly enough, these words are widely used in English-speaking countries too. A meze might be an assortment of deep fried foods with dip recipes like taramasalata and yogurt-based dips served on the side.
Seafood appetizers and especially shrimp appetizers are popular in South America. You might be served shrimp cocktail as an appetizer in a South American home. Tortillas with homemade dips are also popular. In fact, most cultures have their own dip recipes. These might be hot or chilled.
Coconut chips are a popular appetizer in the Caribbean and these are made by finely slicing fresh coconut flesh and baking it. In India, appetizers can be made with fish, poultry, meat, or cheese. There are lots of deep fried Indian appetizers and also spicy dip recipes, which are served with traditional Indian bread.
There are far too many international appetizers to list here but suffice it to say that every culture and cuisine has its own delicious appetizer recipes you can recreate at home and delight your guests with.
You can find additional easy party appetizer recipes on our Easy Appetizer Recipes home page or look through the appetizer categories to find the perfect appetizers to make. Whether you want to learn how to make shrimp appetizers or creamy dip recipes, exquisite seafood appetizers or traditional holiday appetizer recipes, we have many different recipes for you to choose from.
Whether you are planning a cocktail party, a buffet or a big get-together we have all the best and most easy party appetizers you need, to make your event a success. You might be looking for fancy appetizer recipes or you might want to learn a few simple ones like classic dips. Perhaps you are completely new to the world of appetizers and you want a few tips on appetizer presentation or how many appetizers you should make for a group of ten or twenty people. We have that covered in our appetizer articles too.
There is nothing to worry about, even if you have not made appetizers before. Simply work out how many appetizers you need to make and choose whether you want to make hot appetizer recipes, a cold appetizer recipe, or a mixture. Do you want to make fancy appetizer recipes or do you just want a couple of classic dip recipes? Whatever the occasion, we have the perfect ideas for you.
Appetizers can be really easy and it is possible to make stunning looking appetizers with just three or four ingredients. Combine different flavors, textures, and colors for great results. We have our easy party appetizers categorized to make it easy for you to find just what you are looking for.
One of the most important things about making appetizers is the presentation. Appetizers are supposed to look appetizing (hence the name!) Even if you are going to serve a simple appetizer, like stalks of celery with a homemade dip, you can serve it in style. Chop all the stalks of celery the same length and arrange them in a circle around the bowl of dip.
Garnish the dip with some fresh leaves of mint or basil and you have a stunning-looking dip, which took perhaps five minutes to make. A lot of dips only have three or four ingredients and you just need to stir the ingredients together. If you make easy party appetizers, that gives you a few extra precious minutes to work on the presentation.
If you are serving hot appetizer recipes, it is important to get the timing right. A cold appetizer recipe will be fine in the refrigerator until you want to serve it but if your appetizer needs to cook for ten minutes then be served hot, don't make it before it is needed. If you are expecting twenty guests and four arrive early, get the chips, dips, and olives out but wait until a few more guests are starting to show up before cooking the hot appetizers.
Another common sense tip for hot appetizer recipes is that they are not supposed to be hot. Hot appetizers are supposed to be warm, not steaming hot. If you serve piping hot finger food straight from the oven, you can imagine what will happen when a guest pops the whole thing in his mouth! Give your hot appetizers ten or fifteen minutes to cool down a bit before serving them.
Did you know that the Persians were the first race to start the tradition of serving appetizers, more than two thousand years ago? Ancient Persian appetizers bear little resemblance to the easy party appetizers seen at modern get-togethers but it is an interesting fact nonetheless, and you can impress your guests with this piece of information as you serve your fancy appetizer recipes.
Have you eaten tapas? Tapas simple means appetizers in Spanish and there is an interesting story to this word. The word "tapa" is thought to have been invented when King Alfonso X had to nibble food with wine between meals, due to sickness. When he was better, he made a law that wine was only to be served in an inn if food was served with it, to avoid drunkenness.
A heavy fat-rich meal was hard to digest and meant the Spanish workers had to take a siesta before getting back to work. Enjoying a few tapas and a glass of wine meant they could get straight back to work after their lunch.
The Spanish siesta might still be practiced but in the rest of the world appetizer traditions have changed. Exotic appetizers are popular in the United States and Europe. Chinese shrimp appetizers, Thai chicken appetizers and colorful Mexican appetizers are just as likely to make an appearance at a buffet as more traditional appetizers like chicken wings, cheese, and vegetable crudités. There are thousands of easy party appetizers, including both hot appetizer recipes and chilled appetizers that are suitable for all kinds of parties and get-togethers.
Welcome to Easy Appetizer Recipes we have recently changed the design of the site to better reflect our content and continued efforts to improve the functionality of the site for our visitors and repeat users. Easy Appetizer are a festive food and we thought a more content rich and fuller site would meet your needs better. We felt this move was necessary because frankly, our recipes are "easy to make" and Easy Appetizer are great to celebrate with in your own home.
We have also launched the new design in less than ideal timing and that is why we are starting out with a lighter recipe count then we normally would. We felt it necessary to get the site out and then continue feverishly to add dozens more recipes throughout the holiday season. We apologize for this but it is necessary to do it this way for indexing reasons and to try and make the holiday season. We promise a much upgraded site by the next holiday.
We hope you like the site upgrade, the new recipes, and appetizer cooking articles. Over the next several weeks, we have loads of new content to add to the site so check back often to see what is new. Our goal here is not only to make this the best site we can but also to make it the preeminent appetizer site on the web. Thanks, for visiting and if you have a moment please bookmark us in your favorite social bookmarking site we appreciate the vote of confidence it helps us focus our resources on what you really want great content.