At Christmas the table is a must, whether for the 24th dinner, the 25th lunch or the 26th dinner with leftovers and a card game. So as not to spend too much time in the kitchen, we’ve gathered ideas for Christmas appetizers suitable for lunches with many people. They’re easy to make and look great.
Vintage Christmas appetizers
If you have a lot of people to feed, try dates wrapped in a slice of bacon and then baked in the oven at 350°F degrees until golden. They’re delicious, and even if you have to make a lot of them, it only takes a few minutes to prepare. For a vegetarian version you can opt for dates cut in half and stuffed with a teaspoon of mascarpone and a walnut kernel.
Christmas appetizers for many people: puff pastry is the salvation
Ready-made puff pastry is versatile, cheap, and will be your best friend if you have to prepare a ton of Christmas appetizers. Cut into triangles, it can be stuffed with cheese, salumi, or even fish and vegetables and then rolled up to form a salted croissant. Cut into strips and rolled up on itself – perhaps brushed with pesto or slightly beaten egg yolk and sesame or poppy seeds – it will give you delicious breadsticks, perfect for dipping in chickpea hummus (another wild card as an appetizer for many people) or in sauces. Making discs with a glass you can make mini-pizzas with tomato and cheese or even hors d’oeuvres with olive paste or artichokes.
Make a mousse out of almost anything
Making a mousse out of tuna, salmon, mortadella or cooked ham is simple: just blend the chosen ingredient with ricotta and a drop of cream. So what’s the trick to make your work even easier when you have a huge table? Put the mousse on the table separately from the bread, bruschetta and breadsticks. Leave the task of spreading the mousse to the diners. That way they can also pick whatever they want to put it on.
Traditional Christmas appetizers suitable for tables
At Christmas you have to have a salad with substance, like a seafood salad or a Russian salad. These are dishes that can be prepared with the same effort, regardless of whether for 4 or 20 people, just increase the ingredients. Inevitably, you’ll need vol-au-vents – or similar hollowed out puff pastry – which are also good for large tables. Just buy them ready made and then fill them with mushrooms sautéed in a pan with a clove of garlic and a little cream cheese.