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What Are Your Favorite Appetizers To Make for the Holidays?

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charcuterie tray with cheeses, fruit, olives, pickles, nuts, and meats

We haven't had a recipe thread in a long while, so let's discuss: what are your favorite appetizers to make for the holidays? If it's something simple like cheese and crackers, do you have specific cheeses that you always buy? Does it matter if you're hosting or bringing food to someone else's gathering?

For my $.02… my eldest is actually a big fan of making charcuterie boards, so we always do one of those, with him also picking most of the cheeses. He really likes stinky ones like gorgonzola and blue cheese! I also tend to buy freezer appetizers like pigs in a blanket, mac and cheese bites, and spanakopita.

My aunt has done a mean spinach and artichoke dip that she serves warm in a mini-crockpot… I won't see her this Christmas, so I may just have to make my own.

Over to you guys — what are your favorite appetizers to make for the holidays?

35 Comments

  1. I highly recommend Ina Garten’s warm marinated olives for an easy, siphisticated feeling app. Alon Shaya’s marinated soft cheese with herbs and spices hits some of the same notes and is absolutely killer.

    Also, it can be a little fussy to prep, but peppadews stuffed with goat cheese and, if you’d like, wrapped in prosciutto, are so delicious!

      1. Have you made these with a hand mixer instead of a processor? I hate dragging that giant thing out…

        1. I drag out the Kitchenaid only about twice a year, but yes, I do drag it out for the crackers!

    1. veggies and hummos? chips and salsa? so many tasty options are easy, i don’t see putting a lot of effort into cooking real apps.

      1. Eating the same 2 cold apps gets very tiring for vegans. Everytime someone tells me ‘dont worry I have vegan snacks too’ my brain immediately thinks ‘I don’t want your sh*tty hummus’ but of course I don’t say that I bring a warm app I actually want to eat.

        1. yeah but that’s your choice to follow a restrictive diet. Don’t expect a host to make several separate and/or labor intensive apps just because you don’t want the usual ones.

          FWIW, whenever I host I always do salsa + chips and veggies + dip (in addition to other apps) and they’re always crowd pleasers. I provide those and my 1 vegan friend never, ever shows up without bringing plenty of vegan food.

          1. Yeah I said I bring food, as does your vegan friend. We know we won’t be accomodated. But pretending hummus is some sort of kindness is exhausting.

          2. I’m actually quite willing to accommodate my vegan friend but she insists on BYOing because she knows its a PITA to accommodate her.

        2. Are there good warm apps? I’d love to provide but admittedly I don’t know what to make so I resort to hummus. What do you enjoy?

          1. You can make hummus warm! And/or better than just store bought – if not making yourself, just add tahini, chickpeas, good olive oil and some parsley to reliable supermarket brand like Sabra.

            I also think what you serve with it can make a difference. You can add some falafel (the TJ frozen ones work), or some sugar snap peas to dip, or really good pita…

          3. I’m the poster who mentioned defaulting to Indian food when feeding vegetarian and vegan guests. Samosas and onion pakoras are warm, vegan (if a recipe calls for butter or ghee, sub oil), are cheap and pretty much universally appealing. Samosas can be purchased ready made to be heated through in the oven/air fryer.

        3. The “i don’t want your sh**** fill in the blank” is the vibe I get from my vegan people. I love them but it’s drama if you try and drama if you don’t. I’m a pretty good cook and I do make an effort but nothing is ever good enough for them. I default to things that are just naturally vegan like hummus and falafel and bean or nut based dips because the foods that approximate meat and dairy are just not great. When they bring their own it’s also never great so after decades I just stopped working so hard on it. Honestly, I think decades of fake cheese and eggless baked goods have kind of changed their idea of what food tastes good. They’ll bring like incredibly heavy cakes or absolutely terrible fakes cheese creations and get surprised that the non vegans can tell and upset if someone says it’s bad. All this said, be nice to the non vegans who are trying. Our tastes are just different at this point.

    2. The Ikea veggie meatballs are great to cook in a Crock-Pot with grape jelly. Most of the Pillsbury doughs (croissant, biscuit etc) are also vegan and can be wrapped around a variety of things.

    3. When I need to feed a vegetarian/vegan crowd, I usually turn towards Indian food. Aloo tikki chaat or samosa chaat can be an app or meal. Omit or use non-dairy yogurt, and it’s vegan.

    5. Bruschetta and crostini. Taco dip (with a base of refried beans) and tortilla chips.

      1. Taco dip would have to be modified (no sour cream or cheese) for vegans. Some tortilla chips aren’t vegan.

        Honestly, I think vegans should BYO to parties

        1. It doesn’t take particular talent or creativity to provide good food without animal products – and I say that as an omnivore! It’s a shame “vegan” has connotations of being challenging to accommodate – to the contrary, while I eat a bit of dairy and meat, I don’t cook with them during the work week because of the extra work involved with handling meat.

      1. A great resource, but I admit to chuckling at full heads of roasted garlic as an appetizer!

        1. Don’t knock it till you try it! Take a clove off the head and squeeze it onto a Ritz cracker. It’s perfection.

    7. Indian apps recipes. They’re yummy and vegetarian or vegan. Many are gluten free.

  3. Bar nuts – you can make your own or get the festive/seasonal rosemary mix at TJ. Bonus points for toasting them up a bit beforehand.

    Really good bread and butter/olive oil (hard to beat when both are really good).

    Baked brie is also good. I like the one in pastry that’s sold frozen at Whole Foods to keep in the freezer for emergencies. For any cheese plate, I always go with the one soft, one hard, one stinky and one fun rule, so might be a Brie, a Manchego, a Stilton and a truffle something or other. Or I do soft goat cheese (the one that comes in a dome at TJ is really good) with fun crackers (also TJ, usually, and looks very pretty together when you invert the cheese and put crackers around; the beet ones they used to have looked like especially nice). If I’m doing a charcuterie, I like to add something like marinated grilled mushrooms and little cornichons. And the super bright green olives, always.

    The new mushroom mini tarts at TJ are shockingly good. Their mini pastry pups (pigs in a blanket are also good).

    If I’m making a bit more effort, I like to get puff pastry and make a tart. It’s easy enough but always feels fancier than it is. You can modify the ingredients to be seasonally or thematically appropriate.

    For dips, I think warm spinach artichoke or buffalo cauliflower is always good but I usually only make those for the Super Bowl or similar. For “regular” parties – I like hummus, but fancied up with tahini, chickpeas & greens with a bit of good olive oil added on top.
    I serve with pita bread, pita chips and/or sugar snap peas.

    1. Thank you for the mini sausage roll link! They sound delicious and I will certainly be making these for Christmas!

  5. I did a brie wrapped in puff pastry with whole berry cranberry sauce and fresh thyme for a party on Friday night and it was devoured. So easy and so good!

  6. I make a dill pickle dip garnished with a couple of cucumber slices and fresh dill. I pair it with a veggie plate but it would also pair well with bread, chips, crackers, etc. It’s GF and vegetarian but not vegan. Buffalo chicken and cheese dip made in the crock pot with freshly shredded roast chicken, Greek yogurt, and Louisiana Hot Sauce is always a crowd-pleaser in our home.

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