For cooking lovers, it is a real pleasure to have time to be able to unhurriedly get in front of the stove and give free rein to their creativity. With a few days of vacation in between and many dates around a table with family and friends, Christmas is a perfect time to use our imagination and create delicious menus to share with our guests.
The kitchen is also a space for socialization, where everyone can make contributions, and cooking in the company of friends or family members can be very enriching and rewarding. And although copious menus abound on these dates and it is common to have to juggle to fit all the proposals on the table because there is usually no space left over, it is important to prepare conscious and healthy menus, measuring the quantities well so that there is no excess. and combine foods well so that we have all the nutrients on our plates. With special dishes, but without leaving aside, for example, vegetables.
In a few days when all the stoves you have in the house are likely to be occupied, we are going to give you some ideas for starters that you can prepare in your oven – which will leave you free to carry out other tasks while the dish is cooking – or If you have one, in the air fryer.
Of course, if you need to prepare appetizers for a large group of people, the most efficient thing will be to turn on the oven. It may take a few minutes longer than in the fryer, but the classic oven gains in space and capacity. If you use silicone paper on the oven trays to cook your appetizers, you will also avoid excessive mess and cleaning later will be much easier.
We give you five recipes for healthy appetizers that are also very easy and quick to prepare: a braid of prawns with mushrooms, a basket of battered cauliflower, spinach ‘chips’, roasted potatoes stuffed with salmon and some cheese sticks with wild asparagus.
Prawn braid with mushrooms
Braids are a very useful appetizer because they are so simple and quick to prepare. In addition, they are perfect if you have to prepare them to take to a lunch or dinner at a friend’s or family’s house. Once there, you’ll just have to heat them up and cut it into little pieces so everyone can try it. They can be filled with many combinations and the puff pastry is very light. In many supermarkets you can find gluten-free puff pastry.
To make this braid we need a sheet of puff pastry, between 40 and 50 grams of butter, a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 250 grams of mushrooms of your choice and another 250 of already peeled prawns, a couple of leeks, cream for cooking (about 50 ml), and an egg to varnish the braid.
We are going to prepare the filling in a pan. The first thing we will do is melt the butter together with the oil, and add the finely cut leeks, when they are golden we also add the mushrooms and when they are cooked, we do the same with the prawns (it is important that they are well drained). With everything already cooked, we add the cream and let all the flavors integrate well while it reduces a little.
When the mixture has cooled, we will place it in the central part of the puff pastry sheet, we will make strip-like cuts on the sides (between twelve and fourteen is fine) and now we will braid them over the filling. Brush with the egg and place in the oven preheated to 200 °C for 20 to 30 minutes.
Breaded cauliflower basket
Cauliflower is a seasonal vegetable at this time, so you will have no problem finding it in your trusted market. Although it is not one of your favorites, cooked this way it is very delicious. The first thing we are going to do is select a good cauliflower, as fresh as possible—make sure it doesn’t have black dots on its surface because it indicates a fungal infection.
Once at home, we are going to divide it into saplings and boil it for between 5 and 10 minutes, it will depend on the quantity. You have to be careful because we need it to be just right, to remain firm and not too soft. Now we are going to let it cool and coat it first with egg and then with well crushed corn flakes and seasoned with salt, sweet paprika and pepper; and in the oven or fryer for 15 to 20 minutes. You can prepare a Greek yogurt, cucumber and garlic sauce, which is very light and gives it a special touch.
Spinach ‘Chips’
For the spinach ‘chips’ what we will do is wash and let the leaves dry well and we will season them with pulverized extra virgin olive oil, ground garlic, pepper and salt. We put them in the oven preheated to 180 °C for about 10 minutes, stirring every so often so that they are cooked on all sides.
Roasted potatoes stuffed with salmon
For this recipe, the ideal potatoes are small or ‘baby’ size ones. You will need quite a few because they are eaten almost in one bite. It may be okay to prepare between 20 and 30. The first thing we will do is roast them well in the oven or in the air fryer, respecting the necessary times. Not less than half an hour. They should be golden on the outside but tender on the inside.
For the filling we need about 75 grams of crème fraiche or fresh cream, similar to cream, but somewhat thicker and with a higher percentage of fat, which makes it perfect for hot recipes; a couple of tablespoons of some vegetable pate that you like – it goes very well with some boletus or radish -, half a tablespoon of lemon zest, fresh dill and 50 grams or a little more of smoked salmon.
While the potatoes are baking, add the fresh cream together with the vegetable pate and lemon zest, and season with salt and pepper. Once the potatoes are well cooked, we are going to flatten them a little and whip the cream on top, and on top we place a little salmon and decorate with the dill branches. And it would be ready.
Cheese puff pastries with wild asparagus and spinach
We are going to need a rectangular puff pastry (we will get 4 pieces), between 15 and 20 wild asparagus, 50 grams of spinach, about 100 grams of cream cheese, a clove of garlic, sesame seeds, an egg and extra virgin olive oil. If you feel like it, you can add some slices of Iberian ham, but it is optional.
We are going to prepare the filling by mixing the cream cheese with the already boiled and finely chopped spinach and the crushed garlic clove, salt and pepper. In a frying pan we fry the asparagus so that it is grilled. If you are going to add the serrano ham, we wrap the asparagus in the slices. If not, we skip this step.
We are going to cut our puff pastry dough into four equal pieces and we are going to fill them forming a diagonal with the cream cheese mixture. On top we place the asparagus and close the puff pastry, which we are going to paint with beaten egg and decorate with sesame seeds. Meanwhile, we will have preheated the oven to 200°C and will now bake the ‘packages’ for 20 or 25 minutes. We will monitor until we see that they are golden.
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