I do dislike the words ‘snack’ and ‘snacking’. Awful words, and it’s rather a bad habit. Considering that French women don’t get fat because they take nil by mouth between meals, snacking is probably a large contributor to the obesity crisis outside France.
Nibbles, on the other hand, are absolutely benign. Nibbling suggests taking tiniest morsels of the edge of a cheese rind, or taking a small bite of a biscuit and saving the rest of it for the next occasion. Also, if you’re having good friends round, you don’t serve ‘snacks’ – you present delicious nibbles on a tray to go with a glass of wine or a Picante Margarita.
All joking aside, here’s a collection of varied and easy to put together little bites of food – whatever you like to call them.
Starting from healthy: crunchy chickpeas flavoured with smoked paprika and oregano, as spicy as you want them, are a moreish nibble, super easy to make. If you must snack, crunchy chickpeas loaded with protein and fibre, homemade with no additives are the stuff to reach for.
An hour in the oven, hands-off, produces roasted grapes that go marvellously with cheese, with chicken and even with pasta. Their flavour intensifies and a drop of balsamic and a flake of salt complements it magically.
More fruit can be served as nibbles, like slow roasted strawberries which become jammy but not too sickly, coated in luscious syrup. To serve as nibbles, drizzle them with balsamic vinegar. Otherwise they have a multitude of uses in desserts, cakes and afternoon tea confections.
Slow roasted strawberries
RECIPE
The classic: maple and spice roasted nuts made with raw or blanched nut selection. Nicer than any you buy, much better value, and you can make them differently flavoured every time.
Maple and spice roasted nuts
RECIPE
Here’s the proof crisps can be good for you, obviously not out of a packet labelled ‘Walkers’. Serrano ham, salami and chorizo oven dried crisps are wonderful, lean and mean protein to munch, and especially good in a combo with vegetable crisps, like the following.
Kale crisps baked in the oven in two flavours: garlic and chilli, and Middle Eastern coriander-cinnamon. Best for when you need a zero calorie nibble.
On to less virtuous but traditionally irresistible. Easy cheesy oregano cheese straws from homemade shortcrust pastry are flaky, buttery and melting in a mouth. That’s everyone’s all-time best ever favourite party food.
Indulgent and almost disgustingly nice brown sugar bacon, crispy bacon strips baked with a brown sugar and mustard glaze. It’s the best sweet and salty party hit. Twice baked bacon rashers, first until crispy, then brushed with the glaze.
It’s not always about Cheddar, blue cheese biscuits can be just as delicious. These savoury cheese and oatmeal biscuits are easy to make and taste nicely different than the usual ones.
Blue cheese and oat biscuits
RECIPE
A little sweet bite to finish, crunchy puff pastry bites sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. They are an irresistible way of using puff pastry offcuts.
Crunchy puff pastry sugar bites
RECIPE