Cold appetizer recipes are very popular, especially if you are serving a hot main course, as you will get the temperature contrast as well as the flavor contrast. There are so many different starter recipes you can choose from if you want to make something cold.

Classic starters include prawn cocktail, parma ham with melon, or even an easy chicken salad recipe. If you’re setting up a buffet, you’ll want to make different cold entrees than if you were, say, hosting a dinner party. With a dinner, everyone gets their own plate and with a buffet, people help themselves to large platters.

Examples of easy starter recipes

If you only want to use a few ingredients, how about making a classic starter recipe, something everyone knows and loves? You can even go retro with this one and make a prawn cocktail. All you need for a basic one is some iceberg lettuce, prawns, marie rose sauce, cucumber slices, and a pinch of paprika.

Another good one would be a cold soup. Have you ever tried cold soup recipes? They’re great because you can make this ahead of time and then leave it in the fridge while you work on the main dish.

Gazpacho is a typical cold Spanish soup, made with tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, olive oil and more. Then there are cold fruit soups like strawberry soup or melon soup. These are unusual but really easy to make, even if you’re a bit of a novice in the kitchen.

Starters in a hurry

Do you only have a few minutes to prepare your cold starter recipes? You can make devils on horseback with chicken livers, bacon and toast, or how about a Parma ham on a slice of melon? This takes less than two minutes to make!

If you are in a hurry or the starters you had planned have gone wrong, try a Mediterranean dish. Just place some cubes of cheese, olives, and deli meats on a large plate and let people help themselves. Salami and chorizo ​​work well and you can have black, green and maybe stuffed olives as well.

Appetizer recipes are supposed to whet the appetite and get people in the mood for the main course, so don’t worry too much about making something fancy. Pick an easy starter recipe and you can’t go wrong.