‘Nibbles’ for a short evening event

[AiryFairy1]

We are hosting a fundraising event on Thursday - we were expecting up to 10 attendees but it’s jumped to closer to 25 🫣

DH is organising this event for a friend, I’m just a helper but the extent of my help is meant to be suggesting food ideas and I’ve struck a blank!

I was going to offer a light supper, but we can’t cope with that for 25 (working all day, taking a kids to clubs etc) plus it’s not very long - 1.5 hours max so I think just light snacks would suffice, especially as there’s likely to be some people standing the whole time, so anything needing cutlery might be awkward.

So any recommendations for very quick easy to prepare, I guess ‘finger food’ (really not a fan of that phrase) would be appreciated- so far all I can think of is sausage rolls but would like to also make it nice; hopefully encourage some reasonable pledges!

Thanks so much!

Done something similar not long ago and went with:

• spinach / feta pastry (you can either buy or make yourself ahead), will keep a couple of days in the fridge, then just cut into bite size chunks and put on platters
• finger veggie skewers - get some mid size cocktail sticks and stick cherry tomato, mozzarella ball, orange or green pepper chunk, basil leaf on it - this will make the platter / plate look nice / colourful / fresh. Can make a day ahead and keep in the fridge.
• really simple crustless triangle sandwiches with just cucumber and cream cheese filling - make ahead or on the day.
• crips / olives etc

appreciate this is all veggie, so you could add sausage rolls too ;) Hope you have a great gathering!

That all sounds great, thanks so much!

I’d be ok with all veggie but agree we can add a meat thing in 😅

Is it full finger foods i.e. no plates whatsoever? Or just avoiding cutlery?

You could do a range of cold dips + flatbread possibly.

So e.g. roasted aubergine, tahini and yoghurt/labneh (so a Baba ganoush ish thing)

One with beetroot, garlic, walnuts and yoghurt.

Maybe romesco sauce.

Tzatziki

Hummus

Chhesestraws are always a hit and good to fill in between spaces in a glass! x

Cheese board, a selection of crackers, olives, grapes, celery, pickled onions, chutney, nuts, fancy crisps.
Keep it simple!

Reported

Feta diced with watermelon chunks and sliver of mint on cocktail sticks.

Crostini with pate on (pork or mushroom) garnish with a sliver of cornichon.

Crost and Mollica breadsticks. Had them at a function recently and everyone was commenting on how good they were.

Ime, the trick with these things is to offer food that takes almost no time to prepare and isn't messy to wst standing up. So not dips, and lovely as they dound, not those veggie skewers. Making a few of those each for 25 is time consuming after a day at work.

I'd do veggie bites. Sheets of puff pastry covered with red pesto or olive tapenade and grated good quality cheese, or fig chutney/ cranberry sauce and a sliver of brie, cut into squares and baked. Takes moments to prepare dozens of them. Or buy good quality pizzas and cut into bite size slices
Cheese straws, olives stuffed with almonds or lemon, or fancy herby olives, good crisps and nuts. Maybe some crudités but if you add a dip make it one that doesn't drip.
Maybe a good tray bake cake - brownies are always popular.

Very easy popular meat is cocktail sausages cooked then tossed in a bit of honey and grain mustard before serving with cocktail sticks.

I often cut sou dough bread or baguette into bite sized pieces, top with a slice of brie, half a grape and a drizzle of honey. People love them.

Thanks for all the suggestions! We landed up with sausage rolls, crisps, cheese and crackers, cheese straws, grapes, red pepper and feta bites, and Serrano ham and Gouda Rollitos from M&S. hummus, and tzatziki (& some ketchup for the sausage rolls. Oh and some carrot sticks for a token vegetable.
The only leftovers were crackers, and crisps, bit of cheese, dips.
There was tea, coffee, fruit juice, water, and wine to drink.
29 showed up and everyone said they had a very nice time, and I enjoyed it too, despite being very unenthusiastic to start with with 😅

Next time I’ll do those cocktail sausages though, they sound lush!