Appetizers recipes

Cream cheese and sour cream dip with fennel seeds, minced white onion, and paprika. A no-cook, make-ahead party dip with a subtle licorice twist.

Microwave cucumber-onion bake with layered sliced cucumbers, onion rings, ketchup, and butter. A retro vegetable side dish ready in 30 minutes with just 6 simple ingredients.

Oven-baked risotto with peas, scallions, brown rice, and rosemary. A no-stir, hands-off Italian-style rice dish with no constant ladling required. Done in 45 minutes.

Vegan Greek spanakopita rolls from the Peloponnese, with spinach, leeks, scallions, parsley, and nutmeg wrapped in crisp phyllo. No cheese, no eggs, no butter.

Olive oil marinated mushrooms simmer button mushrooms in herbed wine vinegar with thyme, garlic, and brandy. A make-ahead antipasto that gets better after a night in the fridge.

Gado gado is the Indonesian salad of stir-fried cabbage, bell pepper, and bean sprouts drizzled with a warm peanut sauce spiked with garlic, shallot, cumin, and lemon. Vegetarian one-bowl meal.

Cheese diablo wafers are four-ingredient sharp cheddar bites kicked up with cayenne. Crisp, fiery party crackers that bake in just 6 minutes.

Garlic stuffed mushrooms with pecans, parmesan, and a folded-in roasted garlic bechamel, baked hot until the filling sets and the tops blush with cayenne.

Roasted eggplant and vegetable pate with charred eggplant, yellow peppers, ginger, jalapeno, cumin, and lime. A smoky vegan spread for crostini, crackers, or sandwich filling. Keeps a week.

Yum Hoi Mang-Pu, a Thai mussel salad tossed with lemongrass, shallots, fresh mint, fiery bird's-eye chilies, lime juice, and fish sauce. Crisp, fiery, and sour, served over lettuce as a starter.

Mexican guacamole dip mashes ripe avocados with lime, fresh tomato, onion, jalapeno and cilantro. Restaurant-style chunky guacamole for chips, tacos and burrito bowls.

Vegetarian vegetable soup with an Indian twist: ghee-toasted ginger, garlic and onion form a roux base, then mixed vegetables, tofu and soy sauce join in a warming 30-minute bowl.

Triple onion walnut pate blends sweet caramelized red and yellow onions with scallions, walnuts, hard-cooked eggs, and asparagus into a rustic vegetarian spread for crackers or bread.

Pâté de poulet en gelée layers poached chicken, broiled chicken livers, poached vegetables, and apple in individual aspic molds. Elegant French cold starter set in savory gelatin.

Homemade potstickers from scratch: hand-rolled dough wrappers filled with pork, napa cabbage, ginger and water chestnut, pan-fried crisp then steamed tender. Served with a soy, chili oil and vinegar dipping sauce.

Anginares me anitho: Greek artichokes braised with spring onions, fresh dill, and lemon, then finished with a silky avgolemono egg-lemon sauce. The springtime Athenian classic.