Rosemary Stanton looked at some healthy, easy snacks to serve with drinks.
Snacks from a pack
Potato crisps are a nutritional disaster. Go for nuts or baked corn chips instead. Studies show that nuts are very good for you. They contain the right kind of fat, plus anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibre. If you are worried about kilojoules, serve pistachios or other nuts in their shells. Cracking the shells takes time and you won’t be able to eat so many.
Dips
Supermarkets sell dozens of dips. Their fat content ranges from 1.2% to high levels around 30%. Products labelled ‘light’ may still have as much as 13.5% fat. Some bought dips are good value with plenty of flavour and very little fat. However, if you can’t be bothered reading all the labels and would rather avoid additives (such as gums, emulsifiers, acids, thickeners, sugar, salt and preservatives) it’s very easy to make your own dip.
Homemade dip for 8 people
Spoon 500g of smooth, fat-reduced ricotta, cottage cheese, silken tofu or natural yoghurt into a blender or food processor. Add any of the following for flavour, and blend until combined: 1 avocado, 1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of chopped chilli 100g of smoked salmon pieces, 2 tablespoons lemon juice and black pepper small can drained beetroot and 1/2 teaspoon cumin 1 roughly chopped Lebanese cucumber and 1-2 crushed cloves of garlic
Hommus
You can make a very healthy hommus from drained, canned chick peas (400g can) blended with 2 cloves garlic, 1-2 tablespoons of tahini and 2 tablespoons each of natural yoghurt and lemon juice.
Dip accompaniments
Raw vegetables: try carrot sticks, green beans, snow peas (remove strings), zucchini and celery. Broccoli, cauliflower and asparagus can be dropped into boiling water for 1 minute, drained and then rinsed under the cold tap to keep them crisp.
Rice crackers or thin wafer crackers.
Rye bread cut into small triangles or squares.
Pitta bread: spray with olive oil, sprinkle with poppy and sesame seeds and bake in the oven until crisp.
Antipasto
A healthy antipasto platter may include: seafood such as oysters, prawns, smoked oysters and mussels olives (you may like to reduce their salt by rinsing them under the tap) canned artichoke hearts stuffed vine leaves sun-dried tomatoes (tip: you can have these without any fat if you buy dried tomatoes and reconstitute them by pouring boiling water over them). other marinated vegetables, either in jars or from the deli counter (blot off oil with paper towels) ricotta or low-fat fetta cheese
