9 times we approved party food for dinner

Don't save these gems for party time. Break them out to celebrate... Tuesday?

Gluten-free Thai chicken sausage rolls with sweet chilli dipping sauce Source: Loving Gluten Free

--- The Cook Up with Adam Liaw airs weeknights on SBS Food from Monday April 19 at 7.00pm and 10.00pm, or stream it free on SBS On Demand. ---

 

What is it we love most about a party? Is it the company? The music? The decorations? Who are we kidding - we all know it's the food.

Party food is special. Not simply because most of it goes OTT on the requisite fat, sugar and salt combo. It's also because it's fun. Little sausage rolls for dipping; cheesy nachos for stretching; and don't get us started on those cute little quiches that come in a variety of flavours, all utterly divine.

In order to enjoy your party favourites more often, it helps to make healthier versions, or at least scale them down and add a giant green salad or plate otherwise laden with vegetables.

Here's how to do exactly that. Time to get your taste buds ready to dance!

Hot doggin'

Make them mini to save room for fairy bread dessert. Source: Adam Liaw

The humble sausage sanga comes in many forms, with mini hot dogs being the preferred party food. This is no doubt due to the celebration-red colour of the frankfurt (aka as various things across the country: including baby savs, cheerios, footy franks and, somewhat blushingly, little boys).

Serve your hot dogs with a pick-n-mix platter of veggies like carrots, baby tomatoes, lettuce gems and radishes o keep things squarely on the 'dinner' side of indulgence.

Bean me up nachos

Bean me up – and enjoy the melted cheese. Source: China Squirrel

Nachos are the ultimate party food - it's made for sharing, it serves the masses and it has the added bonus of stretchy cheese competitions built right in. Why wouldn't we want to enjoy them as often as possible?

To lighten the load, make these black bean nachos, instead of  the standard meat-filledversion. This will cut down on saturated fat and increase your legume intake in one. Serve it up with a quinoa salad, or try this corn salad to further up your veggie intake.

Chicken wing it

These Asian-style spicy and sticky chicken wings are perfect for sinking into your homemade Siracha sauce. Source: SBS

Once you get started with the chicken wings at the party buffet, it's goodbye self-restraint, hello sticky fingers. Make them for dinner and you get to maul into them without fear of anyone judging.

These babies are actually a pretty healthy party food when baked, so go for it on any night of the week.

Quick quiche

Donna Hay's bread cup quiches are a little healthier than your regular pastry versions. Source: Donna Hay

The beauty of a mini quiche is that the cooking time is barely noticeable. These bread-cup quiches take less than 20 minutes in the oven. Make them plain, or add flavours like tomato and basil or pumpkin and sage to really lift your party spirits.

Pizzette party

The toppings on these pizzette can be made from whatever you have on hand. Source: Cook like an Italian

Another winner from the 'make it mini' school of thought. Pizzettes are everything you love about pizza in bite-size form. The beauty of this is you can put a different topping on each pizzette for variety. Silvia Colloca's pizzettes use stale bread as the base, adding to their 'make it everyday' appeal.

Snag rollin'

This Thai take on an Aussie classic is extra-good when dipped in a zesty lime and ginger sweet chilli sauce. Source: Loving Gluten Free

Sausage rolls always hit the top 10 party food list for good reason. They're bloody delicious. Especially this gluten-free Thai chicken version, which manages to pack the equivalent flavour of a chicken curry into compact sausage roll format. If you're not gluten-intolerant, just stuff the glorious filling into some store-bought puff pastry instead.

Serve this recipe with some complementary veggies like a green papaya salad, banana blossom salad or green mango salad.

Fritter away

There is really no topping corn fritters, it's true. Source: Asia Unplated with Diana Chan

Little fritter bites with plenty of sauce for dunking are all you need for a hearty dinner. Diana Chan's perkedel jagung are a good start, but don't stop there. Zucchini fritters. potato fritters, carrot fritters, pumpkin fritters and general veggie fritters are also calling your name. Top tip: any fritter, no matter where it originated, is made better by adding some haloumi to the mix.

Stick it to dinner

Skewers go well on the barbie, but if it's too cold outside, fire up your oven grill instead. Source: Martin Poole

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if you stick food on a skewer it tastes better. No, really, it's science. No wonder stick food is such popular party food; and why you need to skewer tonight's dinner immediately. Start with this veggie and paneer recipe and maybe add a spicy beef stick to round out the meal?

Oh, go on then

Strange as it may sound, eggplant works brilliantly with dark, flavonoid-rich chocolate. Source: Simon & Schuster

While we'd never advocate for eating dessert for dinner every night of the week, sometimes it just feels right. If you're going to do it (and by 'if', we mean 'when'), then serve up something like this eggplant brownie recipe. The goodness of an entire eggplant is baked right in there. We are so here for party food for dinner!