Vegetarian Appetizers That Will Seriously Impress Your Guests

Appetizers are great for parties, mingling, or just getting your family eating and out of the kitchen while you prepare a main dish. If you're serving a crowd that includes vegetarians, you'll want to have meat free options that are more than an afterthought. While shrimp cocktails, meatballs, chicken wings and other meat-based starters are common, vegetarian appetizers can appeal to everyone, often adding flavor and healthy options to your hors d'oeuvres. And aside from introducing inclusive options to your appetizer spread, many vegetarian dishes can add lots of color and freshness that you just can't get from meat. 

Read on to see some of the most appealing vegetarian appetizers you can make to impress your guests whether they eat meat or not. 

There's something magical about the combination of mozzarella, tomatoes, and fresh basil with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. There's a lot of flavor packed into this recipe for Caprese salad, but the dish is still light enough to serve as an appetizer before your main meal. And all the color makes this salad a visually appealing addition to your appetizer spread, too. Alternatively, you could use burrata cheese instead of fresh mozzarella.

This appetizer requires no cooking and takes just 10 minutes to make, so you could plate it just before guests arrive. It's up to you how you want to serve up your Caprese salad: You can slice and stack it, dice ingredients, or even assemble them on a toothpick for easy snacking.

Gazpacho is a light and refreshing soup that works perfectly as a vegetarian appetizer — especially if you serve it in shot glasses. This recipe combines broiled and fresh vegetables and is served cold. It takes just 10 minutes to prep, and you can even make it ahead and freeze it, or at least stash it in the fridge for a couple hours to let the flavors meld together before you plan to serve it. It's served cold, so all you have to do is plate it and garnish before you're ready to eat.

Vegetarian guests are likely already fans of hummus, but add beets and you'll take your hummus game to another level. Beets add beautiful, enticing color, vitamins and minerals, and a sweet, earthy flavor you're not going to get from regular hummus. To make this beet hummus, you'll start with the basic players of hummus: chickpeas, lemon, tahini, garlic, salt, olive oil, and cumin. You'll also add a medium beet to the mix, and you can add sesame seeds and chopped parsley for garnish if you'd like. Roast the beets first to bring out a caramelized, sweet flavor before you blend up your hummus. It's great served with bread, vegetable, or crackers.

Served in bite sized portions and easy to make ahead of time, mini frittatas make a great brunch appetizer for ovo-vegetarians – who avoid meat, fish, and dairy, but do eat eggs. And with vegetable and cheese in the frittatas, you can make a versatile vegetarian bite that's low carb, too. Add caramelized onions and herb soaked broccoli to your egg mix, then bake until the edges are browned — about 12 minutes. They pair well with a warm salad or breakfast foods, such as muffins or bagels.

Salads can bring color and freshness to your appetizer spread, and this cucumber tomato salad certainly delivers. It's easy to chop up and prepare, and tastes better if you prep it ahead of time and give it some time in the refrigerator to let the vinegar slightly pickle the vegetables before you serve it up. There's a lot of crunch, texture, and flavor, especially if you use the freshest vegetables you can find. The dressing is incredibly simple: You'll just combine red wine vinegar, olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Outback Steakhouse sells millions of Bloomin' Onion appetizers every year, and it's no surprise why: They're deep fried, tasty, and a crowd pleaser even among those who don't eat meat. Making a copycat Bloomin' Onion at home might seem a little intimidating, but it's surprisingly simple and doesn't call for any special equipment or ingredients. Choose a sweet onion, season your flour, cut the onion into a bloom, and batter it before frying in a large Dutch oven.

This savory tart puts asparagus front and center, and it's very simple to make. Find fresh asparagus and turn it into an impressive appetizer with this asparagus Gruyere tart. It has a flaky crust, lots of cheese, and lovely green stalks for visual appeal. Plus, it comes together quickly with frozen puff pastry. Bake the puff pastry, assemble the ingredients, and bake about 20 minutes before serving. All in all, it takes less than an hour to make this gorgeous vegetarian appetizer.

Jalapeno poppers are a classic appetizer. Although they don't exactly have the health appeal of salads or hummus, they are a vegetarian option when you omit the bacon and can please a crowd of herbivores and omnivores alike. Spicy, savory, and creamy all at once, these poppers are easy to prepare and fun to eat. 

Cut open and scrape the jalapenos — ideally wearing gloves — then fill with cream cheese spiced with Sriracha sauce. If you're omitting bacon to make vegetarian poppers, you could mix in a vegetable for a little interest, such as green onions. Coat the peppers in breadcrumbs, then bake for about 20 minutes.

This spanakopita might seem like an intimidating dish, but it takes less than an hour to put together. And with layers of flaky dough and bright green spinach, it looks really impressive when served as an appetizer. Store bought phyllo dough, spinach, onions, feta, and Greek yogurt are the major players in this recipe. 

Start out with a layer of phyllo dough, pour your spinach mixture on top, then add another sheet of phyllo dough. You'll repeat this process until you have eight layers of phyllo with the spinach layers sandwiched in between. It bakes for about 25 minutes and is ready to serve about 10 minutes later.