Guardian cooks share homemade savoury snacks to avoid the biscuit tin

After a reader, Jess, asked what they make to stay away from the biscuit tin, Guardian recipe columnists offered a range of homemade savoury snack ideas. Benjamina Ebuehi said she looks for “something salty, spiced and crisp” and often makes homemade tortilla chips: chop corn tortillas into triangles, brush with olive oil and seasonings such as flaky salt, za’atar, dukkah, garlic granules or “everything bagel seasoning, which is elite”, then bake until crisp and dunk into hummus.

Georgina Hayden also reaches for hummus, drizzling chilli crisp oil over it and scooping with crudités; when she wants to be “fancy” she makes gildas (an olive, a little anchovy and a pickled green chilli on a cocktail stick) or enjoys anchovy-stuffed olives and other antipasti on sticks.

Cheese featured frequently. Rukmini Iyer mixes cheese into dough—“blitz cheese in a food processor, add spelt flour and butter, and blitz again into a dough”—rolls it into a log, chills it, then slices and bakes at 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 for about 10 minutes until golden to make cheesy discs.

Hayden suggested cheese pinwheels and straws: spread puff pastry with Marmite and butter, grate over hard cheese, cut into strips, twist and bake. Ebuehi also acknowledged simple cubes of cheese. Thomasina Miers offered a spiced nut mix—toast fennel seeds, toss with chilli flakes, sea salt and chopped rosemary, coat a mix of nuts and seeds in olive oil and honey and roast at 180C (160C fan)/350F/gas 4 for about 20 minutes.

Key Topics

Culture, Benjamina Ebuehi, Georgina Hayden, Rukmini Iyer, Thomasina Miers, Hummus