Low-Calorie Tapas
Who doesn’t enjoy eating Spanish tapas with friends and family? It’s hard to find something more Spanish than these little dishes. If you think that dieting is incompatible with this beloved Spanish tradition, think again. In today’s blog, we’ll recommend several low-calorie tapas to enjoy.
Mini-skewers
These mini-skewers are the easiest type of tapas to prepare. In addition to being easy to make, they’re quite popular and come in all kinds of varieties, so we’re sure that there’s a mini-skewer out there for you! You can buy them already prepared in some stores, but we suggest buying the ingredients separately and experimenting in your kitchen, creating different combinations.
All you need to do is choose your favorite ingredients and skewer them with a toothpick. Below, we’ll give you some combination ideas to try to assemble at home. It’s a simple tapas dish, and you could even use it in salads.
The traditional skewers use an olive, a red bell pepper, pickles and cocktail onions. You can add other foods to this base recipe, such as anchovies or another similar small, salty fish. If you want to try something more original, go for quail eggs, some soft Spanish queso blanco, artificial crab sticks or cherry tomatoes.
Prepare a large batch and keep them in the fridge. When you feel hungry, eat two or three to keep your hunger at bay and stay on track with your diet.
Spanish mussels vinaigrette
Start by cleaning the mussels. Wash them thoroughly, using a knife to scrape off dirt or grime. After, bring a cup of water to a boil in a large pot and add the mussels. When they’ve opened, remove the top shells. Let them cool.
As the mussels cool, prepare the vinaigrette. Begin by finely dicing a scallion and a red and green bell pepper. When you’ve finished dicing the vegetables, mix them together in a bowl. Add salt, vinegar and olive oil.
To bring it all together, spoon a tablespoon of the vinaigrette onto each mussel and this delicious, low-calorie recipe will be ready to serve.
Shrimp skewers
This low-calorie tapas dish is delicious and comes together in minutes. You just need five minutes to make them and you really can’t go wrong with shrimp skewers. Look for medium to large-sized shrimps for easier preparation; shrimps that are too small in size are difficult to skewer.
Start by peeling the shrimps. Leaving the tails on will make for a more appealing skewer, but it depends on what you prefer. Once you’ve peeled all of the shrimps, skewer them onto a wooden skewer. After, prepare a little mixture with lemon, parsley and minced garlic.
While you’re waiting for the grill to heat up, use a brush to coat the shrimp with the lemon mixture. Move the skewers onto the grill and cook them for one minute on each side. And that’s all there is to making these delicious shrimp skewers!
Zucchini and cream cheese rolls
Zucchini and cream cheese rolls are a low-calorie tapas dish that will wow your guests. They’re very original and combine two ingredients that aren’t normally used together: zucchini and cream cheese.
To make them, start by cutting the zucchini into long slices. Use a vegetable peeler or a mandolin for an easier preparation and uniform layers. Drizzle on a little oil, and sprinkle some salt onto each zucchini strip. Then, cook them on each side.
After, prepare a cream cheese mixture. In a bowl, add the cream cheese, along with chopped arugula and smoked salmon. To tie it all together, you just need to spread the zucchini strips with the cream cheese, arugula and salmon mixture and roll them up.