These perfectly easy canapés can be made ahead of time, are served cold, and are simply perfect for a fancy Spring or Summer celebration! With homemade pesto, olive tapenade and chive cream cheese, you’ll create the most irresistible, colorful and gorgeous little gardens of roses and veggies on your appetizer tray!
They’re perfect for Easter, weddings, bridal showers, baby showers… just about any bright, colorful, happy affair!
I made these precious canapés for a dinner party recently, and they were the stars of the evening! I prepped all my ingredients in about 15 minutes, and had the canapés all assembled in another 20 minutes!
This recipe calls for pea shoots to make the rose canapés, but you can also use regular sprouts! I used sprouts at my dinner party, and they just looked so pretty!
Why This Recipe is Special
1. They’re perfect for vegans, vegetarians and meat-lovers – You have the tapenade canapés for vegans that contain no dairy or meat, you have the pesto canapés for vegetarians (as long as you use a vegetarian parmesan – did you know parmesan is not vegetarian?) and you have the prosciutto rose canapés for your meat-lover friends. Everybody’s happy!
2. People don’t believe their eyes when they see them – Just look at them! And my photos don’t even do them justice! I always love a recipe that doubles as a conversation piece.
3. All the bits and pieces can be prepared ahead of time and quickly assembled before the party – I prepped all of these ingredients in about 15 minutes and popped them in the refrigerator. Right before the party, it only took 20 minutes to have everything assembled.
Ingredient Notes
Prosciutto – Make sure to find prosciutto that’s separated with either wax paper or plastic. Slices easily stick to each other, so you won’t be able to cut it into neat strips if it’s not separated.
Pesto – You can substitute store-bought pesto… but don’t do it! Make your own instead! It’s 1000% better than anything you can get in the store, trust me. Store-bought pestos are often full of preservatives and are terribly oily. Fresh pesto is so dreamy and the texture is perfect for these canapés. It’s not oily at all. You’ll find the very simple recipe below.
Olive Tapenade – You actually can buy perfectly tasty olive tapenade in the store, instead of making it from scratch, but I’ll show you how to make it from scratch any way 😉
How to Make Them
1. Make your olive tapenade. In a food processor, simply add ¾ cup of pitted kalamata olives and process for about 15-20 seconds. Watch it carefully. You don’t want it to be the consistency of pâté, It’s nice when it has a bit of texture.
2. Make your pesto. In a food processor, add 1 cup of fresh basil leaves (without stems), 3 tbsp. fresh-grated parmesan cheese, 3 tbsp. olive oil, 2 tsp. white balsamic vinegar and 2 tbsp. of pine nuts (or pepitas). Process until well-chopped and almost creamy. This should yield about 4 tbsp. of pesto. Make sure to cover your pesto while you prepare your other ingredients or it will start to dry out.
3. Make your bread base. Use a cookie cutter to cut perfect squares or circles out of each slice without the crusts. You’ll want to cut 24 perfect little pieces. Toast for 10 minutes at 250 F. (120 C.) You want them to be dried out a bit so they’re a little crunchy.
4. Chop your radishes. You’ll only require about 3-4 small-medium size radishes for all the canapés if you cut them into nice and slices as shown.
5. Slice your cherry tomatoes. You’ll only require about 8 cherry tomatoes. Choose the tiniest ones in the bunch and slice them nice and thin.
6. Slice your cucumber. You’ll only require about 4-5 slices of cucumber. Slice each piece into tiny slices, the same as your radishes.
7. Create your pesto canapés. Add a small amount of pesto to the breads with a knife.
8. Top them carefully with your veggies and a few capers, and line them up on your tray.
9. Create your tapenade canapés. Add a nice helping of tapenade to the breads with a small spoon or knife.
10. Top them with veggies and a small chive and line them up on your tray.
11. Make your beautiful rose canapés. Add a nice helping of chive cream cheese to the remaining breads.
12. Cut 1 slice of prosciutto in 4ths with kitchen scissors and fold a piece in half.
13. Roll into a rose. It might come undone a little once it’s rolled, but don’t worry. The cream cheese on the bread will hold it in place.
14. Place a rose in the center. Add a few sprouts to the side of the rose by pressing them into the cream cheese. Line them up on your tray.
A Few Common Questions:
A canapé is actually a type of hors d’œuvre that’s more than just an hors d’œuvre. It’s a multi-level appetizer consisting of a few special layers:
1. A base like bread, toast or a cracker
2. A spread like we’re making – tapenade, pesto, cream cheese, etc.
3. A topping like the tiny vegetables we’re going to add.
4. A garnish like an herb or even an edible flower.
Sometimes, it will even have an extra sauce of some kind on top like sour cream, a mustard, hot sauce – just something to add one more exciting pop of flavor on top of all the other exciting textures and flavors. Suffice it to say, it makes for a very entertaining bite.
They’re best when freshly assembled, but if you don’t have time to do that before guests arrive, assemble them up to 2 hours before the party and store them in a container with a secure lid in the fridge. You don’t want to make them any more than 2 hours in advance because the bread will start to become a bit soggy.
1. Food processor
2. Cutting board
3. Sharp knife
4. Square or round cookie cutter
A Few Tips!
1. Use a very sharp, thin knife to cut your veggies.
The more precise you can cut your vegetables, the prettier they’ll look. A dull knife will make them look a bit sloppy, so sharpen your paring knife before you start!
2. Prep all the bits and pieces ahead of time to make your assembly faster
These canapés are tastiest (and prettiest) when they’re freshly assembled, so if you won’t have time to both prep and assemble before your guests arrive, make the tapenade and pesto ahead of time, storing them in containers with lids. The tapenade can be made a whole week ahead of time, and the pesto can also be made at least 3 days ahead of time, or frozen for up to 2 months!
Also make sure to chop your little veggies up to 12 hours in advance, too, and store them in a sealed container as well. Then, a half hour before your guests arrive, simply cut your bread with a cookie cutter and start assembling. Easy as pie!
Do your best to contain your giggles and swooning as you place your gorgeous canapés on the appetizer tray. I have to admit, I was so enamored with these that I had to stop myself from staring at each new one I created, and keep going. I had them done just in the nick of time before my guests walked in the door!
Help Yourself to More Beautiful Appetizer Inspiration:
- Crispy, Baked Cauliflower Cakes with Roasted Garlic Sour Cream & Marinara
- The Pesto Scallop Amuse Bouche
- Pesto Zucchini Rosettes
- Colorful Deviled Eggs with Curry
For more inspiration, subscribe to my newsletter follow me on Instagram, on Pinterest, tiktok and Facebook! And if you ever make any of my tasty drinks or treats, take a picture and tag me. I want to see!
Beautiful Spring Canapés
Ingredients
For the Olive Tapenade
- ¾ cup kalamata olives – pitted
For the Pesto
- 1 cup fresh basil leaves
- 3 tbsp. parmesan cheese – fresh-grated
- 3 tbsp. olive oil
- 2 tsp. white balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp. pine nuts – or pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
For the Canapés
- 1 loaf butter bread – or white bread
- 4 radishes – small to medium
- 8 multi-colored cherry tomatoes – small
- 1 cucumber – small
- 1 tbsp. capers
- sprouts – a small bunch
- 8 chives
- 8 slices
prosciutto
- 8 tsp. chive cream cheese
Instructions
- Make your olive tapenade. In a food processor, simply add ¾ cup of pitted kalamata olives and process for about 15-20 seconds. Watch it carefully. You don’t want it to be a consistency of pâté, It’s nice when it has a bit of texture.
- Make your pesto. In a food processor, add 1 cup of fresh basil leaves (without stems), 3 tbsp. fresh-grated parmesan cheese, 3 tbsp. olive oil, 2 tsp. white balsamic vinegar and 2 tbsp. of pine nuts (or pepitas). Process until well-chopped and almost creamy. This should yield about 4 tbsp. of pesto. Make sure to cover your pesto while you prepare your other ingredients or it will start to dry out.
- Make your bread base. Use a cookie cutter to cut perfect squares or circles out of each slice without the crusts. You’ll want to cut 24 perfect little pieces. Toast for 10 minutes at 250 F. You want them to be dried out a bit so they're a little crunchy.
- Chop your radishes. You’ll only require about 3-4 small-medium size radishes for all the canapés if you cut them into nice and slices. Slice your cherry tomatoes. You’ll only require about 8 tomatoes. Choose the tiniest ones in the bunch and slice them nice and thin. Slice your cucumber. You’ll only require about 4-5 slices of cucumber. Slice each piece into tiny slices, the same as your radishes.
- Create your pesto canapés. Add a small amount of pesto to the breads with a knife. Top them carefully with your veggies and a few capers, and line them up on your tray.
- Create your tapenade canapés. Add a nice helping of tapenade to the breads with a small spoon or knife. Top them with veggies and a small chive and line them up on your tray.
- Make your beautiful rose canapés. Add a nice helping of chive cream cheese to the remaining breads. Fold the prosciutto in half and simply roll into a rose. Place it in the center of the bread and cream cheese. Add a few sprouts to the side of the rose by pressing them into the cream cheese. Line them up on your tray.
Notes
- Food processor
- Cutting board
- Sharp knife
- Square or round cookie cutter
Jo
Beautiful AND tasty – looks like a winner.
Having a go at this for Easter Sunday.
Quick question, what size square cookie cutter did you use please?
Thanks from Western Australia 🇦🇺 👋 (and we’re sending you all the sunshine for Easter!)
Genevieve Morrison
Hello, Jo! And thank you! The square cookie cutter I used was 1½ inches. Have a lovely, sunny Easter, and enjoy the canapes!
Long
I made this last week and it was delicious! So easy but full of flavor.
Chelle Thompson
Cute little finger food! A great appetizer for any party or even NYE!
Becky
That’s amazing recipe. Thanks for sharing and love your site
Genevieve Morrison
Thank you, Becky!
Samantha
I love these! I would be so happy to see someone bring these to a party…of course, I wouldn’t be averse to making them myself either!
Janelle
So Beautiful! Thank you for sharing!
Ford
These are gorgeous!
Erika
These are gorgeous! I’m on mat leave from teaching now, so I can kind of understand where you’re coming from. Though I do have two other runny noses to wipe when I’m at home!
Genevieve Morrison
Thank you so much, Erika!