Preparing for the holidays I have been on an appetizer frenzy, attempting to please various palates! I hope you like these easy gluten free appetizers. Easy, is all I can say! They can be made dairy-free, too! The filling can be changed around quite a bit with various additions and substitutions to the cream cheese…vegetables, gluten-free olives, sun-dried tomatoes, sauteed onion and peppers, etc. Just make sure all of your additions are gluten-free. Enjoy the easy gluten free appetizers!
Easy Gluten Free Pepperoni Appetizers Recipe
Makes 5 Servings
Ingredients
- 20 slices of gluten-free pepperoni (Hormel makes a gluten-free turkey pepperoni.*)
- 6 oz. gluten-free cream cheese, at room temperature (Philadelphia and Organic Valley are gluten-free*)
- 1/2 green bell pepper, chopped finely
- 1/4 large yellow onion, chopped finely
- extra virgin olive oil for sauteing
Instructions
- Saute onion and bell pepper in a pre-heated, pre-oiled skillet; remove from pan; set aside and allow to cool.
- Add 4 tablespoons vegetables to cream cheese; blend thoroughly.
- Add a bit of the cream cheese mixture across the middle of the slices of pepperoni; roll; add a toothpick to each one to make it easy for everyone to pick up. If you roll them thin enough, you can skip the toothpick and stuff them into a black olive. (Lindsay olives are gluten-free, but not corn-free. No mention if they are free from gluten cross-contamination. I emailed them and will leave a comment below when I hear back.) They make large and jumbo size olives which would be great for this recipe!
Casein and Dairy Free Version
I recently read that you can make a mock cream cheese using a hummus recipe and adding nutritional yeast, which is a non-active yeast that is nutty and cheese-like in flavor. Red Star makes one.
Hummus: Cooked, mashed chickpeas, blended with garlic, tahini (sesame paste), olive oil, lemon juice, salt.
For a more elegant and nutritious appetizer check out yesterday’s post: Pecan Stuffed Snow Peas
* These products were gluten-free at the time of this writing and were confirmed by visiting manufacturer’s websites. Always check your labels or contact the manufacturer.
Nutritional Values For Entire Recipe
Thank you! These look delicious and sound so easy to make. My kind of recipe. I can’t wait to try them.
Yum Carla, those look wonderful! Great Idea!
Thanks Nancy!
Cant wait to make this!!!!
Thanks for this recipe. I haven’t found that many gf appetizers that I actually like. This one is delicious.
looks yummy only not sure the kids would bell pepers and onions ages 7 and 5 what do u have that is kid friendly
See the alternatives I suggest in the first paragraph, Christina.
In response to my inquiry of Lindsay black olives the company states,
“Our olives are both gluten-free and casein-free and pose no allergy risk. Our black ripe olives do contain Ferrous Gluconate, which is used to stabilize the color. Ferrous Gluconate comes from corn and is not related to gluten.”
They did not directly answer my question in regards to cross-contamination, but sent me what was on their site. I hope you find this helpful.