Fall Finger Food & Appetisers for Picnics

While mushrooms are available all year round, fall and winter are when they are at their peak.

These little vegetarian morsels make a great fall picnic finger food addition, especially when served hot in the cooler weather. Another great addition to a wine and cheese spread.

So simple to make and incredibly tasty, these gorgeous roast pumpkin and feta mini frittatas are hands down one of the simplest picnic menu ideas around but they still make a big picnic statement.

While this recipe celebrates roasted butternut pumpkin, if you are short on time, you can really add anything to a mini frittata.

Serve them hot or cold, they make a great starter or side dish or can help beef up a mezze plate or fall-inspired wine and cheese platter.

Incredibly vibrant and so elegant, this spinach and roulade roll will add a very special touch to your fall finger food repertoire.

They are a little fiddlier than some picnic appetisers but worth the effort. On the bright side, they can be made the day before, so there's no pre picnic stress when you really want to impress.

These delightfully sweet and savoury little bruschetta bites are a love addition to a fall picnic menu.

They are also incredibly adaptable. Serve on toasted bruschetta bread or serve on slices of fresh baguette. The basis for this recipe can open your imagination to so many wonderful picnic bruschetta variations.

Looking for a low carb version of cranberry and goats cheese bruschetta. Look no further than this tasty marvel that uses sweet potato as the foundation instead of bread. A very delicious alternative.

Quiches and tarts always make great picnic food because you can eat them by hand as a starter or make them a meal with salad.

Beets are one of our favourite picnic ingredients (we give you all the tips for roasted beets here). While beets may be at their peak in summer they are available all year round. A delicious fall picnic idea is a perfect pairing of beetroot and fetta with caramelised onion in an easy-to-eat tart.

Cut in slices to eat with your hands or make smaller individual size tarts with the same recipe.

Scotch Eggs are a quintessentially British picnic food and pub snack. An old favourite, these delicious morsels of deep-fried sausage covered hard-boiled eggs make a delicious addition to a fall finger food picnic menu. Serve them hot or cold, this great make-ahead dish is also oh so portable.

Inspired by traditional Greek Spanakopita, these easy to make spinach and feta triangles are wonderfully portable appetizers or a great addition to a full finger food spread.

Serve them hot or cold; they'll be flaky and delicious either way.

Healthy and flavourful, these Turkish lentil balls are a great picnic appetiser and a wonderful addition to a picnic mezze platter - the ultimate finger food picnic dish.

Traditionally served cold, these aromatic meatballs are easy to make and loaded with delicious Turkish flavours and spices.

Babka bread, a recipe originating in Jewish communities in Eastern Europe in the early 19th century was traditionally a sweet bread filled with fruit, cinnamon or chocolate. This savoury vegan take on the babka loaded with herbs and garlic makes a great finger food bread served as a starter with dips and cheeses or, as a pull-apart sharing bread for mains. Either way, it's a delicious and versatile picnic dish.

Late summer, early fall is that beautiful cusp of fig and pear season. For an elegant fall appetiser, try this easy to make grilled pear and blue cheese appetizer with fig and walnut. It's easy to put together and makes a gorgeous starter or finger food addition to a wine & cheese picnic.

Take pears, fennel, blue cheese and ricotta, and you have the makings for a gorgeously portable savoury tart. Serve it hot or cold it can be sliced up as a main dish or into smaller finger food servings as an appetizer or wine and cheese accompaniment.

We featured Devils on Horseback in our Picnic Finger Food edition because they are the sweet and salty champions of finger food that never goes out of style and has no seasonal boundaries.

These bacon-wrapped dates are Devils on Horseback on steroids. Not satisfied with wrapping dates in bacon, these tasty morsels are stuffed with almonds and blue cheese.

Muffins are the perfect on the go food, especially when it is a savoury muffin. These delicious broccoli and cheese muffins make wonderful picnic companions. Easy to make, you can add your own style by switching out the cheese to suit your taste - perhaps you like a tasty cheddar or is it a salty goats cheese you prefer. You decide.

I also included these delightful morsels in our fall sandwich ideas as I feel they can go either way.

A simple yet vibrant roasted delicata squash tartine with creamy goat cheese, juicy pomegranate seeds and crispy sage, you could make them as a large open sandwich tartine or use small crostini or baguette slices to make them appetiser size.

Another picnic appetiser that could earn its place at a wine and cheese picnic.

Crispy on the outside and soft inside, these baked, not fried bites are a delicious snack. Ready in under half an hour, these crispy fritters will keep in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Add some oomph to your flavour profile by adding herbs such as sage or a cheesy twist with some parmesan.

Eat them on their own, smear them with cream cheese or chutney; they are also a great addition to a wine and cheese picnic.

A favourite fall tailgate idea, these Savory Sausage, Apple-Sage Hand Pies also make a delightful addition to any fall picnic hamper.

So simple to make, even if you opt for homemade pastry, these little pies only take around 20 minutes to prep and 30 minutes to cook.

Much like our Squash Tartine above, you can adjust the size to make them full pie size or appetiser size depending on your picnic style.

Check our tips for keeping picnic food warm to ensure these tasty morsels stay piping hot.

Fry them or bake them, these easy Carrot Spinach Croquettes are perfectly seasoned and tender on the inside with a crunchy coating on the outside.

Prep and cook time is only around 40 minutes. What's not to love about these delicious vegetarian picnic appetisers. Serve them hot or cold, I think they make a great addition to a picnic backpack for a fall hiking picnic.

These very portable Spiced Chicken Stuffed Buns make an incredibly portable picnic snack and fragrant addition to any fall picnic menu.

Taking a cue from traditional Sri Lankan stuffed buns, filled with aromatic chicken sauteed with ginger, garlic, and a plethora of spices, these little stuffed buns are perfect fall finger food for a picnic.

They're also certainly an interesting change from the traditional picnic sandwich and another great snack contender for a fall hiking picnic.

Spice up your fall picnic menu with these Bombay Lamb Rolls

Full of Indian spices, Bombay Lamb Rolls are a fun and tasty alternative to classic sausage rolls.

Much like sausage rolls, or small pies of any kind, these pastry rolls are a treat at any time of the year, but particularly enjoyable as the weather cools. The lamb and spices tend to lend themselves to the cooler autumn weather.

Serve them hot or cold.

My two favourite picnic dips are baba ganoush and hummus. Add roasted carrot to hummus and you have even more delicious hummus – A fun twist on its traditional counterpart.

The roasting process makes the carrots super sweet and they give the hummus a vibrant orange colour. A wonderful fall appetiser picnic dish.

Serve with crackers and crudités, as part of a fall style mezze platter, or simply with salad and flatbread.

Just when we thought hummus couldn't get any better.

Jazz up your fall picnics with this deliciously creamy, sweet and smokey smoked pumpkin hummus, a refreshing spin on traditional hummus recipe.

Use it as an accompaniment to bbq meats, mezze plates or crudités platters. It also makes a great picnic sandwich spread. We love this smokey pumpkin hummus.

Broccoli is at its best when the weather starts to cool so it's the perfect time for a warm seasonal dip.

This hearty hot broccoli cheese dip is a great picnic appetiser for the cooler months or even as a centre dish for a fall-inspired charcuterie board.

Another hearty cool weather dip is this vegetarian version of a classic. Cauliflower Buffalo Dip makes a great appetiser as is or, top it on small bruschetta pieces and garnish with a sprinkle of fresh herbs for an elegant finger food picnic addition.

I did say my other favourite picnic dip was baba ganoush. It is so easy to make and is a versatile addition to any picnic menu.

The deliciously smokey eggplant dip compliments so many picnic dishes and seems at home equally in cooler weather as warm.

Serve it with crackers or mezze style as you would with hummus. Or, serve it as a dipper to mini spiced lamb or chicken kebabs

I love the idea of a picnic soup. Served with fresh crusty bread steaming hot from a thermos. What could be better after a long walk enjoying the autumn colours?

While soup can be a stand-alone picnic meal, I also like to think of it as an appetiser. Enjoy a small cup of soup before a sandwich and salad. Or even as part of a fall finger food feast.

This vegan carrot and lentil soup lends itself to the cooler weather while the coriander keeps it fresh and lively.

It's also deeply nourishing and satisfying which makes it another lightweight, portable contender for a fall hiking picnic.

In many parts of Europe, early fall is when you will see the summer harvest of peppers hanging from balconies to dry, being loaded into small smokers in markets or on the side of the road, roasted and grilled to preserve this nutritious and delicious veg for winter.

So naturally, I always think about early autumn when I think about roasting peppers. Roasted peppers are a great addition to so many fabulous picnic recipes – salads, sandwiches, tarts and quiches, the list is endless.

But they also make a great addition to a fall appetiser platter, antipasto or cheese platter. There are so many ways you can incorporate them into a fall picnic menu as an appetiser or finger food.

I like to serve them alone for people to add to bread with cheese or top a crostini with goats cheese and slices of sweet roasted peppers.

Apple chips are such a simple snack but so healthy and so delicious. Make them as a sweet treat as in this recipe with cinnamon, or, leave the cinnamon out and add them to a cheese plate. Either way, apples certainly make a great fall picnic snack.

No air fryer or dehydrator required for this recipe, simply bake in the oven.

Need more picnic finger food inspiration? We've got loads more finger food and appetiser recipes for a picnic for all seasons.