Perfect Picnic Finger Foods

At Ora HQ, May is all about the picnics. This is down to: the weather getting better; having two bank holidays and a half term in the month; the UK emerging from lockdown; and the frequency with which we say things like ‘maybe we can picnic instead’ (because we haven’t booked ahead) and ‘ooh, keep that pot, it may be useful for a picnic’ (because we don’t like waste).

Thanks to Ora being so versatile, picnics are as easy as chomping crustless cucumber sandwiches. They treble up as napkins, food holders, and on the go cleaning wipes thanks to our wring and repeat technology. We’ve rounded up five of our favourite picnic foods to inspire you to head off and explore the great outdoors without rumbly tummies. Naturally we’ve focused on easy to prepare, picnic finger foods to save you taking more along on your picnic than you need. Just grab an Ora and voila, plates and napkins all in one with these finger food ideas. And yes, you can still have salad and there’s not one soggy sarnie in sight!

Bloody Mary Bombs

Ingredients: Punnet of cherry tomatoes, 150ml vodka, 2 tbsps tabasco sauce, 2 tbsps Worcestershire sauce, ground pepper and celery salt

• Mix the vodka, tabasco sauce and worcestershire sauce together and pour into a jar that is big enough to hold the cherry tomatoes
• Using a toothpick, pierce each cherry tomato and then place in the jar with the bloody mary mixture
• Leave to soak overnight, gently shaking the jar every now and again
• Drain the liquid from the jar, leaving a few tablespoons worth in the bottom
• Serve in Ora cones with toothpicks, sprinkled with celery salt and pepper

Puff Pastry Palmiers

Ingredients: Ready made Puff Pastry Sheet, jar of pesto, parmesan/cheddar cheese, egg

• Spoon approximately a third of a jar of quality pesto sauce all over a sheet of ready made puff pastry, leaving a border of about 1.5cm all around
• Grate an even layer of parmesan or cheddar over the pesto, covering the whole sheet
• Working with a long edge, roll the pastry up into a tight log until you reach the mid point of the puff pastry sheet’s width
• Repeat with the other edge so you have two scrolls which meet in the middle
• Tightly wrap your scrolled pastry in food wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 200C (or 180C Fan)
• Beat an egg with a splash of water to make an egg wash
• After chilling your pastry, unwrap it and lay it out horizontally in front of you
• Cut slices - about 1 - 1.5cm thick - laying each slice flat on to a greased baking sheet
• Using the egg wash, brush each palmier slice before baking in the oven for about 14 minutes
• Check the palmiers from about 12 minutes to avoid over browning

Greek Salad Cucumber Boats

Ingredients: 2 whole cucumbers, 100g feta diced, handful of cherry tomatoes quartered, 2 tbps black pitted olives halved, 1/4 finely diced small red onion, glug of olive oil, tsp dried oregano, a few mint leaves finely sliced, lemon juice, seasoning

• Cut the cucumber lengthways and scoop out the watery flesh in the middle
• Mix the remaining ingredients together in a bowl adding a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and seasoning to taste
• Take two cucumber halves and fill the hollows with the greek salad filling
• Place the other cucumber halves on top and then cut each full length cucumber in half or thirds, to resemble a baguette sandwich
• Wrap and serve in an Ora pocket

Cheesecake Strawberries

Ingredients: punnet of strawberries, 200g cream cheese, 50g icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 digestive biscuits

• Remove the stalk and hull each strawberry
• Beat together the icing sugar, cream cheese and vanilla extract until smooth
• Place the digestive biscuits in a food bag and seal it, being sure to expel any excess air
• With a rolling pin crush to fine breadcrumbs
• Serve three or four stuffed strawberries in an Ora cone, sprinkling with the biscuit crumb before eating

Popcorn

Ingredients: Giant bag of flavoured popcorn; sweet, savoury or a mix!

• This one’s easy and interchangeable with crisps and nuts too
• Open a giant bag of your favourite popcorn flavour. There are all sorts of interesting flavours out there: Pina Colada, Cheddar and Smoked Paprika as well as the more quintessentially British picnic flavours such as Cherry Bakewell
• Pour into an Ora cone and munch

Ora’s other picnic food favourites that travel well, taste good and are easy to serve up include

• Olives
• Charcuterie slices
• Falafels
• Wasabi Peas

And of course, you need to have something cold to drink, preferably with bubbles, because we like things that are round.

All that’s left to ensure you have the perfect picnic outing is some rays of sunshine, a beautiful spot in the British countryside, a stack of Ora and you’re away! Enjoy!