If you’ve eaten at a small-plates restaurant in the past decade or two, you may have noticed something: at the good ones, vegetables abound. In fact, I’ve long said that the trend helped break chefs of their protein-at-the-centre-of-the-plate habit, resulting in creative combinations of ingredients – and many more options for vegetarian and vegan diners.
That same phenomenon is at play, for home cooks this time, in Lukas Volger’s new book, Snacks for Dinner. Volger was inspired to write it after a friend made him and his husband lunch in California, breaking up a trip in which they were eating one restaurant meal after another, and serving them a seemingly effortless and informal array of small dishes – a tabbouleh salad from a local maker, farm-fresh carrots, dips, crackers and more – that became their favourite meal of the trip.
