8 quail's egg recipes for elegant starters and snacks

Spice up your eggs with this easy pickling recipe using turmeric to add an extra kick of flavour to your lunch or dinner

A perfect bite-sized Scotch egg. This recipe is easily doubled or trebled if you are having a party and your guests will be impressed by these clever little nibbles. Using quail's eggs takes them to another level. Serve with a Dijon mustard mayonnaise. No cutlery needed.

The perfect nibbles or dinner-party starter. This is often served as a street snack in Egypt with a little paper cone of the dukkah spice blend for dipping. Serve with pickled chillies (available in Middle Eastern shops and some supermarkets), olives and flatbread as a relaxed nibble with drinks

We all loved smoked salmon, come Christmas time. Try it in a salad, with quail egg caesar and capers… just the thing for a light lunch. This recipe was inspired by The Fish People Cafe in Glasgow.

These quail's eggs with pink peppercorn salt make for stylish-looking canapés for your next party. Leave a bit of the speckled shell on to serve for a more interesting look.

These crab scotch quail's eggs with mustard mayo make a great twist on a classic British snack. They're easy to make but look impressive making them perfect to serve with drinks

If you haven't tried quail's eggs, you must. They taste delicious and look beautiful in this winter salad. Only a little pancetta is used in this recipe, giving a bacon flavour without all the fat. For the croutons, try Poilâne sourdough bread, which is stocked in most Waitrose branches.

A simple dinner-party starter. Once the egg, asparagus and chorizo are cooked, it's a quick an easy assembly job. Quail’s eggs are a bit fiddly to peel but they look very pretty in this salad. If you want to use hen’s eggs, cook 6 in boiling water for 7 minutes then cool in iced water and peel and quarter to serve.