A Handy Guide To Building A Kick-Ass Vegan Charcuterie Board
We think food should be both beautiful and delicious! This is certainly true for charcuterie boards, which for many of us represent abundance, fine cuisine, and communion. These wonderful arrangements often serve as the centerpiece for family dinners, parties, sleepovers, and hangouts. They're meant to be shared, and offer a little bit of everything, so each guest can reach for the snacks they enjoy most. Keep reading and find out how to create the perfect vegan charcuterie board for your holiday dinner party this year!
What Is a Charcuterie Board?
Having originated in France, charcuterie boards were traditionally loaded with cold cuts, pâtés, cheese, bread, nuts, fruit, and more. They were carefully arranged and chopped into bite-sized pieces that guests could nibble on during the party.
Today, however, charcuterie boards can hold a wide selection of sometimes unconventional snacks, along with these more traditional foods. You may find boards made with dips from a range of cuisines, crackers, chips, cookies, cakes, chocolates, pretzels, or pickles to switch things up. So, it all depends on your creativity!
That said, some hosts prefer to steer clear of overly spicy, saucy, or messy foods that could be difficult to serve or damage the board's taste or presentation over time. Keep in mind that a charcuterie board is designed for self-service, so it can get quite messy and unappetizing if it's loaded with too many opposing flavors in its sauces, chips, or dips.
What Should Go Into My Vegan Charcuterie Board?
Although no two hosts' boards are the same, each should contain a few types of textures and flavors to balance out the selection. For example, every board should include:
Fresh raw veggies. Fresh veg can help to cleanse the palate and serve as a base for your dips and sauces! These may include crisp cucumber slices, carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, sliced bell peppers, and/or radishes.
Dips, infused olive oils, or sauces. Think hummus, pesto, olive dip, garlic-infused olive oil, spinach dip, vegan cream cheese, etc.
Artisanal nut cheese. Along with the dips, your cheeses will help to contrast the veggies' neutral flavor.
Something pickled. Every charcuterie board can benefit from the addition of a pickled veggie! Some common choices are gherkins, pickled carrots, pickled onions, pickled peppers, pickled mushrooms, and pickled eggplant.
Bread or crackers. For those who prefer a carb as their base, you can include a bakery-style loaf, like sliced French bread, ciabatta, or perhaps some old-fashioned soda crackers and Ritz! Or, you could use thin, crispy breadsticks for even easier dipping.
Nuts. A universal staple for charcuterie boards, most hosts like to go for cashews, almonds, walnuts, or pistachios.
Fruits. Fruits are another classic add-on that can please all palates. Although fresh fruit like blueberries, apple slices, strawberries, grapes, and others will look gorgeous on any board, dried fruits are the safest choice, since they'll keep for longer and their juices won't seep into your cookies or crackers over time.
Gourmet olives. Black or green olives can make for a sophisticated add-on and are delicious paired with a mild dip and bread!
Crunchy add-ons. Try going for chips, pretzels, roasted chickpeas, or cookies for a contrasting texture your guests will love.
Vegan meats. Although it isn't exactly necessary, you may find it beats the point of crafting a charcuterie board if it doesn't contain some sort of cold cut. Luckily, there should be a variety of store-bought vegan deli slices available at your local supermarket or health food store.
Keep reading to discover our favorite brands and substitutes for vegan charcuterie boards!
Vegan Substitutes for Your Charcuterie Board
Ready to select the ingredients you'll be using on your board? We have some fabulous suggestions for you, ranging from vegan cheeses to vegan deli slices and crunchy snacks you're sure to love. Check out the galleries below to get inspired and start shopping for your vegan snack board!
Best Vegan Deli Slices For Your Charcuterie Board
Best Vegan Cheese For Your Charcuterie Board
Best Vegan Dips For Your Charcuterie Board
Best Vegan Chips & Crackers For Your Charcuterie Board
More Plant-Based Faves For Your Charcuterie Board
Time To Assemble Your Vegan Charcuterie Board!
If you've already selected the foods you'll be placing on your board, it's time to start arranging them in a way that will impress your guests. Follow these steps to create the vegan snack board of your dreams!
First, you'll need a tray to use as your base. For a classic look, most go for a wooden chopping board. However, others opt for a metal or plastic tray. Some may even use parchment paper or a folded picnic blanket as the base. It's up to you and what you have available at home! Simply make sure it's the right size to fit all of your yummy snacks without cramping them together or spacing them too far apart.
Then, chop any hard nut cheeses into bite-sized slices or cubes for your guests to pair with crackers. If a cheese is creamy and spreadable, you could leave a large wedge on the board with a butter knife, so that your guests can spread it onto their bread or veggies. The cheeses will be your centerpieces, so you'll want to arrange them accordingly, leaving space for slicing, and for your other snacks.
After that, you'll want to determine which snacks will need to be transferred into small serving bowls, and which can be placed directly onto the board. As a general rule, those that have a brine, or are liquid enough to leave your board with soggy bread, crackers, chips, or cookies should go into bowls. This means all dips, pickled veggies, sauces, and oils need to be separated from the other ingredients.
Now, you'll want to go for your fruits and veggies, which you can arrange around the bowls and cheeses. Slice each into bite-sized pieces, sticks, or slices if they are too large to eat whole, like apples, celery, or watermelons. You can leave smaller fruits and veggies like tomatoes, berries, and grapes whole on the vine or sprinkled around the board.
Thinly slice your bread loaf, then tilt it over to slightly expose the slices. Fit the entire loaf into a designated corner, or separate it into two or three sections to better arrange it across the board. Then, place small stacks of crackers around your fruits, vegetables, cheeses, and bowls. You can do the same with any small cakes, chocolates, cookies, or chips.
Next, simply fit any smaller snacks, like dried fruits, folded/bunched deli slices, and nuts into the remaining spaces to fill in any empty portions of your board. You should finally see things coming together at this point.
After this, you'll simply need to add any necessary utensils so your guests can serve themselves a portion of these delicious vegan snacks!
Many like to finish off their board with some sprigs of fresh herbs or edible flowers. Others will use a piece of brightly colored fabric to place underneath the board for a pop of color. Regardless of what you go with as your personal finishing touch, just remember to have fun with it!
Vegan Charcuterie Board Delivery for Those Short on Time!
Gold Belly Terra Vegan Cheese & Charcuterie Board
If you don't have the time or energy to create an elaborate snack board for your holiday party, you can always go for Gold Belly's Vegan Charcuterie Board, which serves 12 people! Packed with two vegan deli meats, five vegan cheeses, and additional crackers, sweets, and garnishes, your guests will be very pleased with this spread. It also comes with bamboo utensils and a wooden board you'll get to use next year, too. Give it a try and enjoy your holiday feast!
We hope you're now fully equipped to create or purchase the most beautiful vegan charcuterie board for your holiday party. For more tips, advice, and incredible product recommendations to help simplify your vegan lifestyle, make sure to sign up for our weekly newsletter! Thanks for reading!
