Vegan Charcuterie Grazing Board Ideas Fitnessnacks

Last modified: April 3, 2023. Originally posted: April 3, 2023 By Sophia DeSantis

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Creative and delicious ideas to make the best vegan charcuterie board! Perfect for your next party, follow these easy step by step instructions.

Also known as a grazing board or snack board, these are the perfect appetizer for large groups. They can accommodate a variety of diets and fill you up!

This post was originally published on May 21, 2020.

This vegan charcuterie board isn’t just for parties! We love having this as a dinner because it’s well rounded and perfect for any time of day (no one says you can’t eat vegan snacks as a meal!).

Popular grazing boards are filled with cured meats and dairy cheeses, so to create a vegan version may seem impossible. But it’s not! There are a number of sweet and savory plant based snacks you can use to create a beautiful vegan charcuterie board.

Make a massive one on your kitchen counter for a party, load up platters for a fun family dinner, or put together a small charcuterie board for two for date night! Keep reading for all kinds of amazing vegan charcuterie board ideas to impress your family and friends.

Vegan Charcuterie Board Components

In order to make sure you have the right mix of flavors on your grazing board you want to include foods that hit all the different tastes. Make sure to include a variety of sweet, savory, salty, and spicy options.

Here are the types of items to include (see below for full list of ideas):

• Veggies
• Fruit
• Nuts
• Crackers/Breads
• Vegan Cheese
• Vegan Meats
• Dips and Spreads
• Sweets

How to Make a Vegan Grazing Board

Arranging with platter in such a way to make it beautiful is half the battle. But if you have all the best snacks it ultimately doesn’t matter how pretty it is, people will devour it anyway! The best thing about grazing boards is that you can change it up and make them what you want each time.

Here’s a guide for how to organize the components:

1. Figure out what you want to include on your board. Refer to the categories and ideas in this post. It helps to write it all down to visually see what you are including.
2. Make sure to include at least one food from each category, but load it up with extras of your favorites.
3. Decide what you want to build your board on. A platter or cutting board are popular options. If you’re hosting a big gathering build a vegan grazing table on your dining table or a kitchen countertop.
4. Start with the big things like cheeses and put them center stage but separated a bit.
5. Add bowls of your dips and wet items around the outer edge of the grazing board area to almost create a shape as an edge to follow.
6. Next, take your larger or long veggies/breads/etc and lay them in the spaces between the cheeses and dips.
7. Work your way down from biggest to smallest, ending with food like nuts and dried fruit that can be scattered and piled up to fill in holes.
8. Try to place complementary flavors next to each other.
9. One thing I like to do is keep things like nuts and dried fruit that aren’t really messy and a little more firm and just scatter them on the board area instead of putting them in bowls. Of course, you want to make sure your surface is clean first.

Vegan Charcuterie Board Ideas

In order to make a charcuterie board vegan, you must stick with plant based foods. I like to use a mix of produce, and homemade and store bought snacks. The following list of grazing board ideas is broken down by category, so choose a few from each and get to building your board!

Good Vegetable Options

I could honestly call the ones I put together veggie charcuterie boards since I use so many veggies in my platters. Well, because veggies! Having a good variety will give options for all to enjoy. Plus, it’s a great way to step out of our comfort zones and try something new.

• Broccoli – break into small florets
• Carrots – slice into thin sticks or cut into rounds
• Mushrooms – depending on the size of your mushrooms you may want to leave them whole or cut
• Cucumbers – cut into circles or sticks
• Zucchini or yellow squash – like cucumbers, these are great as either rounds or sticks
• Cherry tomatoes – cut them in half if small kiddos will be snacking
• Asparagus – leave them in the spear form
• Potatoes – cube or cut into wedges
• Radishes – there are a variety of ways you can cut these, slices, wedges, halves, etc.
• Cauliflower – separate into small florets
• Peppers – thin strips or triangles are great for dipping
• Celery – make sure to pull the extra strings!
• Snap peas – serve as is

Some of these vegetables can be served raw or blanched and some should be cooked like potatoes. Either way, they make great vehicles to dip and provide awesome nutrients for your body.

The Best Fruit for Snacking

While any fruit would taste amazing to fill the sweet flavor profile, you don’t want anything super messy since charcuterie boards are basically finger food. Avoid extra soft and juicy fruit, like peaches.

• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Grapes
• Apples
• Oranges
• Melon
• Figs

Plant Based Meat Ideas

Keep with the traditional theme of charcuterie and include some meat alternatives, either store bought or homemade.

Vegan Cheese Options

Offer a mix of store bought and homemade vegan cheese for a dairy free charcuterie board. If you only need to make it vegetarian feel free to use your favorite standard cheeses.

Store bought brands I like:

• Miyoko’s Creamery vegan cheese
• Follow Your Heart
• Chao by Fieldroast
• Violife
• Kite Hill
• Treeline
• Vromage
• Parmela’s Creamery

Cheese recipes from my website:

Condiments and Dips for a Charcuterie Board

No charcuterie board would be complete without a dip or two! The selections here are endless and can easily be customized to fit what you like. Plus it can be adapted for any kind of eater.

Here are some dip ideas, both from my website and things you can also purchase already made that we love:

Bread and Other Carb Dippers

Another favorite dipper area of mine is the bread and carb category. There are so many fun options out there both store bought and homemade. Use gluten free options if you need to.

From soft breads, to crunchy crackers, here are some of our top picks for vegan grazing boards!

• Potato chips
• Crackers
• Breadsticks
• Bread – crusty bread like sourdough or baguettes do best
• Pasta – think bigger shapes
• Puffs
• Tortilla chips
• Tortillas

Nuts and Other Add Ons

There are a variety of extras that go in this category, from sweet to savory. These smaller items can be sprinkled around the grazing board in between the larger foods.

• Dried fruit
• Dates
• Nuts like almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans, pistachios
• Flavored versions of nuts
• Pickles
• Olives
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Crispy chickpeas

More Grazing Board Recipes

If you’re looking to bulk up your veggie grazing board into a full on meal, these heavier snacks will go great!

Remember that the options are endless, and if you follow the groups of ideas I gave above, your charcuterie board can easily come together as a whole food nutritious meal. It’s especially a great option for kids who may be picky to have so many choices!

• Allow kids to help build it to increase the chance that they will try more of the items.
• The amount of items you have should correspond to how many people you want to feed. You don’t want too much food, but you also want enough.
• Choose your platter size based on the amount of food you will be serving, you want it to look fully loaded, not super spread out.
• Consider the shapes of the food, cut everything into a wide variety of strips, circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles.
• Include a mix of colors to up the beauty factor.
• Place messy foods that might contaminate other flavors into small dishes so they don’t touch.

Common Questions

How do I travel with a charcuterie board?

If you are building your board on a table surface, pack all the items in bags or containers then build the board when you get there.

If you are making it on a platter, then you can build it at home. After you are done wrap it tightly with plastic wrap so the items don’t move around.

Can I prep ahead?

Absolutely! The first thing to do is write down every item you are using. Then gather the ones you need to buy, make the things you are making. All you have to do day of is build!

What is a charcuterie board?

The word charcuterie is actually a French term and is defined by Merriam-Webster as a delicatessen specializing in dressed meats and meat, and the products sold in such a shop. However, nowadays it refers to a platter filled with meats, cheeses, and assorted nuts and snacks.

How do you say charcuterie?

We’ve all probably heard this word pronounced differently but the correct way is “shaar·koo·tr·ee”.

Vegan Charcuterie Grazing Board Ideas

Sophia DeSantis

Creative and delicious ideas to make the best vegan charcuterie board! Perfect for your next party, follow these easy step by step instructions.

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Prep Time 45 mins

Total Time 45 mins

Course Appetizer, Snack

Cuisine American

Servings 10

Calories 889 kcal

Ingredients 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

Veggies

• 1 cup broccoli , cut into small pieces
• 1 cup cucumber , sliced
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes
• 20 spears asparagus
• 1 cup carrots , sliced or baby carrots
• 1 cup zucchini , sliced
• 1 cup radishes , quartered
• 20 whole button or crimini mushrooms

Bread and other Carbs

• 1 cup potato chips
• 1 cup tortilla chips
• 1 cup crackers
• 10 breadsticks
• 1 cup cubed bread

Fruit, Nuts and Other Items

• 1 cup apples , sliced
• 1 cup small french pickle spears
• 1 cup dried apricots
• 10 dates , sliced if preferred
• 1 cup almonds
• 1 cup cashews
• 1 cup crispy chickpeas

Instructions 

• Make a list of what items you want to include.

• Make anything you decide to prepare at home.

• Pick a surface you want to build your board on.

Build as follows

• Start with the big things like cheeses and put them center stage but separated a bit.

• Add bowls of your dips around the outer edge of the snack board area to almost create a shape as an edge to follow.

• Next, take your larger or long veggies/breads/etc and lay them in the spaces between the cheeses and dips.

• Fill in with the next biggest items next.

• Work your way down to small things like nuts and dried fruit that can be scattered and piled up to fill in holes.

Notes

• One thing I like to do is keep things like nuts and dried fruit that aren’t really messy and a little more firm and just scatter them on the board area instead of putting them in bowls. Of course, you want to make sure your surface is clean first.
• Some of the recipes listed make more than 1 cup. Either make less or make the whole thing and save the rest for later.
• You can buy or make the ideas given. You can also make it your own by seeing all the ideas given in the post.
• Nutrition facts are for what is listed here, but they will vary depending on brand bought for store Bought items.

Recipe by Veggies Don’t Bite, visit our site for more great plant-based recipes.

Nutrition

Calories: 889kcalCarbohydrates: 102gProtein: 31gFat: 42gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0gMonounsaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 1169mgPotassium: 2171mgFiber: 13gSugar: 25gVitamin A: 3240IUVitamin C: 30mgCalcium: 234mgIron: 16mg

Nutrition and metric information should be considered an estimate.

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