Delicious Summer Charcuterie!
This delightful weather means it’s time to party, and we are so overdue for connection with friends and loved ones. Gathering means laughter, dancing, cocktails and delicious snacks, and nothing is more beautiful, versatile and easy than a charcuterie board!
The word “charcuterie” is French and translates to chair-meat and cuit-cooked and is what delis are called in France. They’ve been a part of French culinary culture since the 15th century. Luckily for a veggie like me, this process of curing and serving meats has evolved, and charcuterie boards are now a popular way to serve a variety of appetizers.
I spontaneously had some friends over a few weeks ago, and I didn’t have time to go shopping. I created the charcuterie board in the above picture with everything that we had in the house. I happened to have some leftover roasted beets and made a delicious roasted beet hummus. I also had all the ingredients for tapenade and made it in less than 5 minutes.
The Charcuterie Board in the above picture includes:
Pecans
Olives
Cherry Tomatoes
Blackberries
Strawberries
Green Apple
Pickles
Dates
Vegan Cheese
Cucumbers
Baguette
Crackers
Ginger Chocolate
Dips: Tapenade Recipe
If it hadn’t been so easy to make these dips, I would have purchased them.
I recently hosted some other friends and made a completely different board with lots of spicy vegan sausage, a variety of vegan cheeses, peppers and edamame. If you are a meat-eater, then go for it and play with the abundance of available cured meats.
Some Simple Tips
You want to have a variety in flavour and colour! When combined, they make an irresistible and flavour-packed board. When organizing your board, aim to hit all the flavours:
Salty – olives, tapenade, pita chips
Sweet –dates, fruit, jam, chocolate
Savoury – cheese, hummus, roasted nuts
Spicy – spicy vegan/meat salami or pepperoni, spicy dip
Sour - pickles, kimchi
For Dipping –bread, crackers, carrots, peppers, cucumbers
How to Arrange a Charcuterie Board
Once your snacks are ready, you’ll want to place them on a large cutting board, wooden tray, or even a baking sheet will suffice. Make sure that it isn’t too big because you don’t want too much space. Some snacks should be placed in small, bowels-especially the dips, olives, and pickles, and some snacks like cherry tomatoes, slices of cucumber, and small pieces of dark chocolate can be scattered.
Once you’ve got your board, place your snacks on the board from largest to smallest. Start with any bowls or dishes and space them out on the board so you can put smaller snacks in between. Organizing your board in this way provides endless possibilities for flavour combinations. Once you get the hang of it, you can put together a fantastic board in about 10 minutes.
Has it been a while since you’ve had some company? Whip up a charcuterie board and invite some of your favourite peeps over.
Be well.
Anita
