Build your own Vegan Charcuterie Board

I love the idea of a big, bountiful spread! One of my favorite things I used to order when eating out was a charcuterie board. I loved that you could taste a variety of things all in one sitting. I started to think about how I had never come across one of those since I switched to a plant-based diet. 

While perusing Pinterest one day for yummy new, vegan recipes, which I do quite a bit. I came across this thing of beauty. From that instant I was on a mission to bring this into my life. It was the bountiful spread I was dreaming of. I wanted to embrace all of these flavors and colors, imagining each bite was a choose-your-own-adventure due to the myriad of options. 

You could just follow the recipes in the link above and have a great board. But, I also looked at other recipes and searched for other ideas, coming up with the exact array of delicacies that I wanted to eat. 

You really can choose anything. What sounds good to you; figs, carrots, peppers, nuts, grapes? What about a candy board, or including peppermint, or even fresh herbs. To keep your wheels turning, I’ll share what I did. 

My fixins of choice: 

• Carrots (I got the multi-colored kind for visual appeal)
• Roasted red pepper (organic and in a jar)Artichoke hearts (organic and in a jar)
• Almonds (my co-op hand tamarind coated ones, mmm)
• Hazelnuts
• Fresh yellow pepper
• Celery
• Grapes (you can do both green and purple for added color)
• Olives (again, you can get multiple options)
• Fresh cranberries 

Here are the sauces, dips and cheezes I chose:

Pesto
White bean dip
Cashew cranberry cheeze
Herb cashew cheeze
Cranberry chia jam (for added tart)

I also chose to make my board gluten-free, I call this “inclusive eating.” Haha. I like the idea of everyone being able to eat what’s on the table, it feels loving and thoughtful to me. 

I then picked a wide variety of crackers. 
Mary’s Organic Super Seed Crackers – Get the Everything flavor, everyone loves these.
Sun-dried Tomato & Basil Almond Flour Crackers – I thought these paired well with the pesto.
Organic Red Rice & Quinoa Thin Stackers – These are great to pile on the goodies!
Back to Nature Multi-Seed Rice Thin – These are hardcore snackable.
Sesmark Rice Thins, Sesame – A classic GF fave. 

These are just suggestions and you can grab whatever you can find at your local store. You could also find a nice baguette, I just haven’t had luck finding gluten-free, vegan bread. 

The cool thing about making all of this is that most of these things can be prepared ahead of time. I love that, so you’re not feeling so pressured the day before, or the day of, your party. I made the cheezes a couple of days out (note that you need to soak the cashews overnight). Taking my time really helped me to embrace the joy and gratitude of the season, while appreciating making something healthy and earth-friendly for my friends and family. 

I suppose we do need to discuss the matter of the board itself. I have a hard time settling for anything less than my perfect vision, so I scoured Etsy.com for the perfect one. I was actually looking specifically for ones that were made locally, which is a filter you can use on their site. This is the one I got! It’s from a local craftsmen here in Minneapolis, who also ships if you’re not in the area. 

Once you have all of your elements together, get creative with your placement of all the goodies. Most items I like to just place directly on the board, like the roasted peppers and artichoke hearts even. The dips, like the pesto, obviously need to be in a bowl. Find some small ones so it can be placed on the board with the other items. I took fresh cranberries and the various nuts and sprinkled them in different areas on the board to fill it out. You can’t really do it wrong, pile it on!

I do have to say, that this was quite the crowd pleaser, and a group of 11 people snacked on this for hours as I kept replenishing it. Not only that, but it’s a beautiful center piece and very photogenic.

Have fun! Be merry! Get creative! Just pick your faves and you’ll make all the bellies happy while being kind to the planet. 

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