To Eat: Create The Perfect Cheese Board

One thing I absolutely love, love, LOVE is a cheese board. When Mark and I go out for dinner to a nice restaurant or when we want to celebrate, you better believe we order a cheese board for an appetizer! They're just so good, and so many places make them differently and with a variety of flavor.

Today, I want to share a couple of tips for you to create you're own charcuterie board right at home. This makes a really great addition to a home made meal for Valentine's Day coming up or a birthday, etc. Something that I love about these boards is there are so many combinations or protein, cheeses, crackers + bread, dips + sauces, fruit, pickles, nuts + seeds, the list goes on!


As a vegetarian, I skip the meat when I make them at home, but if you eat meat you'll definitely want to experiment with different combinations like salami, prosciutto, and other cured meats. So let's get started, shall we?

The first thing you'll need for the perfect charcuterie board is the board itself. Make sure its big enough to hold all of the elements, as well as clean and attractive. I find that a slab of sealed wood or marble looks best! (If you're using a lot of colorful elements, a darker color might work well too.)

Next, choose your cheeses. You want a mix of soft, semi-soft, and hard cheeses. For ours we used a Rosemary Manchego, an Espresso Infused Bellavitano, a fun goat cheese mix (I can't for the life of me remember the name of that one), and a white cheddar. I'm getting hungry just thinking about all this.


Now for the additional elements. Fruit, nuts, pickles/pickled veggies, the list goes on! For our pairings, we chose pistachios, apples, and dried cranberries. In the past we've done tiny pickles, pickled carrots, almonds, nectarines, and grapes.

For the final touch, we used water crackers and warm, seasoned pita bread. I also added some smoky dijon mustard for the bread and paired with the cheeses it makes a delicious combination. If you'd like to copy this board and add meat, I would recommend prosciutto and jamón serrano.

Another few elements you might like on your board include raw, local honey or fresh berries when its berry season. Enjoy!

Comments

  1. This looks beautiful and delicious! Great idea for a Valentine's Day appetizer and definitely for my next party. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. I agree with the comment from Beth -- your food presentation is beautiful! This sounds so yummy to me too. I love cheese and can happily make a meal of fruit and cheese.

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  3. You can't beat a good cheese board, and I really love that addition of local honey here. Also, that espresso Bellavitano sounds incredible!

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  4. Cheese boards are great at night! Especially when I want to pair it with wine!

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  5. Cheese boards are the BEST! My heart always does flips when I see one at a party. I will admit though, I usually just eat the cheese and avoid the rest, but I still love the look of the variety!

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    1. Me too! I love when they're at parties haha I love all the elements, but totally understand just wanting to eat the cheese :)

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  6. Wow, what a beautiful cheese board! I love the variety here including the addition of fruit :)

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