Description
This Simple Charcuterie Board is the perfect appetizer to serve at a party or a holiday gathering! Arranged with an assortment of cured meat, cheese, fruits, gluten-free crackers, nuts, and a handful of other tasty ingredients this simple charcuterie board can be arranged in just 15 minutes!
Ingredients
- Soft cheese (choose 1): Brie, Chèvre, or Camembert
- Semi-hard cheese (choose 1): Gruyere, Gouda, Cheddar, or Havarti
- Hard cheese (choose 1): Manchego, Pecorino, Grana Padano, or Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Cured meat (choose 3): Proscuitto, Truffled Salami Log, Sliced Dry Salame, Coppa, Soppressata, Capocolla
- Crackers (choose 2-3): Trader Joe’s Everything But The Gluten Crackers, Trader Joe’s 3 Seed Sweet Potato Crackers, Milton’s GF Sea Salt Baked Crackers
- Fresh or dried fruit (choose as many as you like!): Pears and/or apples, persimmons, red grapes, tomatoes, and dried figs
- Something briny (choose 1-2): Cornichon and/or Olives such as Cerignola, Castelvetrano, Picholine, Kalamata, or an olive tapenade
- Nuts (choose 2): Roasted lightly salted almonds, truffled Marcona almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts, or pistachios
- Something spreadable (choose 1-2): Trader Joe’s Fig Butter, honey, honeycomb, or jam
- Gluten-Free Rustic Baguette, sliced (made by New Cascadia Traditional)
- Fresh herbs for garnish (optional): Fresh sage, fresh rosemary sprigs, fresh bay leaves, or any other fresh herb that gives the board a pop of green
Instructions
- Arrange the cheese: Position your cheese selections on the serving board with enough space between each to insert other foods. I partially cut the hard cheese wedge into cubes, then thinly sliced some of the semi-hard cheese, and left the soft cheese whole. Partially slicing the cheese adds visual interest and also serves as a visual cue for people to know that it’s okay to dig in and slice off as much as they want. It’s really up to you though how you would like it to be served!
- Arrange small bowls: Once the cheese is arranged, position a few small bowls on the board filled with olives, cornichons, truffled Marcona almonds, and fig butter. If you need to set some of these bowls off to the side of the main charcuterie board that is totally okay too!
- Arrange the meat: Begin filling in some of those empty spaces with the cured meats. I like to keep each type in its own area of the board to give some visual separation. For a salami log, partially slice half of it while leaving the other half whole. For meat that is already sliced, fold in half, or into quarters, and prop each folded slice next to each other. For sliced meat that is very thin just gently drape each slice on top of itself and arrange.
- Arrange the fresh fruit: Continue to fill in the remaining empty spaces with fresh fruit. Pre-slice the fruit or serve it whole. To provide some pops of color throughout the board place small stacks or handfuls of fruit of the same kind in separate areas versus piling all together in the same place. For example, a small stack of sliced pears would go on one side of the board while another stack would be placed somewhere else. Arrange the red grapes, grape tomatoes, dried figs, and persimmons in the same manner.
- Arrange the crackers, bread, additional nuts: Finally, let’s tuck the crackers and nuts into the last remaining empty spaces. If serving a gluten-free baguette, slice and serve it on the side on a separate dish.
- Dress it up with fresh herbs: If you still see a few small empty spaces peaking out on your serving board, dress them up with several sprigs of fresh herbs, such as rosemary and sage.
- Serve: Set out cheese knives, serving dishes, and open up a good bottle of wine. Dig in and enjoy!
Notes
The equipment section above contains affiliate links to products I use or recommend.
The options for cheese, meat, fruit, crackers, nuts, etc, that could contribute toward a tasty charcuterie board are numerous. All of the ingredients I used for this charcuterie board (except for the gluten-free rustic baguette and Milton’s Gluten-Free Crispy Sea Salt Baked Crackers) can be found at Trader’s Joe if you’re interested in making a one-stop shopping trip that has fairly reasonable prices, but these items can be found at many other grocery stores as well.
If serving as an appetizer, estimate roughly 2-3 ounces of both cheese and meat per person. If serving as the main food centerpiece estimate roughly 5 ounces of both cheese and meat per person.
Nutritional information is not provided since serving amounts and the specific foods served on your charcuterie board will most likely vary.
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: By hand
- Cuisine: French
- Diet: Gluten Free
