Any day can be improved with the addition of a vegan cheese board. Loaded with seasonal ingredients, vegan cheeses, vegan meats and fruit – we’re sharing our top tips for making a holiday vegan cheese board.
Whether it’s your holiday dinner or movie night, a vegan cheese board is the answer. They’re one of our favourite things to put together because not only is it one of our favourite ways to eat, it’s also STUNNING.
While the holidays may look a little different this year. We may not be able to be with all the friends and family we want you, we can still enjoy delicious food. We’re sharing our top tips for making the best vegan cheese board with a little holiday flair.
Include 3-4 Different Vegan Cheeses
A good cheese board should have a variety of delicious cheeses. Be sure to really think about what cheese you want. When making this board we opted for three different brands so that we knew we’d be getting different textures and three very different flavours – spicy, blue, and fruity/herby. Some of our favourite brands are Nuts for Cheese, Culchurd, VegNature, and Stokes Vegan Cheese.
Add a Couple Seasonal Fruits
Fruit is a great way to balance out flavours on a cheese board and they go great with cheeses! While they don’t technically have to be seasonal, we encourage it for this holiday board. We opted for sliced persimmons and halved figs.
Spreads (like jams) Add Much Needed Variety
Cheeses are great but having a couple spreads that aren’t cheese/non-dairy based is a great way to add flavour and variety. We like to include jams and jellies but these spreads can be whatever you want. We opted for a hot pepper jelly and a fig jam.
You Can Never Say No to a Dip
Again, we love cheese but having a dip is always a great idea and bonus points if the dips flavours mirror that of the rest of the board. We opted for a caramelized onion tofu-based dip for this board. The warm flavours of the dip complimented the comfort of this board perfectly.
Crackers, Chips, and Crostini – oh my!
Your cheeses and dips need a vessel and crackers and chips are the best out there. We typically opt for crackers that have a variety of flavours and textures, but sometimes we love adding sweet potato chips as well. For this board we added some roasted garlic baked pita crackers, garlic crostini, and flaxseed rye crisps.
Let Your Vegan Cheese Board Get a Little Nutty…
Nuts and seeds are a must (unless you’re allergic of course)! Depending on the type of board your making there are many different options to include. For this board we opted for pistachios, sliced almonds, pecans, and roasted chestnuts.
O-love Vegan Cheese Boards with all the olives!
We never make a vegan cheese board without olives and pickled ingredients. Things like pickled eggplant, a variety of olives, pickled onions, pickles and more. For this board we opted for a variety of olives.
Don’t Forget the Holiday Flavours
For a holiday board you’ve got to load up the holiday flavours! Ingredients like persimmons, figs, pecans, roasted chestnuts, cranberries, spiced nuts, and more!
Holiday Vegan Cheese Board
Ingredients
- 3-4 vegan cheeses
- 3 crackers, chips or crostini
- 1 vegan meat, (pepperoni, deli meat, etc.)
- 2 jams or jellies, (hot pepper, fig, blueberry, cranberry, etc.)
- 1 creamy dip, (hummus, tofu dip, etc.)
- 2 seasonal fruits, (persimmon, figs, etc.)
- 3 nuts and seeds, (pistachios, almonds, pecans, chestnuts, etc.)
- 1 pickled or marinated ingredient, (olives, pickled onions, pickled eggplant, etc.)
Instructions
- Start with a wooden board and place your vegan cheeses evenly across the board. These should be the centrepiece of your board.
- Next add in the crackers, chips, and crostini. These are the second most important part and you want to be sure you have enough of them on it.
- Place your vegan meat slices in a few different places across the board.
- Add the jars or bowls of the jams, jellies, and dips across the board.
- Fill the spaces with your nuts, seeds, pickled/marinated ingredients, and seasonal fruits.