Lunch Charcuterie Board

by terri mchugh

If you caught my previous blog post on how to build a breakfast charcuterie welcome back! If you’re new, hi! In this post, I will share a few tips to help you build a Pinterest worthy lunch/ graze board that your fam & friends will love.

Coming up with a lunch menu…

Since “lunch foods” are a little heartier than breakfast items AND a bit more complex, it’s important to have a vision of what you’d like to include in your board. Do you want to go heavy on the meats, showcase a fun pasta salad, or a build your own sandwich board? Choose the one that makes sense for you and who you’re catering to! My fam really enjoys the build your own sandwich style graze board. Not only is it simple to include the basics, it’s fun to step it up a notch and wow them with next level cheeses and prosciutto instead of the usual roasted turkey on white, ha. In order to create a dynamic board you have to make sure you include a good variety of texture and color. Having this vision will help you come up with an interesting menu!

As you can see, I wanted to step up the ol sandwich game and revamp the traditional staples. Croissants instead of sliced bread. Prosciutto in place of turkey. Brie and Gouda – you get the idea!

I also wanted to make sure I had a good blend of sweet & salty. I like to balance my graze boards with fresh fruit and a honey dipper!

How to build your board…

Start off by placing the small bowls/dishes/ or spreads first. That way you can build around it. It’s not fun having to squeeze in those items at the end, it could ruin the whole look too.

Once you have those in place- go from largest to smallest! In this case, I added the cheeses first.

Think of balance and think of contrasting colors when arranging your items. The more contrast the better. It was a challenge to contrast some of these colors because the roasted garlic crackers and the croissants were pretty similar. However, when this happens, you can use a dish to separate the blended colors or pieces of fruit. I used the salami & colorful herbs to break up the monotony!

As your building your board, look for those nook and crannies and fill them up! A full board is a happy board. This will keep it looking nice and abundant. Get creative with placement too! Things don’t have to lay flat all the time. I made fun loose salami spirals and wedged them around the balsamic garlic onion spread.

Adding layers and depth to the board will give it that instagrammable quality, I promise!

If you’re an herb person and you think your meal could benefit from a sprinkle… I would suggest thyme and rosemary. They’re beautiful and fragrant!

That’s all there is to it! Also, these graze boards would be a great idea for those school lunches. If your kids are doing distance learning like ours, a kid-friendly graze board would be PERFECT. Especially if you have kiddos with different breaks/ lunch schedules. They can graze as they like 🙂

Up next…. how to build a dinner board!

XOXO, terri