Vegan Dessert Charcuterie Board

Get 10 tips for how to make the perfect vegan dessert charcuterie board and over 100 vegan ideas for what to put on your vegan dessert grazing board.

Just because you are vegan doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy a charcuterie board. Today, we’ll be showing you how to create an epic vegan dessert charcuterie board, sometimes called grazing board, and give you all the tips you need to perfect it

What is a vegan dessert charcuterie board?

First, let’s talk about how to say it. It’s /SHär’koodərē/ or “shahr-ku-tuh-ree.

Then, let’s talk about what a traditional charcuterie board is. It’s a French word that references a portion of the cooking experience (appetizers or tapas in other countries) that is specifically prepared from meats, especially cured and smoked.

Sometimes they may also be referenced as a grazing board or a cheese board. While they all may differ slight they have similarities.

Vegan dessert charcuterie boards are the same in that they are a way to arrange a variety of desserts and dips that go together so that people can grab and go!

They are perfect for get togethers, holiday parties, and even just Netflix and chill nights. Because they are snacky they make for simple dinners that kids will love too (honestly, adults too! – even if they won’t admit it).

Looking for more? Watch us create a traditional vegan charcuterie board:

When do you serve a vegan dessert charcuterie board?

The real answer is whenever you want.

Charcuterie boards are great around the holidays or special occasions; however, they are also great for snack ideas during game or movie nights.

Speaking of, if. you are having a movie night in, these are a great way to have some food while watching a movie without a lot of effort.

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How do I know what size board to pick to make my vegan dessert charcuterie board?

The great news is …THERE’S NOT A RIGHT SIZE!

Vegan dessert charcuterie boards can be as big or as small as you want them to be. It really depends on how many people you are serving and how much time you want to spend.

The larger the board, the more food you are going to need and also the longer it will take to prepare it. The smaller the board, the less time.

If you are only serving 2 people, you could get away with a 9×13 board or even just an 8×8 pan size type of dish.

If you are serving a crowd, especially for holidays, you may want to go much larger or another idea is to put multiple smaller boards together in some type of design. For example, you could put 4 together to make a larger square or you could line them up side by side to have an epically long board.

What size board are you using in the photos ?

The board size we choose for the presentation you see in the photos is 15×15 inches. It is actually a pizza board. This size tray should easily feed 6-8 people with enough variety but still also be able to be replenished when needed.

What type of board do I use to make a vegan charcuterie board?

There are endless possibilities here. The main thing used are various wooden cutting boards, which you likely may already have on hand. Slate boards are also sometimes used; however, they are less common than wooden cutting boards.

If you don’t have either, another option would be to use a baking sheet that you likely already have hanging around the house. Pizza trays would be another option. You can truly make anything work.

How should I start arranging stuff on a vegan dessert charcuterie board?

We always suggest starting with the bigger items. For us this was our vegan cheesecake and pretzel rods.

After that, anything that you are putting in a jar or bowl should go on your board.

Then, you can spend time arranging anything else that you have to put onto your board.

What brands are you using the the photos?

Most of the things in the photo – especially the produce is from Aldi. We feel like more often than not they have the best prices for produce.

The cashews, and pretzel rods also came from there, as well as the chocolate hummus in the jar and the dark chocolate bar that is broken up at the top of the first photo. There are also thin round cookies that appear to be vanilla and chocolate – this is Aldi’s coconut cashew crisps in two different flavors (they have 3 flavors.

In the small brown bowl in the center is scooped out vegan cream cheese. We love the Wayfare brand for cream cheese.

The orange and white triangles are Daiya’s vegan cheesecake cut into slices – regular and pumpkin flavors.

Also in the photo are some biscotti cookies that are the store brand for our local Shoprite. The oval cookies by the cream cheese are biscotti cookies. And finally there are wafer cookies that we found made by the Voortman brand.

We think that covers everything, but if you have any questions let us know!

What are other tips for building a vegan dessert charcuterie board?

Beyond the tips above, there are a few other tips that we have that we think we will really help you take your vegan dessert charcuterie board to the next level.

• Spread out your colors
  • Try to have a variety of colors – usually it’s easy to get greens, oranges, red, and purples on a platter. Try to focus here on balancing out the color varieties and spread them across the platter so the same color isn’t all centralized into one area of the board.
• Be patient
  • Don’t try to rush this. Really take your time and slice things or arrange them in a way that really make them pop.
• Less is More
  • Don’t try to put everything you can possibly think of on a board. Sure there’s easily 20 different kinds of nuts at the grocery store but that doesn’t mean you should put all of them on your board. Try to stick to 4-5 ideas and 1-2 of each of those ideas. We recommend, especially for your first boards, to not go over 15 different items, but ideally 10-12. You want to keep it simple but also very interesting.
• Try to have an even playing field
  • No we aren’t talking about dating here. You don’t want one thing towering something else. Try to keep everything relatively low. Nothing higher than 4 inches or so.
• Add some character
  • If you notice in the photos, we’ve added some rosemary and thyme sprigs. There are some peppercorns. Additionally, we left the grapes on the vine and bought cherry tomatoes still on the vine. This all adds to depth and bringing character to live on the board and really just helps to make it pop.
• Stick to mostly your favorite things
  • There are so many things that you can add but at the end of the day, whatever is left over stays at your home more often than not. Knowing that, try to pick things that you love and realize that you can’t please everyone. Don’t like pecans? Don’t add them. Don’t like grapes? Don’t add them. It’s really that easy.

One of the biggest tips is to just go for it. You can always rewind and remove something even if you are more than halfway through. Don’t be scared to just really go for it and get creative.