How to Make a Charcuterie Board Your Whole Family Will Love
If you are looking to change up your meals around your home, a charcuterie board is the way to go! Keep reading to see how to put together a family-friendly board that everyone will love – adults and kids alike! Thorough and practical ideas, tips, and food suggestions included!
So Many Reasons to Build a Family-Friendly Charcuterie Board
Family-friendly charcuterie boards are a great way to add a lot of nutrients to your diet at home, not to mention they can be a fun meal to share with your family. A great family-friendly charcuterie board can feel like a special meal without needing to spend all day cooking in the kitchen, plus, it’s a bunch of finger foods so your kids will love it!
These meals can be fantastic for date nights (here are some tips for making a more romantic charcuterie board for Valentine’s Day by using aphrodisiac foods), for brunches on Easters and Mother’s Day, but they’re also a great home celebration for your kids’ achievements.
If your family are sports fans, a charcuterie board can be a great way to give your whole family healthy, tasty snacks for game day.
Really, you can make them any time you want, for no particular reason.
How to Make Charcuterie Boards Kid-Friendly
The first thing a lot of parents run into when they want to make a charcuterie board is not being sure how to make a kid-friendly version. Fortunately, this isn’t actually as difficult as it seems.
Charcuterie boards start with finger foods. Fresh fruit and vegetables, sliced cheeses, and usually salami, prosciutto, or other dried preserved meats.
So the first thing you should think about is the age of your kids. Very young kids, ages 3-5, can enjoy charcuterie boards if you choose from flavors and textures they’re likely to enjoy.
For instance, instead of an aged hard salami, kids this age are a lot more likely to enjoy summer sausage or a sweeter beef jerky.
On the cheese side of things, you might enjoy blue cheese or other strongly flavored ‘stinky’ cheeses, but your kids will probably be happier with a more familiar option. Cheeses like cheddar, colby jack, pepper jack, or even gouda are typically more kid-friendly.
It’s also important to consider whether the food you’re serving is safe for your kids to eat. Say you want to serve olives, dates, and cherries on your charcuterie board. All three are classic charcuterie foods, but all three have one big problem for young kids. Pits.
If you’re serving pitted fruits and vegetables, it’s important to make sure the pits have been removed before you serve, up until your kid is about 10-12.
Generally if you have at least 1 or 2 meats, cheeses, and fruits and vegetables your kid enjoys on your charcuterie board, they’ll be happy. You can also add in some yummy dessert dips to make the fruit just a little more appealing, if even fruit is a struggle sometimes (hand-raised!).
Don’t be afraid of adding foods specifically for your kids either. If you have a picky eater with really limited food preferences, go ahead and add a few of those items to your charcuterie to make sure they have a good time.
Who knows? Maybe your kid-friendly charcuterie board will help inspire them to explore new flavors.
Adult Friendliness Matters Too!
Make your charcuterie board adult-friendly too!
A lot of parents fall into a trap of only eating the foods their kids like, which can feel really limiting depending on how picky your child is and how much variety your palate prefers.
It’s okay to add a few things to your charcuterie board (and any meal) that are just for you. Even if you know your kid won’t like that food, seeing you eat more adventurously can eventually help them do the same.
Kid-Friendly Charcuterie Board Plating
Another important consideration when you’re making a charcuterie board your family (and especially your kids!) will love is the plating. Kids like food that’s bright and colorful, but it can be hard for them to enjoy a charcuterie board that makes it hard for them to get at their favorite foods.
For that reason, I tend to prefer leaving off decorative elements like flowers, ribbons, or different colored napkins when I’m serving my kids, so the whole board is a little more accessible.
It’s also a good idea to pre-slice anything that’s bigger than a mouthful into bite-sized pieces. That way your kids can just grab what they want to eat without having to worry about slicing it themselves or asking for help.
Of course, if you’re looking for a slightly fancier presentation you can have a lot of fun with your plating. Here’s a great video to help give you some inspiration!
Family-Friendly Charcuterie Board Inspiration
A great charcuterie board has a few different elements:
- Meat (optional for vegetarian and vegan options)
- Cheese (also optional for vegans)
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Bread and/or crackers
- Spreads and dips (optional, but a lot of fun to add)
- Nuts (optional, but adds texture and protein)
- Appetizers
Now, for a quick note, when I say appetizers I’m thinking quick, bite-sized appetizers that don’t take a lot of work. Ham and pickle pinwheels are a great example of a tasty and satisfying option that takes very little time or effort to prepare.
Or, if you’re looking for a little more oomph you could take a look at these 30 Healthy Game-Day Appetizers for options that feel more hearty but only take a little more effort to make. Plus, all these recipes are Whole30 and Paleo approved so you can indulge without feeling guilty.
I usually don’t recommend adding more than 1 or 2 appetizers to your charcuterie board unless you’re feeding a lot of people though. After all, part of the joy of a great family-friendly charcuterie board is that it’s way easier to prepare than it looks.
Food Inspiration for A Charcuterie Board Your Family Will Love
One of the joys of a great charcuterie board is that you can include all your favorite flavors in one meal. Instead of focusing on savory umami flavors, sweet flavors, saltiness, or a specific flavor or combination, you can have a little bit of everything.
So, before I head into my recommendations for great charcuterie board foods your family will love, I have a bit of advice. Try to choose a wide variety of flavors for your charcuterie board.
The variety will help the meal feel more satisfying and can even improve your mood since the variety of tastes can create more happy neurotransmitters. Plus, eating a lot of fresh whole foods on a charcuterie board is a great way to boost your nutritional health, which is another way to get a mood boost.
One thing I’m not going to cover are the crackers or breads you can use. Basically, any cracker or bread that can be sliced small (like a baguette) can be used. I recommend playing around with different flavors until you find your favorites. There are literally thousands of options, so spend some time in the bread or cracker aisle at your grocery store to find the ones that sound best.
Take Season Into Account
This actually doesn’t work the way you might think it does. The season you’re making your charcuterie board can have a big impact on the flavors you want to include. But that doesn’t mean that you should load up on hearty savory options in the winter and save sweet and bright flavored foods for summer.
At least in my house, a winter charcuterie board filled with fresh produce, sweet berries, and tangy citrus or cooling mint flavors is a big winner. Why? Because those flavors are very different from what we typically eat in the winter.
Getting different flavors from what you’re used to can help make the meal feel more special. Plus, eating a range of food you wouldn’t necessarily eat during that season can help address cravings and fill nutritional gaps.
So consider adding a heartier appetizer to your summer charcuterie, and a few more fresh fruits and vegetables to the winter version.
Protein Options for a Charcuterie Board Your Family Will Love
Choosing the right protein, or combination of protein, for your family is important. I generally recommend having at least 2 protein sources on your charcuterie board, and 3 or more if you’re feeding more than 4 people.
I’m not going to include cheeses in this section even though cheese can add to the protein on your charcuterie board. That’s because cheese alone isn’t enough for a vegetarian diet, and because it’s important to make sure your charcuterie board has extra protein if you’re feeding children or teenagers who are still growing.
Here are some ideas, in a range of kid and adult friendliness:
- Mixed nuts
- Roasted or salted nuts
- Fried tofu
- Hummus
- Summer sausage
- Prosciutto
- Pumpkin seeds
- Edamame
Of course, there are a ton of other options out there, especially if you’re going to include an appetizer or two in your charcuterie board.
Cheese Options
Cheese is a wonderful addition to your charcuterie board, and I’m glad that vegan cheese alternatives and lactose intolerance-friendly varieties are also getting significantly easier to find in stores.
I typically recommend at least 2 but no more than 4 cheeses for a charcuterie board unless you’re feeding 4 or more people. That’s because you want to buy higher quality cheese for this kind of meal, and adding a ton of variety can get expensive without adding a lot of enjoyment or nutritional value to your meal.
Here are some ideas:
Kid-Friendly Cheeses (or Cheeses for Picky Eaters)
- White or yellow cheddar, mild to medium-sharp
- Smoked gouda
- Colby Jack
- Mozzarella balls (or string cheese!)
- Provolone
- Havarti
Cheese For Adults and Adventurous Eaters
- Goat’s cheese
- Sheep’s cheese
- Herbed cheeses (dilled cheese can be a special treat)
- Brie
- Stilton
- Gruyere
- Camembert
Vegan versions are typically based on nuts, which means they can be a little more protein-rich, but selection may be more limited. Daiya is a good cheese brand for lactose-intolerant eaters who can’t do the lactose in normal cheeses.
Fruit and Vegetable Options for A Charcuterie Board Your Family Will Love
This is where I recommend you try to get as much variety as possible. Fruits and vegetables are typically affordable, they’re very healthy, and they give you a lot of options in terms of taste, texture, and colors.
Plus, if most of your charcuterie board is made from fruits and vegetables then you’ll be able to get a lot more food affordably!
This list is in no particular order and is mostly intended to help inspire you for your next charcuterie board adventure.
Fruits
- Cherries
- Raspberries
- Dragon fruit (preferably cut or balled)
- Melon
- Oranges
- Persimmons (this primarily a winter fruit)
- Pears
- Apples
- Blueberries
- Strawberries
If you want to bring up your fruit game, you can try some of these healthier versions of dessert dips to include with the fruit!
Vegetables
- Bell pepper
- Snow peas
- Cucumber
- Olives
- Grape or cherry tomatoes
- Carrots
- Celery
- Mushroom pate
- Greens
- Fresh herbs
Dessert Boards
It’s always OK to include a dessert grazing board in the mix! Healthy ones are great, but it’s fine to mix it up and include a family-friendly dessert board. I especially like to do dessert dips for charcuterie boards where the kids are eating, too! The dipping foods are bite-sized already, and kids love to dunk.
Dessert dips are a sweet treat, and you can even make healthier versions of your favorite sweet dips if you really want to limit the sugar.
That’s it! That’s everything you need to know to build a fantastic charcuterie board your whole family will love. Feel free to experiment with different combinations and flavors. This is one meal that can be a little different every time you make it!
If you are short on creativity or inspiration, here are 25 Charcuterie Boards Ideas for Kids that are already pre-designed and pre-thought-out… just follow the instructions or copy the pictures!
Special thanks to Heather, founder of mykitchenculture.com , for contributing this article!
Thoughts? I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below!
