Real Foodie Rach

I love a good snack board! With a little prep, you get a variety of food to graze on and a presentation that really wows. This particular board features a creamy whipped goat cheese dip that takes 10 minutes to make (recipe below). I added crackers, Greek olives, blood orange and cucumber slices, sweet pepper spears, dolmas, and a little uncured coppa, or pork shoulder, to finish off this board.

You can use this board as inspiration to build your own, or copy it exactly. There are no rules, except that whatever is on your board needs to be delicious!

To build a solid snack board for grazing or entertaining, I loosely follow this formula:

• at least one dip
• two kinds of crackers
• veggies
• berries, grapes or other seasonal fruit
• good olives (olives with the pit have more flavor, but stuffed olives are also nice)
• cheese (if I’m entertaining, I like to use one soft cheese and one hard cheese)
• thinly sliced meat of choice (optional, and I like to go with uncured, nitrate and nitrite-free when possible)

Some of the best places to find items for your snack board are specialty grocers and health food stores that sell wine and cheese. Health food stores typically stock charcuterie board-type items on top or near the cheese display.

If you’re going to a specialty grocer (Mazzaro’s Italian market is my local favorite here in St. Pete), you’ll more than likely be in a wonderland of meats, cheese and imported items that will add to your snacking betterment. Whenever I’m at a grocer like this, I always try to get one thing I’ve never tried before (bonus points if I can’t pronounce it correctly, lol), so that I’m continuously expanding my palette. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with what we eat, and exploring new foods is a great way to shake things up!

Tips for Arranging Your Snack Board

Need help setting up your snack board? Follow these tips for beautiful, creative presentation!

• start with your board– you can use a nice cutting board, serving platter, a large shallow bowl, or whatever works for you! Just make sure it’s clean and easy to move to your serving area once your snack board has been arranged.
• create curves by arranging crackers and other items in half circles, full circles or “S” shapes on your board
• separate an item into two or more groupings and arrange them on different sides of the board to create balance and fill up space (like I did with the coppa on my board)
• use small containers for dip or toothpicks and arrange other items around them to create focal points
• fold thinly sliced meat like prosciutto into ribbons or triangles
• include a variety of flavors and texture– make sure you have something salty, something sweet, something crunchy, something creamy, etc.
• fresh herbs and edible flowers (optional) can add a pop of color

Ok, back to the dip!

This whipped goat cheese dip is my spin on A Beautiful Plate’s Garlicky Herbed Goat Cheese Spread, which is amazing. I use scallion instead of dill, because I always have them on hand from the market. You can substitute with basil if you have access to it, which is also delicious and very summery.

The key ingredients for this dip are:

• goat cheese
• scallion
• parlsey
• garlic
• lemon juice + zest
• olive oil

If you have leftover dip, tuck it into an omelette, put it on a burger or drizzle over roasted potatoes- the possibilities are endless!

Easy Whipped Goat Cheese Dip

Elevate your snack board with this whipped goat cheese dip! Tangy goat cheese blended with scallion, parsley, garlic, lemon and olive oil. Inspired by A Beautiful Plate's Garlicky Herbed Goat Cheese Spread.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 5 minutes mins

Total Time 10 minutes mins

Course Snack

Servings 4

Equipment

• mini food processor
• microplane

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 4 oz goat cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup fresh scallion, sliced (about two scallion)
• 2 Tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 small garlic clove, finely grated on a microplane
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Place all the ingredients into a mini food processor and blend until combined, about 1 minute.
• Scrape down the sides, add salt and pepper to taste, and blend again to finish.
• If you do not have a mini food processor, you can finely chop the scallion and parsley and mix everything together by hand in a bowl. Just make sure your goat cheese is at room temperature so everything can combine easily.

Keyword charcuterie board, dip, goat cheese, green onion, lemon, mediterranean, olive oil, roasted garlic, scallion, snack board

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Do you like snack boards? What are your favorite combinations? Comment below!