Nutrition

Try These 4 Culture-Inspired Healthy Food Boards

The Instagram craze surrounding food boards has inspired some drool-worthy platters from all over the world. Whether you’re hosting a party or a movie night at home, whip up a delicious food board that’s Insta-worthy!

16 Nov 2022

Looking to get on board with food boards? We’re here to help!

Food boards are the ultimate way to please guests at a party or a family get-together where people romanticise the idea of mighty meals. And the best part? You can literally choose to put anything edible on these boards!. The right ingredients and strategic placement can make food boards prettier and more sensational at any event. Whether you want to make a casual last-minute dinner appear more appealing, or impress your guests at your next get-together, healthy food boards will deliver.

What Is A Food Board?

Food boards or grazing boards are trending these days as they are delicious and versatile for any occasion.

Food boards (a.k.a grazing boards) are the latest lazy food ideas that are all the craze. They’re delicious, versatile, and take minutes to assemble. The unique arrangement of foods has something for everyone to pick from (even the picky eaters).

If you’ve been on Instagram, you may have found pages that show cheese and charcuterie boards piled with candy, cakes, and cookies. There are breakfast boards, like bagels, waffles, and pancake boards. You name it, there’s a food board for it! There are even build-your-own dinner boards, snack boards, dessert boards, main course boards, and Greek fruit boards with hummus and appetiser boards too! Mouth watering, isn't it?

What Is Charcuterie?

The French word charcuterie means "a shop selling cold meats". Technically, it’s a meat version of a cheese board. This is a traditional French practice of assembling ham, salami, sausage, bacon and prosciutto, seasonal pickled or raw vegetables, and fresh fruits. To play with different flavours and textures, cheese like parmesan, brie, gruyère, cheddar, mozzarella, ricotta, and cream cheese are used.

Although charcuterie is a concept from French cuisine, it has become more popular than ever. Every country and its culture has contributed to shaping the charcuterie board with its regional cuisine. The best thing about a charcuterie platter is that it is a do-it-yourself (DIY) serving tray which needs little to no cooking at all. Give any occasion a special touch creating food boards or charcuterie along with your decorating skills to make them visually appealing.

Here are 4 culture-inspired healthy food boards:

1. Mediterranean Mezze Board - A Mediterranean food board is a perfect example of blended cultures of the Middle East, Greece, and Turkey. A Mediterranean mezze platter oozes versatility with pita bread, hummus, and tzatziki. Mezze is a mixture of dips, spreads, vegetables, and small dishes served together. There is no rule when it comes to mezze, you can add or substitute almost anything based on your preferences.

A mix of delicacies like falafel, kabobs, and dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) along with a variety of dips, including hummus, tzatziki, and baba ganoush can be the staples for this board. Finish off with an assortment of pita bread, cherry tomatoes, olives, dill pickles, fresh mozzarella, goat cheese stuffed peppadews, feta cheese, and tabbouleh on a large wooden serving board. Garnish with parsley or thyme and drizzle a generous amount of olive oil.

2. The Italian Food Platter - Unable to choose between meat, cheese, hummus, veggies, or bread and fruit? Try an antipasto platter, an Italian first-course meal to stimulate your appetite. Italian food is widely recognised as being fresh and simple and an antipasto platter incorporates a bit of everything — berries, nuts, olives, dips, cheese, meat, and bread — adding vibrant colours and flavours. Lighten up with the cheeses, and go wild with everything else.

3. Tangy Indian Food Board - There’s nothing quite like a tangy, sweet-sour chole kulcha platter. This platter is the perfect centrepiece that can feel like a meal. It is given a vegetarian spin by mixing boiled chickpeas perfectly with spices, kulcha (stuffed-flatbread), lacha pyaz (onions), yoghurt dips, and sauces. Finishing touches like garnishing with fresh herbs also add to the flavour.

If you’re looking to make things interesting, try the pani puri platter, an immensely popular street food in the Indian subcontinent. The platter mainly consists of crispy deep-fried dough balls stuffed with boiled potatoes or boiled chickpeas or a thick dry white peas curry (also known as ragda). Generally, the water (jaljeera) is sour, tangy as well as spicy. This spicy pani is balanced with the addition of sweet tamarind chutney.

4. American Food Platter - For a sophisticated outdoor dinner party, a visually beautiful fall charcuterie board filled with an array of delicious and healthy bite-sized snacks can never fail. For making the board more visually appealing, fruits and meat such as pears, grapes, a variety of turkey hams, meats, sweet potato dips, chips, pumpkin bread, and caramel apples can do wonders. Also, the addition of small pumpkins on the board goes great with this concept.