Fast and tasty keto charcuterie board

Charcuterie boards have been gracing the internet lots over the last year, and I’ve finally got round to making my own. I wanted a quick lunch the other day, and had lots of leftovers to use up, so it was the perfect opportunity. I’m sharing how I made my keto charcuterie board.

What is a charcuterie board?

Charcuterie is traditionally a french term for a prepared meat selection created by chefs. This tradition has been stolen and developed into what we see all over social media. No longer just for meats, you now see sweet charcuterie boards for desserts, sweet and savoury for home cinema or party platters, and the more traditional savoury but mixed with fruit and cheeses.

The more artistic and pretty, the more special a charcuterie board seems. But actually they’re not that hard.

Charcuterie boards are more often seen to cater for a group of people. But I was the only one in the house, and just wanted to put a smaller version together for me to eat as a working lunch. They’re easy to scale down or up depending on who you’re feeding. They’re also good for people who prefer to snack rather than eat full sit down meals. They become a grazing board – but just keep an eye on having perishable food out of the fridge for too long.

How to make up a charcuterie platter

Apart from the food, all you need is a board. You could use a plate for your selection of food, or another type of dish, but a wooden serving or chopping board is the nicest way.

The aim is to fill the board with a variety of foods, textures and colours. You want large and small, focus foods and smaller filler items. You can pretty up with decorations, but mostly it’s the food that should make it look attractive and ripe for eating.

You start with your larger food ingredients, and anything you want to be the focus. Then work around the board with your other foods, spreading out the placement according to size and colour. Then fill in the gaps with smaller foods.

Everything wants to be easily reachable – it’s food that’s made to be grazed, nibbled or generally eaten using fingers. So chop veg and fruit into easy to eat sizes and attractive shapes. Add slices and place them in attractive and interesting shapes.

The overall look of a charcuterie platter is plentiful food. Interesting. Lots of choice, colour and texture.

So much of what we enjoy eating is down to what it looks like. That’s why so many charcuterie boards are like works of art (mine definitely isn’t, but it still makes me want to snaffle all the food).

What to include on a keto charcuterie board

• Meat – variety of hams, crispy bacon, chicken slices, shredded pork, pepperoni,
• Cheese – cheddar, red leicester, brie, mozzarella pearls, edam, mini sausages
• Veg – celery, pepper, tomatoes,cucumber, cauliflower florets, courgette strips
• Fruit – blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, melon, avocado

I had a hard boiled egg to use up, so halved that and added it to my board. It really is up to you what you include.

Volume of food wise, I’d work it out by thinking what each person would eat and scaling the amount up from there. A full meal might need extra food, a snack grazing board for while you’re watching a film as a family might not need as much on.

Try one of these boards (*ad – affiliate links))

If you try out a charcuterie board, do let me know what theme you’d use, and what you’d add.