Charcuterie Boards are a fun, fancy way to host a party or serve an appetizer!

Charcuterie boards started with cured meat and expensive cheese, but have evolved into a wide variety of ingredients that can stretch both ends of the budget! We’ll talk about some of our favorite things to include on our charcuterie boards and how to keep it budget friendly!

My favorite charcuterie boards lately have been individual party boards. We bought a set of smaller boards off Amazon and then all us ladies make our own… then eat them! Fun for girls night, showers, and brunches. It works great for couples as a date night at home!

Make it a Party!

A great way to stay budget conscious is to have everyone bring an “ingredient”. Give your friends each a category (like cheese or nuts). Or, let them decide what to bring and see what fun ingredients you end up with! Making Charcuterie boards with friends is such an easy activity, it’s a fun way to sit around and chat. And who doesn’t like a delicious snack and maybe some wine?!

Take pictures of the boards you all make. They always look amazing! You’ll notice I add some fake flowers in between the boards. While I love real flowers, the fake ones won’t overpower the table with their scent and they won’t wilt sitting out all evening.

As far as the boards go, there are lots of options. For large parties, we’ve put plastic wrap directly on the counter and made huge charcuterie spreads. However, we typically do smaller individual sized boards. There are lots of options and once you buy a set, you’ll be able to use them again and again. I often use a simple set of wood plates like these or small cutting boards like these. I love checking stores like TJ Maxx or Homegoods for fun boards (even mismatch ones are fun!).

If you’re hosting a shower, engraved boards are a really fun gift!

What to include on your board:

While you don’t need ALL these options, we do recommend you have between 5 to 9 different ingredients to add to your board. It could be something like 2 cheeses, 2 meats, 2 nuts and a chocolate. Or maybe 3 types of meat, 3 cheeses and 1 chocolate. It’s completely up to you!

Cured Meat: Charcuterie boards started with cured meat… and they’re still a tasty part of our boards! There are a wide variety of options and we’ve done everything from prosciutto to Chomps . Literally! We just cut Chomps into bite sized pieces and added them to our board. I love that they’re already room temperature, so you don’t have to worry about them getting warm.

One of our favorite things to add to our board is a Charcuterie Rose. You can teach your friends how to make them and they always come out amazing! Check out all the roses in the pictures here.

Cheese: There are SO many options with cheese. You can easily spend your entire budget on fancy cheeses, or grab your favorite one or two options from Costco. If you’re making smaller individual boards, you won’t actually need a lot (depending on how many different ingredients you have) so keep that in mind. You may be able to splurge on a “fancier” option if you only need to feed a few. If you’re making a big spread… definitely time for a Costco run! I avoid “stinky” cheese or cheeses that are not finger food friendly. We get a delicious Sartori Bellavitano Merlot cheese from Costco. We’ve also done simple gouda and cheddar precut squares from the grocery store!

We’ve also found some great places to order cheese. Check out Gardner’s Wisconsin Cheese. They have some really fun options (and sausage too) and they ship.

Nuts: Since we eat keto and low carb, nuts are a delicious filling and easy addition to our charcuterie board. We use them instead of crackers (although there are some keto friendly crackers). Marcona almonds are one of my favorites. Macadamia nuts can be a great option as well as walnuts and pecans. Remember cashews and pistachios are higher in carbs. Skip the already sweetened nuts unless you make our delicious candied pecans!

Olives: I’ll add pickles in here as well (because I don’t like olives!). I use small decorative bowls to place olives in so they don’t roll around. There are so many olive options available. The dark Kalamata olives or green Castelvetrano are popular options. And then of course there are stuffed olives! I do like a little salty on my charcuterie board. Since I’m not an olive fan, baby dill pickles sliced in half or in thirds work great for me! I usually have a few fun party toothpicks out to add to your plate or board.

Chocolate: We’ve done chocolate a few different ways. You can have individually wrapped chocolates, chocolate bars you break apart, or chocolate squares. There are some great sugar free/keto friendly options out there. My favorite right now is Choc Zero. We buy them direct from their website (KETODAD for a discount) and love to stock up to get free shipping! We’ll usually provide two or three different kinds depending on the number of people/boards we’re making. I recommend refrigerating your chocolate until you’re ready to serve. It will keep it from getting soft.

Fruit: Berries are the lowest carb fruit with the highest nutrients. They’re a great option for your charcuterie board! We’ve done raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries. We made charcuterie boards with kids once and did mostly fruit, some plain cheese (like cheddar and mozzarella) and some milk chocolate. The kids got a kick out of it!

Looking for a fast, budget friendly board? Here’s what to do:
(this is great for teens for a fancy spa night!)

1) Buy a bag of salted mixed nuts
2) Choose one type of berry - strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or blackberries
3) Grab the pre-sliced cheese from the refrigerated diary section at the grocery store. Choose a white and a yellow!
4) Cut up basic jerky (like Chomps). Add in a Charcuterie rose if you want an activity, or skip it!
5) One chocolate bar per every 4 people. Crack them into pieces.

This is a simple way to make a board for the younger crowd. Adults can make something a little more fancy!

Ready to go all out and make the fanciest board possible?

Spend your budget on cheese! There are so many options out there. Aged parmesan and gouda are delicious, gruyere and havarti are other favorites. I love smoked cheddar and of course there are so many flavored options out there - from merlot to berries, smoked and more!

Some of my favorite boards in the past have been just cured meat and a variety of cheeses. With a small piece or two of chocolate for the end!

Tips:

🌹 Make your own roses! Details in our blog
🍫 Chocolate: Dark chocolate or Keto. Check the sweeteners used. You’ll want to see Stevia, erythritol, allulose or monk fruit.
🌰 Skip the already sweet nuts (like honey flavored!) and use salted nuts or make your own easy candied pecans
🍓 Skip the grapes and use berries. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries etc
🍇 Skip the jams or make your own Blueberry or Cranberry jam.
🧀 Skip the sweetened cheeses (top with your own jam if you want). Think dry, smoked or just a normal unflavored cheese

Recipe video: