How to Make a Show-Stopping Cheese Board from Trader Joe's Ingredients
Never skip these 5 categories.
Anytime there’s a big event in my friend group, I’m tasked with creating the cheeseboard. As a friend recently said, “You didn’t work in lifestyle media, for nothin!” The truth is, it’s so easy to make a cheeseboard look incredibly impressive—the key is in a wide variety of colors and textures and eliminating blank spaces. It’s also one of my favorite last-minute party additions. When I was running late to help set up for a friend’s 30th, I grabbed my cheese tray and swung by Trader Joe’s en route, then set it up in her kitchen. The entire thing took ten minutes to put together, and made a huge impact!
You will need:
The key to an excellent cheese tray, is beginning with a wide variety of options within five categories…
Cheese: An uneven number of cheeses, in a mix of hard, soft, and sharp (I used Double Cream Gouda, French Traditional Bree, Aged Manchego, Blue Stilton, and Port Salut, but grab whatever inspires you!)
Vegetables: A mix of vegetables, in different shapes and sizes (I used Persian cucumbers, snap peas, mini sweet peppers, and radishes)
Fruits: A mix of fruits, in different shapes and sizes (I uses raspberries, small plumbs, blueberries, and peaches)
Dips: An uneven number of dips (I used hummus, tapenade, and Trader Joe’s Greek yogurt and spinach dip)
Crunchies: A variety of nuts, chips, and crackers, in various flavors and shapes
Edible flowers, optional
How to make it:
Begin by placing your cheeses, evenly spacing and arranging them so that soft cheeses aren’t directly next to other soft cheeses, etc.
Decant your dips into small bowls and place them relatively evenly across the board, filling in the blank space between the cheeses.
Place the next bigger items, like a bunch of radishes or mini plums, onto the board, being careful not to group colors and textures together, as much as you can—the idea is plenty and variety, so everyone sitting around it has access to a fun and satisfying array! Cut fruit and vegetables, as needed, to create more visual variety.
Fill in the all the blanks! Use nuts and small berries to fill in any empty space to make the board feel over-the-top and overflowing.
Optional: Add edible flowers for a final, over-the-top, touch!