A great selection of prepared crudités makes a healthy and stunning centerpiece for a party or buffet table. Mix and match according to the seasons and your taste. Here is everything you need to know to make a vegan platter your guests will love to eat!
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Crudités – an easy healthy addition for your party table
I love party food and dips, but it is all too easy to forget to add some healthier offerings. A platter of fresh vegetables can be a welcome addition to the table, providing freshness, crunch and texture, as well as something for a selection of dips.
It is very easy to chop up some carrot and pepper batons of an evening, but they can be a little uninspiring, a huge platter of vegetables is a feast for the taste buds as well as the eyes, and wil be something they will enjoy eating.
Tips and tricks for preparing the Ultimate Crudité Platter
- The vegetables have to be at their peak of freshness.
- Variety is key. Think about the colour, texture and taste – with a full range of sweet such a baby corn, or baby carrots, to a hint of bitterness such as tenderstem broccoli. Aim for 10 or more different vegetables.
- Arrange the vegetables with care: a plate overflowing with fresh, vibrant vegetable looks so enticing, Don’t just pile them up. A platter should be a feast for the eyes.
- Blanch some of the green, leafy items. Plunge them into ice cold water, and the colours will really pop.
- Cut the vegetables to bite sized pieces (or two at most). At a party, with a drink in hand, nobody wants to be trying to munch their way through an overly large carrot or huge broccoli floret. With all that chopping you will need a good, sharp knife, and chopping board.
- Prepare a few hours ahead and store the vegetables in air tight containers in the fridge, with a piece a damp kitchen paper to preserve freshness.
What can I include on the Ultimate Crudité Platter?
Use your imagination! Here are some ideas to get you started!
- Asparagus – I use trimmed baby spears – serve them raw
- Baby Corn – trim and cut lengthwise
- Bell Peppers – use mini peppers if you get them, and cut into strips lengthwise. Discard the inner membranes and seeds
- Broccoli or tenderstem – cut into florets, peel and cut the stalks into battens.
- Beet – choose baby beetroot, scrub or peel and cut into thin wedges – candy beetroot with their pink and white rings and sweet flavour is ideal
- Carrots – peel and cut into battens, baby heirloom carrots are perfect
- Cauliflower – cut the florets into bite sized pieces
- Celery – wash, remove the string and cut into battens
- Cucumber – remove the seeds and cut into sticks, or use baby cucumbers
- Fennel – slice thinly – if you want to put in a sieve and pour a kettle of boiling water over to tone down the flavour
- Green Beans – topped and tailed, cut if needed
- Mushrooms – washed, patted try, trimmed and sliced
- Radishes – quarter – again heirloom varieties are better, with their different colours.
- Sugarsnap peas – top and tail, cut lengthwise if needed
- Cherry or baby plum tomatoes – halve or quarter
How to Assemble the Ultimate Crudité Platter
Start by selecting your vegetables and preparing them, think about the colours and how you will arrange them on the platter so they will look balanced and the colours will be evenly spread out.
Cover your platter with vibrant leaves, such as radicchio or a purple lettuce, add a dish of olives and one of baby gherkins.
Slowly build up the vegetables
Adding them to platter, one by one…
… until you are done and ready to serve.
Best Dips to Serve with Crudities
- Homemade salad cream – my modern take on this retro classic is so easy to make at home
- Whipped feta dip – light and airy whipped feta is perfect for dipping into
- Hot cheese dip – seriously cheddar flavoured, this copy cat dip is so each to make yourself.
- Baked Camembert – effortlessly recreate this pub classic at home and add some extra veg!
- Homemade labneh – this Middle Eastern / East Mediterranean strained yogurt is ideal for dipping into!
and for more things to dip
- Homemade melba toast – this has to be the ultimate in easy one ingredient recipes that will effortlessly impress.
- Homemade tortilla chips – crispy and home baked from wraps – so easy to make and far better than from a packet.
The Ultimate Crudité Platter
Ingredients
- radicchio
- baby carrots ((heritage, if possible))
- cauliflower
- baby cucumber
- baby corn
- radishes
- baby asparagus
- baby peppers
- baby fennel
- green beans
- baby plum tomatoes
- tenderstem broccoli
- olives
- baby pickled gerkins
- raw baby beetroot
- celery
- baby mushrooms
Instructions
- Choose a balanced selection from the list above
- Peel, chop and slice to prepare
- Serve arranged carefully on a pretty platter.
Notes
- Nutrition is approximate and will vary according to which vegetables you use. Values given for 125g, about one cup.
Danielle Wolter
Loving all the fresh vegetables here. This is a great idea to add some freshness and color to the holiday!
Helen
So nice to have a healthy plate of tasty vegetables.
Katie | Healthy Seasonal Recipes
I love this gorgeous display and especially that the combination of veggies is a little unusual. The colors are so pretty.
Helen
Having a varied selection can be more tempting, especially with good colours.
Corina Blum
Oh yummy! I love how varied and how vibrant the colours are in your crudites platter. We often have weekend lunches like this but I have to admit I never have quite so much variety on the table so this is great.
Helen
It’s always nice to have a wide selection, many textures and flavours.
Lynne
Wow! Those knives look amazing. I love the stand too, very stylish. Always good to have decent knives in the kitchen.
Helen
Such a good looking knife set.
Donna G
I love platters of raw veggies like this, so colourful and so tasty. And you can never feel guilty for having a nibble before your meal when it is this good.
Helen
Totally guilt free.
Wendy M
Plates of food like this are perfect to enjoy with homemade dips. My kids love it, which I’m hugely glad of. It means they can easily get some good portions of their 5 and day in one sitting.
Helen
Ideal for tempting children to eat some raw vegetables.
Penny
This is a perfect party platter. I find the food at Christmas can be so overwhelming, so try to enjoy nice healthy foods when I can.
Helen
I really enjoy having healthy food in between the treats of Christmas eating.
Anthony
There is nothing worse than having kitchen knives that you struggle with. For big vegetables like cabbage and swede in particular. I don’t think you can fault spending money on a decent set, and this one looks really great.
Helen
They really are such good knives.
Ellie D
This Crudités platter looks amazing. I love the selection of vegetables you have, and the presentation is so good. It would look very impressive on a buffet table. Loads of textures and flavours, simply delicious.
Helen
I love having a good choice of flavours, textures and colour.
Kaitlin
This looks brilliant Helen, such a good idea. I still cannot find heirloom carrots in my supermarket, which is annoying. I think they look so lovely.
Helen
They are certainly becoming much more available now. Perhaps try a local greengrocer.
Tanya Stevens
This plate of deliciousness would be perfect with your tahini dips, which I have really enjoyed making. I fear I would devour the entire plate if left to my own devices.
Helen
Ideal to serve with homemade dips.
Richard E
I absolutely agree with having good sharp knives; blunt knives in the kitchen are both useless, and cause accidents, as well as being frustrating.
Helen
So frustrating to have blunt knives.
Belinda Morris
A always find a good vegetable platter is popular at a buffet. This looks delicious, and a wonderful selection.
The knives sound amazing. Maybe I need to ask Santa.
Helen
The knives really are amazing, it is time to write to Father Christmas.
Zara Douglas
A great idea for a colorful and healthy party plate. Much easier to eat than a bowl of salad.
Helen
Ideal for an easy to eat plate of goodness.
Amy | The Cook Report
This is just the most impressive thing to bring out at a party, love how fresh it all looks!
kim
Such fabulous ideas and I’m loving the look of THE EGG. Will be checking that out further!
Kristy D
We love plates of deliciousness like this. So colorful and easy to eat. Great idea for summer dining.
Babs
Just my kind of food, so much variety and think of all that goodness.
The knives look fantastic. I found having decent knives makes all the difference in the kitchen.
Kianne James
This looks fantastic Helen, such a great use of all those tasty veggies. Love this kind of thing.
Andrew David
What a great mix of ingredients for a very impressive platter. Such a simple idea but so fabulous.
Carolynn Bartolotta
This is the absolutely best crudité platter! Thank you.