Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board

Why You’ll Love This Valentine’s Charcuterie Board

• Fun and festive. Part of what makes platters so special is that you can arrange them depending on what the theme is. A pink and red theme is perfect for Valentine’s day!
• Something for everyone. You can customize your Valentine’s charcuterie board to make it exactly how you want it. All sweet, all savory, or a combination of both.
• Versatile. Make it a shareable appetizer with a little something on it for everyone or a romantic date night or picnic for two. Check out my best charcuterie board ideas!

Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements below.

• Mixed nuts: These can be unsalted, salted, or even candied nuts if you like.
• Valentine’s M&Ms: Red and pink, of course!
• Cinnamon heart candies: These are quite spicy and when eaten in handfuls tend to burn one’s tongue. So, just be careful around the kiddies.
• Brach’s Conversation Hearts: These are always fun! They’ve got little positive words on each little heart.
• Cheese: I love to have a combination of cheeses. Manchego cheese slices from Trader Joe’s are my favorite. You can use a variety of hard cheeses you prefer.
• Meat: Salami and prosciutto-wrapped cheese sticks.
• Fruit: Small red grapes and strawberries sliced in half. For the chocolate lovers, here are some tips for making easy chocolate covered strawberries.
• Fig & Olive crackers: Also from Trader Joe’s but you can use your favorite.
• Valentine’s Hershey’s Kisses: These are the same as your everyday kisses, except the wrapper is either red or pink. Super cute!
• Chocolate truffles: Find ones wrapped in red foil. This is a Valentine’s day dessert board after all. I love making homemade chocolate truffles. They’re so easy but look like you’ve got the extra mile!
• Chocolate covered pretzels: For a sweet, salty, and crunchy element.

Variations

The variety displayed on a Valentine’s charcuterie board makes it so easy to customize it! Here are just a few swaps you can make and still keep up with the love theme!

• Fruit: Try apples, dried apple chips, orange slices, grapes, cherries, raspberries, and figs. Brighten it up with some fresh pineapple, or for a pop of dark purple go with blackberries. Serve them with a fruit dip for extra yum!
• Meat: Instead of wrapping cheese in salami you can use the meat to make salami roses. Or add your favorite deli meats like ham, pepperoni, capicola, etc.
• Cheese: Add different cheeses like brie for soft cheese, or more hard ones like blue cheese, cheddar, Havarti, Gouda, or Swiss. Place some olives or dried fruit like raisins or cranberries in a bowl.
• Dips: Toffee caramel dip, pumpkin cheesecake dip, funfetti cake dip, chocolate sauce, or caramel sauce.
• Nuts: Mixed nuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans, cashews, and pistachios, are always great. Salted, unsalted, candy-coated, toasted, you name it!
• Bread and crackers: Any bread or crackers you like to eat with your cheese. Some popular choices are rye bread, sourdough, baguette slices, or focaccia.
• Fun extras: Heart-shaped candy, sweets and cookies are always a hit. Don’t forget to leave room for Valentine’s Day desserts, like donuts, Valentine’s Day cookies, Valentine cake pops, Valentine empire biscuits, and more!

Expert Tips

• All the heart shapes. For effect, use a heart-shaped board if you can. If you have a heart-shaped cookie cutter it might be fun to cut out some cheese slices into hearts!
• Wash fruit. Remember to wash and dry all your fresh fruit. Hull the strawberries.
• To prevent the apples from browning, squirt a little lemon juice on them.
• Keep the meat and cheese in the fridge until just before assembly.
• How long it will stay good: Once you’ve presented it and people are nibbling and sampling, it can be left out for about 2 hours. No longer than that, just because of the meat and dairy.