Summer Themed Cheese Board with Grilled Fruit! Celebrate summer with all of your favorite things on a board! We love grilling bread, vegetables and fruit!
Disclosure: This is a paid sponsorship with Whole Foods Market.
I don’t know when I started arranging things on boards but ever since I made my first cheese board, it’s morphed into brunch boards, snack boards, build your own sandwich boards and more. Eating food off of a board is just fun and so easy to throw together.
Summer Themed Cheese Board with Grilled Fruit
You can’t have a summer themed cheese board without adding in-season fruit and grilled foods. It just wouldn’t be right. I think summer is my favorite season because of the fruit. Berries, cherries, peaches, watermelon, we love it all.
How To Pick A Good Watermelon
This is how I choose my watermelons:
1) Pick it up: You want a watermelon that feels heavy for its size.
2) Give it a thump: A ripe watermelon will have a deep hollow sound
3) Look for the yellow spot: Watermelons develop a splotch where they rest on the ground. When this splotch is creamy yellow, it’s ripe!
YELLOW WATERMELONS
For those asking about YELLOW WATERMELONS:
If you are able to find and pick a good one, yellow watermelons have a sweeter, honey-like flavor as compared to red-fleshed watermelons.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED TO MAKE THE PERFECT CHEESE BOARD
- Find the perfect board, tray or platter: Use a wood board, cutting board or even a large platter or tray lined with parchment paper. I love using large wood boards, or trays if I can taking the cheese board somewhere.
- Visualize how you are going to lay everything down first. I like to start with the cheeses and then lay everything on the board around the cheese. I know this may sound silly, but for large boards where I have a lot of things to arrange on it, I will sometimes sketch out how I am going to arrange everything first on a piece of paper.
- Texture: Think of different textures, shapes and colors as you are assembling and lay or fold the charcuterie in different ways. For example: fold the salami, roll, twist or simply lay down and let the prosciutto falls as it desires. Have fun with it!
- Make it seasonal! Use seasonal fruit and add festive elements like fresh rosemary, edible flowers or other fresh herbs!
- Want to add something sweet? Add chocolate covered nuts or cookies.
BASIC CHEESE BOARD GUIDELINES AND TIPS
- Cheese: all types (hard, soft, crumbly) and cut into different shapes. Some wedges I leave as is, some I cut into cubes and some I cut into triangle pieces.
- Charcuterie: again, all types, different shapes and textures and flavors: Salami, Proscuitto, Soppressata, Capocollo, Mortadella, Chorizo and more!
- Fruit: dried and fresh, use what’s in season.
- Crackers or bread or both: get an assortment. Again, different shapes, colors and textures. A sliced baguette can do the trick too if you don’t have time to pick up crackers.
- Nuts: almonds, candied walnuts, marcona almonds. Get a mix of your favorites. I like to add some that have a little heat too.
- Pickled things: cornichons (pickled French gherkins), pickled beets, pickled asparagus, basically anything that will give you that great sweet and sour note to help balance the saltiness and creaminess from the cheese and charcuterie.
- Jams or preserves for something sweet. You can either spread some directly on the board itself or just some preserves in a little dish.
- Olives: get an assortment of green and black; I like to place olives into a little dish on the cheese board
- Add little cheese knives, forks or tongs to help your friends and guests pick up everything.
BEST CHEESES FOR A CHEESE BOARD
Some of my favorites include:
- Aged cheddar and colby jack cheese
- Havarti and Gouda (different types)
- Soft and creamy: Brie, Camembert, Burrata, Fresh Buffalo Mozzarella and Goat cheese or chèvre (spreadable)
- Firm: Parmigiano Reggiano, Manchego, Gruyère, any Sartori BellaVitano is a must
- Smoked: Smoked Gouda, Provolone, and Cheddar
- Spicy: I love a cheese with a little heat. So, if you are feeling adventurous, pick up a Sriracha Gouda or Chipotle cheddar and enjoy!
- Crumbly cheese: Blue cheese. You love it or hate it. Some people don’t like mixing blue cheese on the same board with other cheeses. I love it and will place it on my board next to crackers and prosciutto for example. Don’t place it on your board next to another cheese!
Summer Themed Cheese Board
Servings: 6
Ingredients
- olive oil extra virgin
- Whole Foods hearth breads: Mt. Athos Fire bread
- peaches cut in half with the pit removed
- 2 to 3 zucchini sliced in long strips, lengthwise
- Sartori bellavitano rum runner cheese sliced or cubed
- Istara petit basque cheese sliced into small wedges
- Sartori bellavitano herbs de provence cheese sliced or cubed
- Calkins creamery daisy cheese cubed
- Salami and soppressata folded in half and folded again
- Firehook sea salt Mediterranean baked Crackers
- 365 sea salt pita chips
- Terra plantains with sea salt
- 365 organic pub cheese sourdough pretzel pieces
- 1 Mini yellow watermelon : yellow mini sunny gold watermelon sliced
- Assorted berries: blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries
- Cherries
- Jams and/or preserves
- nuts
Instructions
- Light a gas grill to medium heat. If you're cooking over charcoal, grill the peaches after everything else has been grilled. Lightly drizzle, or use a brush, the bread, peaches and zucchini on both sides with some olive oil.
- Place the bread and zucchini on the grill and the peaches: place cut-side down on the grill and cook undisturbed until grill marks appear, for about 4 to 5 minutes. Flip everything and grill another 4 to 5 minutes more on the other side. Remove from the grill and carefully slice everything into smaller pieces, or however you prefer.
- For everything else: Paying attention to varying textures and colors, assemble your cheese board with your cheeses, charcuterie, fruit, crackers and all of the grilled items. Include jams and/or preserves, if desired, in little dishes on your cheese board. Serve and enjoy!
