Christmas Snacking Board

I love snacking boards. And I know cheese board situations are generally only used for like desserts, but I like my desserts sweet. But please feel free to eat this at any time you like. Snacking plate as a breakfast? I am not judging you :).

How to build a great snacking board

Snacking boards are the chance to pick all things you like. These are just the things I picked. Some tricks I use:

1. Visualize the board beforehand with a quick sketch. Doesn't need to be a gorgeous drawing of any kind, but this always helps me to make sure there is a balance.
2. Balance in shapes. Get some different shapes: round grapes, long breadsticks, triangle mini crackers, cheese wedges, tomatoes, carrots, cucumber slices.
3. Balance in colour: Get some ingredients in different colours and balance them on the board. For example: Don't put two orange things next to eachother, but put it on the other end with other ingredients inbetween.
4. Balance in textures: Make sure to have soft elements, but also crunchy ones, creamy, crispy etc. Again: when plating, try not to put all the things with similar textures together.
5. Balance in flavours: Go for sweet, zingy, salty and neutral elements. By having the opportunity to switch between flavour combinations, your taste buds are less likely to get bored.

Ingredients

• 200gr chickpeas
• 250gr cherry tomatoes
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Wholewheat mini baguette
• Hard cheese (I use a Vegan Truffle on from Max & Bien)
• Soft cheese (I used the Violife Creamy)
• 300gr dark grapes (they look so fancy)
• Dried apricots
• Jams/ Compotes (I used a Pear, Date & Cognac one from Snowdonia and a Peach & Ginger one from Vink Fruitboerderij)
• Long breadsticks/ Spaccatini
• Salt & pepper

How to make it

1. Preheat the oven to 210 C. Drain the chickpeas and rinse them. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and dump the chickpeas on it. Take a different baking tray. Wash your tomatoes and put them on it together with a garlic clove. Drizzle each of the trays with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add salt and pepper. Use your hands to cover the chickpeas and cherry tomatoes in the oil. Put into the oven. Set a timer for 15 minutes.
2. In the meanwhile start prepping your other ingredients: wash the grapes and open the packages of your crackers, apricots and cheese. When the times goes off, add your baguette to the oven. Set a timer for 10 more minutes and get out your serving plates in the meantime.
3. Take everything from the oven and let it cool whilst you build your plates. For the Violife Creamy I just used a spatula to neatly tip it out from the container and the rest is just a matter of decorating the plates! Use the picture below as a guide or just have a little creative moment yourself :).

In December you'll see some new Christmas recipes on my site, you can find them all here. And keep an eye out on my Instagram, because I am doing a mini advent calendar, which includes some give- aways!