The Ultimate Holiday Crudite Platter

Bookmark this asap to serve as your ULTIMATE guide for how to make a nourishing, fun, simple, and delicious crudité for the holidays, your next cocktail party, or gathering with friends.

Tips for making the best crudité:

Beyond vegetables, think about dried fruits, nuts, seeds, fresh fruits, high-quality chocolates, hummus, potatoes, pickles, radishes, avocados, vinaigrette-based dips, kale chips, crackers (like my Raw Onion Flax Crackers from the #NScookbook, which are ridiculously good!), and also proteins! You can add baked tempeh, tofu, grilled shrimp, smoked salmon, hard-boiled eggs, etc.

Bye, ranch. Try something new like the Only Hummus You'll Ever Need from my cookbook, beet hummus, roasted red pepper puree, baba ghanoush, yogurt-based dips like tzatziki, Classic Cashew Cream, black bean dip, salsa, guacamole, anything your heart desires!

Here's the really FUN part about making crudités, arranging them and making them look pretty, enticing, and easy to access. You can go super modern and lay out everything very organized and straight, or try a more rustic approach of laying them out with a flow between one another, mixing in herbs or greens to fill in negative space, and using a platter that won't steal the show but will support it. Some of my favorite serving platters are from Rookwood Commons Pottery, West Elm, and Crate & Barrel.

Crudités are often seen as an app, but you can actually make it quite robust enough to serve as a side dish to an entree. Be sure to have plenty of extra veggies and the main components ready on standby to refill as the evening goes along and people are enjoying it.

That's it, guys! Making a special crudité is super simple and all about those ingredients. Have fun with it, be creative, and enjoy! The one I pictured here is a play on dried fruit and nut crudité with pops of fresh veggies, hummus, assorted olives, dark-chocolate-covered almonds, gluten-free crackers, and fig jam. Honestly, who needs a holiday to enjoy this? THIS is my jam; I could totally eat from this every day for a snack.

xx McKel