This keto charcuterie board is the perfect party appetizer. It's easy to make, beautiful, and will impress your guests every time! Learn how to make a low carb charcuterie board that is gorgeous and delicious.
A keto charcuterie board is a perfect way to show off your culinary skills and impress your guests. This versatile dish can be tailored to fit any diet, whether you are following a low carb or gluten free diet, or just want to add some variety to your entertaining menu. Start by choosing a variety of meats, cheeses, and vegetables that you can assemble into a tempting display. Then choose a delicious dipping sauce or spread to complement your board. The perfect keto appetizer is just 15 minutes away! It's also very customizable for any keto diet restrictions.
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Ingredients
Cheese - Obviously the cheese is the star of the show. You want to have a wide assortment of flavors and textures when choosing cheese for a charcuterie platter. Some of our favorites are manchego, brie, sharp cheddar, blue cheese, goat cheese, gouda, provolone, and mozzarella.
Meats - Proscuitto, ham, pepperoni, pancetta, and salami are traditional choices but you can add anything from sliced steak to chorizo to crisp strips of bacon.
Vegetables - Veggies are a great low carb filler for the crevices between the cheeses. Sliced mushrooms, cucumbers, grape tomatoes, peppers, and thinly sliced zucchini are nice options.
Jams & Jellies - This is where a keto charcuterie board will start to differ from a standard one. Most jams and jellies are full of sugar or high fructose corn syrup, you want to look for sugar free or no sugar added spreads. I make my own keto strawberry jam and sugar free cranberry sauce to use on my cheese boards.
Fruits - I use strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries on my appetizer plates most of the time. Berries are the natural low carb option but peaches are also naturally low in net carbs (they have less than blueberries!). I chose to add a few slices of blood orange for the beautiful color as well. Homemade sugar free dried cranberries can also be added in a small bowl or sprinkled in open spots.
Nuts - Small jars of roasted pecans and roasted almonds are perfect to add. And if they aren't finished just screw on the lid and save it for next time. Macadamia nuts, walnuts, and cashews are other good choices.
Crackers - There are many keto crackers and low carb crackers on the market nowadays but if you want to make your own check out my keto cheese crackers.
Herbs - Fresh herbs are a beautiful way to add color to your platter. I use fresh basil mostly and do pop off leaves and enjoy them along with the cheeses. Rosemary is also a great herb to tuck into the cracks and gives an amazing fragrance even if it isn't eaten.
How to Make a Keto Charcuterie Board
The most important thing to making a beautiful cheese board is to fill in all the blank space. The photo below is in the early stage of setting up the board. All those spaces need to be filled.
Step One: Preparing the cheese. I like to slice about ⅓ of the block of any hard cheeses so they are easy to grab. Most of the time I put the remaining piece of cheese back on the board to fill in the space, show off the color of the rind, and highlight the type of cheese it is. Soft cheeses can have a small piece cut as an example and then a knife left next to them.
Step Two: Add some small bowls and jars with jams and jellies. Then add some mini mason jars of roasted nuts.
Step Three: Next you are going to add some crackers and meats in the open spaces. Prosciutto can be bunched up into little bundles. Large pieces of meat (think deli meats) can be stacked and cut into wedge shapes or folded.
Step Four: Last up, fill in some more of the spaces with berries, vegetables, and fresh herbs.
Expert Tip: Once you've filled in all the spaces go back around and tuck some berries around the edges. The pops of color look lovely next to the cheese.
Variations & Themes
A really fun thing to do is make themed charcuterie boards! You can choose a place, season, or topic and run with it. Here are a few ideas for a themed keto charcuterie board:
Mediterranean - This is one of my favorite themes to do. I add assorted black and green olives, especially kalamata olives or Mediterranean Olive Tapenade, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, some low carb pita, dill, and keto tzatziki for a dip.
Fall and Autumn - Swap out the berries for some cranberries and rosemary and pick up a pumpkin spice cheese or two! Add some sliced turkey and cranberry sauce around Thanksgiving or make some sugar free pumpkin butter to serve with the camembert.
Vegetarian - Leave off the meats and add some extra veggies like asparagus and pickles and maybe a dip or two such as basil pesto to fill in those spaces.
4th of July - It is super easy to make a red white and blue charcuterie! Simply choose white cheeses and add blue and red berries and jams like my sugar free blueberry jam.
Breakfast - Make a breakfast board with some Smoked Salmon Bites, Mini Bagels, and Everything Bagel Dip.
Common Questions
What is a charcuterie board?
Charcuterie boards, also known as meat and cheese boards, are a popular appetizer or snack that can be enjoyed by people on all types of diets, including the keto diet. A charcuterie board is easy to assemble and can be tailored to fit any dietary restrictions. All you need is a variety of meats, cheeses, and some type of fruit or vegetable for dipping.
Are charcuterie boards keto friendly?
Most of the time you can eat off any cheese board as long as you avoid carby crackers and sugar filled sweets. The cheeses, meats, vegetables, and savory spreads should be low carb and keto friendly.
And after you master making a cheese and meat board try making Charcuterie Cones!
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 lb assorted cheese
- 1 lb assorted meats
- 8 oz berries
- 8 oz raw veggies
- 4 oz roasted nuts
- 2 tablespoon sugar free cranberry sauce
- 2 tablespoon sugar free jam
- keto crackers
- fresh herbs
Instructions
- Begin with the cheeses. Leave soft cheeses whole but cut out a small piece. Hard cheeses should be partially sliced. Arrange the cheeses on the board with space between them.
- Next, add some small jars or bowls of nuts, jams, and sauces with little spoons.
- Fill in some of the open spots with the meats.
- Now concentrate on filling any remaining spots with vegetables, berries, and crackers.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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Wendy says
My guests went wild for this! Thanks for sharing.
Susan says
We are huge cheese lovers in my house!! Nice to know I can still enjoy these boards without all the sweets and crackers! This looks amazing. Thank you.