Indian Charcuterie Board

Be it Diwali, Holi, or any Indian festival, it is all about good food, meeting your family and friends and having a wonderful time with them. If you are the host then you might get overwhelmed. But I want to share all the tips and tricks to serve your guests and also enjoy and not get stressed out.

It is a wonderful idea to arrange an Indian platter or an Indian charcuterie board to serve your guests. The word charcuterie is mainly referred to meat but this is a vegetarian Indian snack board. You can be as creative as you want and I have just given a guidance of how to plan and setup a delightful snack board.

You can change the food items you plan to serve and it will depend on the cheeseboard you have and that will mainly determine how you will arrange it. I hope you find this useful and take tips from this and setup an mouth watering cheeseboard for your family and friends for your next party.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Substitutions
• Equipment
• Planning ahead
• Top tip
• Related
• Pairing
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

Ingredients

For an Indian vegetarian snack board, I like to use a combination of homemade as well as store bought food. This way you will not get overwhelmed and exhausted and can enjoy a good time with your family and friends.

There are a variety of options that can go on the desi cheese board and I have used these below items.

1. Frozen snacks - frozen samosa, kachori, aloo tikki, and pattice are a perfect choice for quick, easy, and filling appetizers. They are delicious, easy to cook in the air fryer, and all your guests will love them.
2. Chutneys - to accompany the appetizers, Indian chutneys like cilantro chutney, tamarind and date chutney, and tomato ketchup are a must. You can easily prepare them a few days ahead of time or use the store bought one.
3. Paneer tikka - it will be incomplete to not include a paneer dish on the board. I like to marinate paneer tikka in advance and air fry it at 400°F for 10-12 minutes just before arranging the board.
4. Chaat - depending on your cheese board, if you have space then it is a wonderful idea to include a chaat like sev puri. It is very easy to make and indeed a crowd pleaser!
5. Dried snacks - there is a plethora of options for store bought dried snacks like spicy sev, bhakharwadi, chakli, banana chips, potato mixture, khatta meetha namkeen, shakkar para, mathri, and more.
6. Dried fruit - I like to add some nuts like almonds, roasted peanuts, pistachios, and roasted cashews to munch on.
7. Sweets - this can be store-bought or homemade as time permits. I like to serve kaju katli, motichoor laddu, peda, or barfi as they are easy to manage and dry in texture.
8. Desserts - desserts like basundi shots, rasmalai, or rasgulla can be served in individual servings on the side. If you prefer fruit desserts, fruit chaat, fruit custard, and fruit cream are great choices.

Instructions

On the day of the event, a few hours ahead of time, prepare the marinade for paneer tikka and boil few potatoes for sev puri.

I like to arrange the cheese board just before the event and with the food items that don't need any heating.

If there is a separate snack tray with your cheese board, put all the dried snacks like banana chips, spicy sev, potato mix, bhakharwadi, and chakli. They can also be served in bowls if there is no separate tray.

Serve the nuts in the bowls and chutneys in chutney bowls. The Smirly cheeseboard has multiple trays and bowls along with the main board to serve desserts and dips.

Now it is a good time to prepare the frozen snacks. I like to air fry them instead of deep frying. But it is absolutely a personal choice. Arrange the kachori, samosa, pattice, and aloo tikki along the sides of the board.

Air fry the paneer tikka at 400°F for 10-12 minutes and then arrange them at the center of the board. If you have a slate or marble slat in the board which comes off easily then it is best to server it on it.

While the frozen snacks is being air fried, arrange the desserts like kaju katli and laddu.

While the paneer tikka is being cooked in the air fryer, make the sev puri chaat, it will only take a few minutes in assembling it.

Now everything is ready, arrange the air fryer samosas, kachori and other snacks around the sides of the board. Place the paneer tikka skewers in the center on the slate board.

You are now all set to enjoy the event with your friends.

Substitutions

Serving the Indian snack board is easy and you can easily serve food of your choice.

• Frozen snack - instead of frozen samosas and kachoris, you can serve fresh ones. Other options are hara bhara kebab, sabudana vada, dal vada, and veg cutlets.
• Nuts - serve salt roasted or spicy nuts of choice.
• Sweets - a variety of sweets including peda, kalakand, and barfi can be served.

Equipment

How you will serve an Indian snack or appetizer platter will very much depend on the type of cheese board or large trays you have and how many sections it has.

After a lot of comparison between various types of cheese boards available in the market, I nailed down to this amazing Smirly cheeseboard. It has one large cheeseboard with a removable slate. Additionally it has 2 wooden trays with smaller serving plates.

It also comes with a round tray which can be used to serve fruits or dry snacks. Additional bowls are also included for condiments.

The removable plates is what adds convenience as it make cleaning very easy and your cheeseboard will not get messy.

Apart from the cheese board and air fryer is very useful to air fry frozen snacks and paneer tikka.

Planning ahead

Serving an Indian snack board is more about planning, so I like to first come up with the items that I want to serve. I like to keep things simple and spend time with my guests so planning ahead is essential.

Indian chutneys are a must and they are easy to make a day or two in advance. If you already have it stored then nothing like it, it reduces your task :).

Also while planning ahead, I like to decide and buy the frozen snack items, dried snack items, and all the ingredients for paneer tikka and sev puri chaat.

Related

Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:

Pairing

These are my favorite drinks to serve with Indian snack board:

Don't forget to rate the recipe by clicking the stars. Also, pin the recipe by clicking the "Pin" button, for your future reference.

📖 Recipe