I know we all go nuts for a good cheese board (right?!) but today I’m lightening things up and sharing a healthy (and photo-worthy) appetizer perfect for Summer Entertaining – the oversized vegetable crudité! It’s pretty, fresh, colorful and your guests will probably appreciate the healthier option for Summer too!
The Veggies
The most important thing to remember is variety. The more mixture of color, texture, size and shape, the better. This isn’t the spread where everything is going to look super uniform and perfect. It’s all about the beautiful mess! Here is the list of veggies I went with:
Artichoke
Broccoli
Watermelon radish
Avocado
Cauliflower
Red pepper
Heirloom carrots
Snap peas
Rose radicchio
Celery
Cucumber
Radishes
Some of these veggies, like the watermelon radish and rose radicchio (so pretty right?!), might not be available at your everyday grocery store. You may need to make a special trip to Whole Foods or another fancy grocery store. The key to creating this platter is to cut the veggies the night before! It is so worth it to get the rinsing, cleaning and chopping of the veggies done beforehand. It makes the whole process of preparing it so much easier. 
Dips
Dips are everyone’s favorite part, right?! You could go a little crazy here with all the different kinds but I decided to stick with three: tzatziki, hummus and an olive tapenade. Of course, it’s a must to take them out of the packaging and place them in a nice bowl, because you know, you made them ;). I decided to put all three in one bowl to make a more impactful presentation. I didn’t want to put them in smaller bowls and have them get lost in the sea of veggies. I added sprigs of herbs on top of the dips for the final touch. 
Presentation
And lastly, let’s talk presentation because this is where it really gets fun. Depending on how many people you are entertaining and if you are serving other things to eat, the size of the platter can vary. Since this was our only thing to munch on I decided to go BIG. I placed the bowl of dips down first and then started placing the veggies all around it until I thought I was done, and then I added more! You really can’t go wrong here. The more texture, variety and color the better! I also cut up pita bread to go along with it all in case anyone had veggie overload.
And that’s it! It’s such a nice change up to the more calorie dense cheese board and is still a crowd pleaser! What do you girl think? Would you love this app too?!
