Charcuterie Boards are a great appetizer or entree for holiday occasions when guests arrive. This Valentine’s Charcuterie Board, in the shape of a heart, will be the star of your gathering. Make enough for a crowd, or make a miniature version if it is just for date night.

A heart-shaped food board to serve on Valentine's day. — Photo Credit: Binky’s Culinary Carnival.

Why Make a Valentine’s Day Charcuterie?

Charcuterie boards are an easy appetizer or main course for any occasion. St. Valentine’s Day is an excellent time to make one. They take virtually no time or skills to prepare; they’re quick, no-cook, and perfect for letting your creativity shine.

Choose a savory board, a dessert charcuterie board, or a combination of the two.

Some Typical Ingredients

Cheeses: Choose your favorite cheeses. Some popular favorites are cheddar, Colby Jack, Swiss, provolone, blue, brie, boursin, and gouda are good choices. Learn how to fold cheeses in this post. We’ve found a pink strawberry-jalapeño gouda, which would be perfect. You could also make a cream cheese based cheese ball in the shape of a heart for a Valentine’s board.
Meat: Deli meats like pepperoni, salami, ham, prosciutto, chorizo, or summer sausage. Make a fun salami rose that will take less than five minutes, but you’ll look like a pro.
Fruits: We choose red fruits for Valentine’s Day- strawberries, raspberries, red grapes, apples, watermelon, and cherry tomatoes. If you don’t care about sticking to a red/pink theme, other fruits are blueberries, blackberries,
Veggies: We wanted to keep this board red. Some red vegetables to use are radishes, red carrots, red bell peppers, hot red peppers, beet chips, pickled beets, red cabbage, rhubarb, or red onions.
Dips or Condiments: Homemade or store-bought favorite dip like French onion dip, shrimp dip, ranch dip, fruit dip or beet hummus. Condiments like fancy mustard or mayonnaise.
Accoutrements: Pickles, olives, peppers, jams, butters and the like. Place them in small bowls.
Candies: Candies. like conversation hearts, and chocolates, like chocolate hearts, go hand in hand with Valentine’s Day. Feel free to add your favorites. Even colored marshmallows are a good addition.
Cookies: Valentine’s cookies would be a perfect addition to your board. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to make cutout cookies.
Bread and Crackers: An assortment of bread, crackers, tortilla chips, pretzels or snack food.

Heart-shaped charcuterie board for Valentine's day. — Photo Credit: Binky’s Culinary Carnival.

How to Arrange Your Board

You don’t have to choose a heart-shaped board, but it adds to the fun on Valentine’s Day!

Use a large tray or a heart-shaped board to make the charcuterie.
Start with making the top two lobes of the heart. You can define those with crackers, bread, vegetables and fruit.
Next, add any bowls of condiment, dips, or candy.
Then, define the sides of the heart and work your way to the point on the bottom of the heart.
Fill in the interior section of the heart with any other ingredients you’d like to add.
Cover the board with plastic wrap at room temperature until guests arrive.

How to Store Leftovers

Leftovers can be packaged in airtight containers or plastic bags and stored in the refrigerator for 3-4 days if they are refrigerated within 2 hours! Pack like items together.

According to the FDA, meats and cheeses left out for more than 2 hours should be discarded. If you are serving outside, particularly on a hot day (over 90°F), err on the side of caution and discard anything left out for more than an hour.

Things to Add to Your Grazing Board

More Beautiful Boards

Close up of charcuterie board ingredients. — Photo Credit: Binky’s Culinary Carnival.

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I hope you enjoyed the recipe today.

Enjoy. And have fun cooking!

Heart-shaped Valentine's Charcuterie Board that is pink and w white.

Special Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board

See Step by Step Photos Above!Most of our recipes have step by step photos and videos! Also helpful tips so that you can make it perfectly the first time and every time! Scroll up to see them!

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Course: Appetizer, entree, Main Course

Cuisine: French

Prep Time: 20

Set-up: 10

Total Time: 30

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 382kcal

Author: Beth Neels

Cost: $20

Ingredients

▢ 1 pound mixed cheeses. Pick some of your favorite and try something new!
▢ 1 pound mixed meats
▢ mixed seasonal fruit or vegetables
▢ dips or condiments in small bowls.
▢ bread or crackers
▢ you can get creative, and add other items, to taste
▢ Valentine's themed chocolates or cookies

Instructions

Slice cheeses into bite sized pieces and arrange on board.
1 pound mixed cheeses. Pick some of your favorite and try something new!
Arrange meat in bite-sized pieces on board.
1 pound mixed meats
Wash and slice fruit into bite sized pieces.
you can get creative, and add other items, to taste, mixed seasonal fruit or vegetables
Add broken bite-sized pieces of fresh bread or cut baguette slices and toast to make crostini. You can also use your favorite crackers, pretzels and bagel chips.
bread or crackers
Add sauces, dips, condiments, pickles, olives, or hummus in small bowls.
dips or condiments in small bowls.
Arrange everything on your board and enjoy!
Valentine's themed chocolates or cookies

knife, filet

cutting board, bamboo

cheese spreading knives

cheese slicer

See all of my favorite tools and gift ideas on my New Amazon Store!Check out Binky’s Amazon Store!

Notes

Nutrition facts are estimated. The actual calories can vary, depending on what quantities are consumed.

See the article above for addition suggestions and tips for building your charcuterie.

Meats suitable for charcuterie platter;

salami
ham
bacon
sausage
pork
turkey
pate

Cheeses to add to your charcuterie board;

Hard Cheeses;

cheddar
Swiss
muenster
Mimolette
gouda
provolone

Spreadable cheeses;

brie
Alouette type
cream cheese blends
port wine cheese
chutter
Stilton cheeses

Fruits to add;

apple
pear
grape
orange
pineapple
cantaloupe
melons
apricot
peach
plum
dried cranberries

Add any other of your favorite fruits. I find bananas don’t work well because they brown so quickly. Apples, peaches, or anything that browns can be tossed into lemon juice before adding to the board.

Additional Condiments;

olives
capers
mayonnaise
mustards
dips
jams or jellies
pickles, vegetables, or peppers

How to Store Leftovers

If you have leftovers, pack them up in airtight containers or plastic bags and refrigerate them within 2 hours. They’ll keep for 3-4 days in the fridge. Make sure to store like items together (e.g., all meats in one container, all cheeses in another).

Keep in mind that meats and cheeses left out for more than 2 hours should be thrown away, according to FDA guidelines. If you’re serving outdoors on a hot day (over 90°F), discard anything left out for more than an hour to stay on the safe side.