Are you looking for a creative and cheerful way to celebrate Pride Month? My vegetarian Rainbow Charcuterie Board is everything you need to add more color and joy to your diet and to share the love with your family and friends! I really had fun creating this colorful charcuterie board with my kids: what better occasion to teach them the importance to celebrate love in all its forms and shapes? ??
Are you ready to create a tasty and wholesome charcuterie board that will really impress your guests, all in less than 30 minutes? I hope yes! All you need are lots of colorful fruits and veggies (in this recipe I used more than 20 different varieties, you can find them below), and some patience. The more tedious part of the recipe is washing and cutting each of them. Once you do that, everything will be a smooth sail and you will have lots of fun arranging them in a joyful rainbow shape!
Of course, there is no sun (and rainbow) without clouds! Therefore, I had the idea to recreate them using some cute small white bowls, which I have then filled with nourishing -and, most of all, scrumptious- ingredients. Here I decided to use cashews, white cheddar, brie, rice crackers, and a mouthwatering onion Greek yogurt dip, but you can use whatever ingredients you feel like or have at hand that day. For example, I love to swap the brie with some vegan feta and use a plant-based Greek yogurt for a fully vegan charcuterie board!
Are you ready to unleash your creativity and prepare a joyful, yet extremely nourishing meal? Before jumping directly to the recipe, I would like to share with you something that I have learned throughout my nutrition studies, and that I am sure you will all find interesting, which is why it is so important to have a color-rich diet. After all, what better recipe to talk about this topic than a rainbow charcuterie bowl? ??
A fantastic feature of this rainbow charcuterie board is that it includes fruits and vegetables from all the colors of the rainbow. Each of them provides a wide variety of phytonutrients that can help support our optimal health and make us feel more energetic and alive!
This is why our daily goal should be to include at least five portions of fruits and veggies each day -if possible each of them with a different color. But why it is so important to eat as many colors of plant foods as possible?
The answer lies in the content of different phytonutrients. These are non-other than the pigments responsible for the color of different fruits and veggies. But the best part is that each of these phytonutrients has a pivotal role in promoting our health by working as powerful antioxidants, as well as having distinct nutritional benefits. Let's have a look at the main phytonutrients and their main properties, divided by color.
Note: I am not a doctor and you should see your doctor if you are looking to treat existing ailments. I found this information across the next at the most reliable sources. References below.
Red plant foods may contain any of the following phytonutrients:
Yellow and orange plant foods may contain any of the following phytonutrients:
Green plant foods may contain any of the following phytonutrients:
Blue and purple plant foods may contain any of the following phytonutrients:
Black plant foods may contain any of the following phytonutrients:
Brown plant foods may contain any of the following phytonutrients:
On the other hand, white plant foods may contain any of the following phytonutrients:
Do you see why it is so important to eat the rainbow? If you are just starting to incorporate more color into your diet, check out the color-sorted grocery list I have in my article, Plant-based Grocery List. Now onto the recipe!