This post discussing 21+ Summer Charcuterie Board Ideas may contain affiliate links which means that I receive some form of compensation in return (at no additional cost to you) if you purchase through my link:)
Who doesn’t love a good charcuterie board? As summer approaches, I think it is such a fun time to start planning and dreaming of all the sweet gatherings we will be enjoying during the summer months. The fun thing about charcuterie boards is that they are a really great crowd pleaser, but they are also a great thing to bring to someone else’s gathering if you want to have a thoughtful contribution (Tip: If you are bringing a charcuterie board to someone else’s gathering, always use a board that has sides to it so your charcuterie design does not get ruined during transport!). A couple other things that would be good to have on hand would be some small bowls, a small cheese knife, and maybe even one of those mini honey spoons. That said, whether you like fresh fruits, hard cheese, dried fruit, fresh herbs, or even garden-fresh veggies, charcuterie boards are the way to go, and they really don’t require a lot of equipment other than the food that you include. There is not necessarily a wrong way to create a charcuterie board. In fact, there are many, many different ways to make a lovely board that includes foods and good things that your family and friends will love.
Though it has become quite popular in the last several years, I would like to take a look at what a charcuterie board really is and how it came to be such a fun addition to our gatherings.
According to D’arcy’s Meat Market,
“Charcuterie (shar-KOO-ta-REE) is a specific term with origins reaching as far back as 15th century France; literally translated, it means the products of a fancy pork butcher. Modern charcuterie does often include pork, but the definition has widened to reflect a dish served throughout many cultures.
Known in Britain as a ploughman’s lunch, served in Italy as antipasto and familiar to many North Americans as the humble meat-and-cheese plate– these days, charcuterie can be found in any number of variations and is served everywhere from pubs to high end restaurants.” (link to quote HERE)
Traditionally, a charcuterie board would include a variety of meats, a variety of cheeses, bread, fruit, condiments, and maybe a few varieties of nuts. As they have become more popular, they have come to be known as basically any collection of foods that fit on a platter of some kind. Believe it or not, I even has a charcuterie board “cookbook”! Sometimes, people will stick with a color theme for their board like pink or red for Valentine’s Day, while other times, they will put together unique charcuterie board ideas like a “Chick-fil-A” inspired board or even a donut board. The options are endless!
With all of that said, this post is going to have 21+ summer charcuterie board ideas that will hopefully be an inspiration to you as you dream of your perfect charcuterie board for the coming summer celebrations.
Is this not one of the loveliest collections of food you have ever seen? I just love all the colors. Stephanie did such a good job with it! One thing I have noticed in a lot of the “summer charcuterie boards” is that watermelon and fresh mint seem to really make it feel more summery which is an easy thing to incorporate!
For full details on that summer charcuterie board, check out Stephanie’s site by clicking the picture 🙂
Look at the vibrant colors in this board! I love how beautifully it is arranged. The creator of this board used so many different types of cheeses along with some sweet fruits.
I actually got to try my hand at my own charcuterie board not all that long ago, and I decided to try to make my own edible flower with salami. It was not difficult at all, and it turned out very pretty! Basically, all you need to do is take thin slices of whatever food you are using and layer them onto a cup of some kind. I used a regular, straight drinking glass for mine, but you could definitely use other shapes. The article that contains the little picture tutorial below actually suggested using a wine glass since it gives the flowers a more curved look which I thought was interesting.
I really loved that the above example had so many different types of “flowers” made out of all different sorts of food. Very cute and creative!
Once again, the colors in this board are just so lovely! I love seeing how creatively people put these boards together. Look at the seasonal fruits and yummy varieties of breads/crackers. I love it!
Look how fun this red, white, and blue charcuterie board is! I love this pretty board.
Here’s another lovely 4th of July summer board. I thought it was neat that it doesn’t only have red, white, and blue colors, but yet we can still very much tell that it is “themed.” The cheese stars are so fun!
Here we have yet another delicious option. This board actually includes blue cheese which is not one of my favorite cheeses, but you could just as easily make your own flavored cream cheese or even just straight cream cheese as an alternative. The mint is such a nice summer twist. I love all the fresh fruit in this board, as well.
This is such a nice summer fruits board. I love all the fresh berries and the different condiments to go along with them. From what I have seen Trader Joe has a lot of different dips that would be good with this kind of board. It is so colorful and fun. If you wanted to include more colors, you could also put in some green grapes.
This board is more geared towards a breakfast board theme which is fun. They included some granola and yogurt and all kinds of fresh produce along with honey and other goodies. This board would be lovely for your kids on a summer morning or even for overnight guests that like to eat healthy and light breakfasts.
This board actually appears to have been for sale at some point on Eleveats, but I thought the pineapple was such a fun and cute idea. It looks like it would be pretty easy to simply make a cheese ball of some kind and put the pecans and top of a pineapple on it for a finished look. So cute!
To go along with the pineapple idea, I thought it was cool how this beautiful charcuterie board incorporates the pineapple as a bowl in the board. It looks like they also used an ice cream scoop to make little fruit kabobs which is such a great idea! This board also has some fresh vegetables which is nice.
This beautiful board is actually considered for “spring,” but I thought it could definitely pass as a summer charcuterie board 😉 I love that they included the macarons!
Here’s another simple summer board. This board includes lots of pita bread, hummus, cherry tomatoes, and cucumbers. I love that you can get creative and make your own hummuses or buy them to keep things simple.
To be honest, the main reason I included this “Burrata and Prosciutto” board is because of the beautiful layers. I think this board proves that it is possible to even keep the layout of a charcuterie board simple. Don’t overcomplicate it!
Oh my word! Look at all of the yummy, summery things on this board! My mouth is watering, and I wish I could sample the things pictured here. What a great idea by Beautiful Eats and Things. Something that is cool about this board is that they did not use one of the traditional “charcuterie meats.” I love the creativity, here. This board proves that most things we eat could be made into a pretty charcuterie board with a little inspiration and creativity.
Here’s a similar idea by “Miss in the Kitchen.” She took all the wonderful things that we might put on hotdogs and created an amazing summer charcuterie board experience.
Here’s another hot dog board with a different layout that I thought was a great idea!
Y’all. This board! I feel like kids would love this charcuterie board, especially with all the different sauces! This board is another one of those unique charcuterie boards that would be a great crowd pleaser.
Though this grazing board might be a little more on the pricey side, it is super simple to put together and would be delicious for a more “picnic” styled gathering. I think the cookies add a nice touch, as well.
This charcuterie board includes so many different textures and colors. I love that they incorporated the fresh fruits and veggies and both hard and soft cheeses along with crackers and nuts and veggies.
This simple summer charcuterie board would be so lovely for those summer days when the evenings are cooler and you want to spend the hours outside. Unfortunately, it looks like this post is not available anymore on Aubrey’s site, but I did link her site and thought that her charcuterie board was still worth including since it is so lovely 🙂
This board would be so much fun with kids! I can just picture putting this together as a surprise for after supper on a hot summery day or a warm summer night. Maybe you could put this board together and have each of your kids make their own little bowl of ice cream then head outside to eat it together as a family. Sounds like sweet, summer memories to me.
I don’t know if this snack board technically gets to be considered a “summer” board, but I thought it is pretty common to have a movie night in the summer, right? What a fun idea to spruce up a movie night. You know your family best, so you know what they will eat and what they won’t, but I thought this board was very inspirational, nonetheless.
Y’all. I had so much fun with this post! To be honest, right now, homemaking is really my jam. I love all things baking, decorating, and beautifying, and charcuterie boards really incorporate elements from all three of those lovely things. This post has brought you more than 25 different summer charcuterie board ideas that you can use for inspiration and motivation over the course of the next several months. I hope that you have found value in this post and that you will put some of it to use. Thank you to all the people who created these boards and shared them for us to see. Hope you have a lovely rest of your week, sweet friend!
Have you made a charcuterie board before?
Which board in this post is your favorite?
What is your favorite thing to bring to a summer gathering?
Let me know in the comments below!
Until next time
