Valentine’s Day is around the corner and what’s more fitting than a beautiful spread of assorted meats and cheeses. This Valentine’s Day cheese board has everything you need for a romantic evening with your special someone. There’s chocolate, fruit, and all sorts of tasty snacks. Pair it with a glass of bubbles and you’re all set for your a picture perfect evening.
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The Best Cheeses for a Valentine’s Day Cheese Board
When picking out what kind of cheese you want on your board, you want to think about variety. So things like texture and flavor are key to building a good board. For example, ours has roquefort, goat cheese, and manchego. The roquefort is crumbly and pungent, while the goat cheese is spreadable and semi-strong in flavor. The manchengo balances everything out since it’s milder and firm.
- Soft or Spreadable: Chèvre (goat cheese), taleggio, brie, and camembert are great options.
- Semi-Soft or Crumbly: Roquefort, Stilton, and gorgonzola are really nice, plus they pack an extra punch. If you’re not a blue cheese fan, you can go for something like smoked gouda or pepper jack.
- Firm or Semi-Firm: Manchego is one of our favorites. Parmesan, cheddar, and gruyere also fit into this category.
Other Things to Include
- Meat: Think prosciutto, salami, soppressata, and chorizo. We like to include a spicy meat which is balanced out by the cheese and fruit.
- Crackers & Bread: Mix it up a bit with different shaped crackers. Mild flavors work best since they don’t overpower the cheese and meat.
- Fruit: Red fruits like strawberries, cherries, and pomegranate are perfect for a Valentine’s Day cheese board. Black grapes are a favorite of ours too!
- Spreads: Fruit jams and honey are a must! We used strawberry jam and honey.
- Chocolate & Other Sweets: It would feel wrong not to include any chocolate on a Valentine’s board, so we added some cocoa cashews and pieces of a chocolate bar. Our local cheese shop recommended we try guava paste with the manchego, and it was a tasty combo for sure! Some other options are chocolate covered strawberries and truffles.
- Nuts: These add a nice crunch. Marcona almonds, Valencia almonds, and pistachios are our favorite.
- Extras: Olives and cornichons are great for cutting through the richness of the meats and cheeses.
How to Assemble a Cheese Board
- First, start with the cheeses by spreading them out along the board. We also like to add any jam jars and knives at this stage. That way they’re already on the plate since they take up a lot of room. Then all you have to do is surround them with the other ingredients.
- Next, add the meats. Place them near the cheese. If you’re like us and want to make your board extra pretty, curve your sliced meats around your jam jars or bowls.
- Then add your crackers and fruit. We usually start with the crackers since they tend to take up more room. Be sure to spread everything out, placing a little bit of everything near the cheese.
- Add your sweet treats. At this point you should still have some big areas left to fill. These are where you’ll want to put your chocolates and other sweet items.
- Lastly, fill in any gaps with the nuts. This is the key to making your board look beautiful and full.
FAQ
Cheese tastes best at room temperature, so it’s best to leave it out an hour or so before serving. Just be sure to arrange the board while the cheese is cold so nothing falls apart as you’re making it. This is great if you like to make things ahead of time.
2-3 oz per person is generally a good amount. We recommend having at least 3 different varieties (meats too).
Based on the knives we have, these are how they’re used:
– Wide, flat knife: used for semi-firm and crumbly cheeses
– Pronged knife: use it to break apart hard cheese like manchego
– Tear shaped knife: this makes it easy to spread soft cheeses like chèvre
More Valentine’s Day Recipes You’ll Love
If you’re looking for a seasonal board, check out our holiday cheese board. It’s full of recommendations of what to include in a winter spread.
A Few Tips
- Pair your cheese board with a glass of white wine. In our case, we drink this non-alcoholic sparkling wine.
- Variety is your best friend when picking out elements for your spread. You don’t want to be stuck eating little bites of the same thing over and over again. Go for foods with differing textures, flavors, and colors.
- Choose fruits and spreads that match the Valentine’s theme. Seems obvious, but it’s too easy to grab these randomly without giving it any thought. We used strawberry jam, strawberries, and cherries. We also found some golden berries which added a nice pop of color. But anything pink or red works of course!
📖 Recipe
Valentine’s Day Cheese Board
Ingredients
- 3 cheeses with different flavors and textures
- 3 assorted meats like salami, chorizo, and soppressata
- Assorted crackers and bread
- Variety of fruits like strawberries, cherries, pomegranate arils etc.
- 1-3 spreads like jam and honey
- Small assortment of sweet treats, chocolate, truffles, chocolate covered fruit
- Acidic vegetables like cornichons and olives
Instructions
- Start with the cheeses, spreading them across the board. This is also a good time to add your jam jars and cheese knives.
- Add the meats, being sure to lay them close to the cheese.
- Add your crackers followed by the fruit. We like to place the longer crackers along the edges of the board.
- Add any sweet treats like chocolate, truffles, etc.
- Fill in any small spaces with vegetables and nuts. Enjoy!
Notes
- Cheese: roquefort, chèvre, manchego ; Meat: Tuscan style salami, soppressata, chorizo
- Crackers: thin breadsticks, wafer crackers, olive oil and sel gris sourdough flatbread crackers ; Fruit: black cherries, strawberries, golden berries, black grapes
- Spreads: honey, strawberry jam ; Sweets: hazelnut chocolate bar, cocoa dusted cashews, guava paste
- Nuts: marcona almonds, valencia almonds with fine herbs ; Extras: cornichons
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