How to Make an Easy Charcuterie Board for Passover

Grazing boards make any occasion better, and that goes for Passover too. This Passover charcuterie board is easy to prepare and makes a beautiful first course for when your guests arrive for seder.

Fully loaded with delicious cheeses, olives, artichokes, fresh fruit and veggies, there’s something for everyone on this board!

What’s on this Passover Charcuterie Board

We’re taking the idea of a basic cheese board and combining it with all of our seder plate favorites to create the ultimate Passover board! Here’s what you’ll need:

• Cheese. The types of cheese you use are totally up to you. I’d recommend going for one soft cheese and one firm. This board uses Boursin. Other soft cheeses would be goat cheese, brie or camembert. For the firm cheese, this board uses an aged Gouda. Sharp cheddar and aged Gruyere are also great options for firm cheeses.
• Olives. This board has Spanish olives, but any kind of olive you like will work.
• Artichokes. Our perennial Passover appetizer is my 3-ingredient artichoke dip, which you’ll see on this board. It’s easy to make and arguably the best part of this board! You could also serve simple marinated artichoke hearts.
• Charoset. This traditional seder plate item is a simple mixture of apples, walnuts, wine and honey.
• Hard boiled eggs. Another staple of the Passover seder plate, little wedges of hardboiled egg make perfect appetizers.
• Beet horseradish. This is traditionally spread onto pieces of matzoh and enjoyed during Passover seder. It represents the “bitter herb” that you find on a seder plate. It wouldn’t be a Passover charcuterie board without it!
• Matzoh crackers. They’re called Tam Tams and they’re actually quite good. Look for Tam Tams in everything flavor. They taste just like regular crackers!
• Baby carrots and apples for dipping. You could also use fresh figs, grapes or berries.

How to Assemble this Passover Charcuterie Board

As with any of my other grazing boards, I like to start with anchoring the cheeses first. So place your cheeses down where you want them to be. I include the artichoke dip in the cheeses because, you know. It has cheese in it.

Then, add your accoutrements. Place the beet horseradish, olives and charoset in small bowls and arrange them in different areas of the board.

Now you’ve got all of your anchors down, so let’s fill in most of the empty space with matzoh crackers.

Finally, arrange the hardboiled eggs, carrots and apples in all remaining open spaces. Use fresh parsley to complete the look by placing it anywhere you see negative space. A good charcuterie board should have no negative space, so don’t be shy with that parsley!

Can you make this Passover board ahead of time?

This entire board can be assembled ahead of time!

The artichoke dip is best served warm, but still good at room temperature if you need to transport it to another house for seder. If possible, add the warm artichoke dip just before you’re ready to serve the board.

What is Passover?

Passover celebrates the emancipation of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. As the story goes, the Israelites fled Egypt in such a hurry that they couldn’t wait for their bread to rise.

The history and symbolism of Passover requires Jews not to eat anything that is leavened. That means no bread, cake, cookies, etc. Instead, we eat matzo (or matzah), which is bread without any leavening agents. This is why you’ll only see matzoh crackers on our Passover Charcuterie Board.

What does it mean to be kosher?

In as basic terms as possible, keeping kosher means that you don’t mix milk and meat together on a plate or at any meal. So when you’re thinking about Passover charcuterie boards, they’re going to either have kosher meats or kosher cheese. Never both.

And if you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know we’re doing cheese, duh.

But not all cheeses are kosher for Passover. If you’re looking for a completely kosher charcuterie board, be sure to check the labels of what you’re buying to make sure that your cheeses (and meats, if you’re using them) are kosher.

When you make this Passover Charcuterie Board, I’d love to hear about it! Drop a rating or leave a comment below. Enjoy!

For more Passover recipes, try these:

• Passover Apple Cake
• Flourless Chocolate Cake
• Broccoli & Cheddar Bake

For more charcuterie board ideas, try these:

• Springtime Cheese Board
• Greek Mezze Board
• Butter Board Recipe with Pesto and Roasted Tomatoes