Entertaining
The usual crudités platter is a ring of cold carrot sticks around a tub of dip. It does not have to be. Treat the vegetables as the main event, give them a few different textures and temperatures, and the same idea becomes the most interesting thing on the table.
Mix your methods
Pick four or five vegetables and prepare them in different ways, so the platter has something crunchy, something tender, something charred and something sour.
- Raw: radishes, sugar snap peas, cucumber, sweet peppers, fennel.
- Blanched: green beans, asparagus, broccolini, dipped in boiling salted water for a minute and then into ice water.
- Roasted: small potatoes, cauliflower or carrots, roasted until browned at the edges and served warm or at room temperature.
- Grilled: zucchini, little gem lettuce or scallions, cooked hot and fast.
- Quick-pickled: carrots, cucumbers or red onion (see below).
Cut for fingers
Everything on the board needs to work as finger food, one or two bites at most. Leave baby vegetables whole with a bit of their tops, halve radishes, and cut larger vegetables into wedges or long batons on a bias.
Season everything
This is the step most platters skip. Toss each vegetable on its own with a little olive oil, flaky salt and lemon juice, or a pinch of a spice that suits it, like cumin on carrots or chili on cucumber. A seasoned vegetable tastes good even without a dip.
Quick pickles
Warm one cup of vinegar with one cup of water, one tablespoon of sugar and two teaspoons of salt until dissolved. Pour over sliced vegetables in a jar and let them sit for at least thirty minutes. They keep in the fridge for about a week.
Two dips
Herby yogurt. Stir together one cup of thick yogurt, a grated garlic clove, the zest of half a lemon, a handful of chopped soft herbs and a good pinch of salt.
Lemony white bean. Blend a drained can of white beans with the juice of a lemon, a garlic clove, three tablespoons of olive oil and enough water to make it smooth.
Finishing touches
Add something unexpected: wedges of ripe peach, orange segments or a few grapes for sweetness. Arrange the vegetables in loose groups rather than neat rows, put the dips in the middle, and serve the warm vegetables last, right out of the oven.
