Move over, grocery store vegetable trays - this Trader Joe's Crudité Platter features colorful vegetables and your favorite dips all beautiful arranged. This is a delicious make-ahead appetizer or snack board for any time. Perfect for a party, potluck, game day, or family gathering.
Crudité (pronounced kroo-dee-teh) are raw vegetables arranged on a platter or board and typically served with sauces or dips. For something so basic, a crudité platter can be beautiful and elegant for your next party or gathering. This one showcases all items you can find a Trader Joe's. They're beautifully arranged on multiple dinner plates but you can arrange on one large platter or even a sheet pan.
Despite having a limited selection, Trader Joe's have some really amazing products! So many in fact, that I've even made several charcuterie and cheese boards using all their ingredients - Trader Joe's Winter Cheese & Charcuterie Board and Trader Joe's Summer Fruit & Cheese Board. Best of all, any sort of cheese, charcuterie or crudité platter is completely customizable depending your tastes!
Fresh vegetables are a perfect way to balance out heavier appetizers like Truffle Honey Baked Brie, or Buffalo Onion Dip.
Why You'll Love this How-To
- Fresher & Tastier: Making your own crudité platter is fresher and tastier than a plastic grocery store tray
- Beautiful Presentation: How knew vegetables could looks so colorful and elegant?!
- Quick and Easy: Takes about 10-15 minutes depending on how many vegetables you need to prep
- Completely Customizable!: Creating your own allows you to have a variety that will appeal to different tastes or ages, or size or type of event
Ingredients
- Vegetables: Use what's in season and aim for a variety of vegetables that have different texture, color and flavor. I've including baby corn, rainbow petit carrots, baby cauliflower, mini cucumbers, endive, cherry tomatoes, radishes and sweet mini peppers. You could also add broccoli, sugar snap peas, asparagus, green beans, celery, or beets, just to name a few other options.
- Dips: I used Tzatziki a creamy yogurt based dip as well as two different types of hummus (Mediterranean style & Tomato + Basil). One really classic and something a little different/unexpected addition. But, Trader Joe's offers several different types of dips including romesco dip, green goddess dip, buffalo dip (chicken or vegan), herbed tahini sauce and so much more!
- Bread: A good crostini and naan made the most sense for this crudite platter. There's a few items that lean mediterranean - hummus and tzatziki so naan or pita fits into those flavors.
- Toppings: To spruce up the dips I used a handful of ingredients to add to the presentation - olive oil, chickpeas, sun-dried tomatoes, dill, and cucumber. I put them on the prospective dips to give it a beautiful almost-restaurant like presentation. But, these are completely optional.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Wash all vegetables. Slice to your preference.
- Slice bread and pita. Optionally, toast under the broiled for about 2 minutes or until you have reached your desired toastiness.
- Scoop dips into small individual bowls. Note: with the Trader Joe's Tzatziki Dip, I blended it in a small food processor as the cucumber slices were too big.
- Lay out all vegetables, bread, and dips.
- Place 1 bowl of dip onto 1 plate/platter. Arrange vegetables and bread on the plate/platter. (Note: You don't have to use every single variety of vegetable on each plate. It's always a good idea to have some leftover as back up.) Fill in any gaps on the plate/platter!
- Optional: Top dips with olive oil and extra toppings for gorgeous presentation
- Mediterranean Hummus: chickpeas + olive oil + paprika
- Sun-dried Tomato Basil Hummus: olive oil + sun dried tomatoes
- Tzatziki (blended smooth): olive oil + dill + diced cucumber
Expert Tips
- Stick with things you love BUT add in things you want to try. I think everyone loves the variety that comes with boards and platters. I always stick with things I love but make sure to add in a handful of things I also want to try!
- Bring out the green! For certain green vegetables like asparagus, green beans or snap pea, you can gently blanche vegetables to bring out green color.
- Buy vegetables that are in season for the freshest and tastiest vegetables
- Organize, organize, organize. Setting out all your vegetables, dips and bread lets you see everything you get to use and let those creative juices fly for arranging.
FAQ
There are endless additions you can add to a crudité platter! Nuts, dried fruits, olives, marinated vegetables are just a handful of options. You could go full mediterranean and add in a nice feta cheese and falafel. Tortilla chips if you want to serve with a salsa(s).
Ranch, salsa, buffalo dip, green goddess, onion dip, bean dip, spinach dip, different flavored hummus - edamame, beet, etc. You can go homemade or use your favorite store bought.
Yes, you could prep the vegetables 2 hours ahead. However, since we are using pre-made dips, I would scoop those right before service except for the tzatziki dip, which can be blended smooth and refrigerated to thicken up.
I love leftover vegetables as a snack or grilled or roasted as a side or in a salad.
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Trader Joe's Crudité Platter
Ingredients
- 6 ounces baby corn
- 4 mini cucumber
- 16 ounces rainbow carrots
- 16 ounces cherry tomatoes
- 12 ounces radishes
- 1 french baguette sliced and toasted into crostini, optional
- 18 ounces naan toasted, optional
- 8 ounces hummus (I used Trader Joe's Mediterrean Hummus or hummus/dip of your choice)
- 7 ounces sundried tomato hummus (I used Trader Joe's Sundried Tomato & Basil Hummus or hummus/dip of your choice)
- 12 ounces tzatziki (I used Trader Joe's Tzatziki, blended or hummus/dip of your choice)
- olive oil for topping, optional
Instructions
- Wash all vegetables. Slice to your preference.
- Slice bread and pita. Optionally, toast under the broiled for about 2 minutes or until you have reached your desired toastiness.
- Scoop dips into small individual bowls. Note: with the Trader Joe's Tzatziki Dip, I blended it in a small food processor as the cucumber slices were too big.
- Lay out all vegetables, bread, and dips.
- Place 1 bowl of dip onto 1 plate/platter. Arrange vegetables and bread on the plate/platter. (Note: You don't have to use every single variety of vegetable on each plate. It's always a good idea to have some leftover as back up.) Fill in any gaps on the plate/platter!
- Optional: Top dips with olive oil and extra topping for gorgeous presentation. Mediterranean Hummus: chickpeas + olive oil + paprika. Sun-dried Tomato Basil Hummus: olive oil + sun dried tomatoes. Tzatziki (blended smooth): olive oil + dill + diced cucumber.