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Instead of dining out, celebrate your bond by building a Valentine’s Charcuterie Board together. With heartfelt accents, plenty of meat and cheese for you to share, and chocolate-covered strawberries for good measure, this holiday charcuterie board is an easy yet elegant way to commemorate your love.
Sure, you could make a reservation for a Valentine’s dinner out on the town. But I far prefer skipping the stress of selecting the perfect spot (and hustling to snag a table before they’re all booked up), steering clear of the pricey bill, and ditching the need to get all dressed up. When you share a Valentine’s Day celebration at home, there’s no dress code and you can keep the tip! (I don’t know about you, but take that to mean that I can invest in an even better bottle of wine and a few extra white chocolate-covered strawberries…)
Whether you make it a Valentine’s Day pre-meal savory snack board, the full dinner itself, or a dessert charcuterie board with just sweets, I have plenty of Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board ideas to make you and your sweetheart swoon. Just like with our classic Charcuterie Board and the festive Christmas Charcuterie Board, the secret to this Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board lies in the assembly. There’s zero cooking required!
Think of the Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board guide below as a starting point for a sweet date night. Feel free to scale up or down depending on your appetites, adjust accordingly based on your dietary preferences, taste, texture, and budget, or give it a glow-up to feature as part of your Galentine’s menu for ladies’ night. Any way you customize it, this is one board that’s easy to love.
Table of contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Equipment notes
- Board: Any flat, food-safe surface (such as wood, slate, or marble) can act as a blank canvas for your Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board. Yes, a counter, table, or tray can work if you don’t have a dedicated platter! If you’re not certain that the surface is safe to serve food or easy to clean, line it with parchment paper. To really drive home the holiday theme, consider a heart-shaped option or any other beautiful boards you discover.
- Dishes: Small bowls and cups can corral dips, jams, olives, and other items that might roll or drip.
- Serving tools: Cheese knives, appetizer forks, small tongs, toothpicks, and tiny spoons allow for easy scooping and dishing.
- Cookie cutters: To lend an extra lovely touch to your holiday cheese board, use a tiny heart-shaped cookie cutter to slice bites of cheese or a larger one to help form heart-shaped collections of berries, nuts, or another smaller ingredient.
- Flowers: Use these to help fill in any gaps on your charcuterie board, then after the feast, transfer them to a vase to act as a reminder of your sweet snackfest. Reds, whites, and pinks are the best colors for flowers.
Ingredient notes
- Meats: Our aim with this Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board is to offer enough diversity that each bite offers the possibility for a new flavor adventure. I love featuring salami roses as part of my holiday charcuterie board. Choose one other option from the list below to round out your charcuterie selection.
- Dry-Cured Pork or Beef: Serrano ham, prosciutto, country ham, Iberico ham, capicola, speck, bresaola
- Salami: Genoa, soppressata, finocchiona, Genoa
- Spreadable meat: ‘Nduja, duck pâté, chicken liver pâté, rillettes
- Cheeses: I like to feature three different varieties of cheese on a charcuterie board; yes, even when it’s just serving two. Choose your own fromage adventure based on your favorite varieties. Unsure of where to start? Select one from each of the categories below. (Triple-cream brie feels particularly decadent if you ask me!) Try to think of cheeses that might complement each of your meats.
- Soft cheeses: Brie, feta, Camembert, chèvre, ricotta
- Semi-hard cheeses: Fontina, muenster, Gouda, Havarti, Roquefort, gorgonzola, Manchego, Gruyère, Comté
- Firm cheeses: Cheddar, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Romano
- Jams, mustards, and other flavor-boosters: Any fruit preserves/jams/jellies, honey, mustards, nuts, olives, cornichons, chocolate (heart-shaped or from your box of chocolates, if desired), and fresh herbs are brilliant “accessories” as part of your Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board.
- Fresh fruit or veggies: Peruse the produce aisle to see what looks freshest. (As a refresher, here’s what’s in season in February.) In addition to at least one form of dried fruit, I often feature fresh raspberries, blackberries, cherries, apples, or grapes on my charcuterie boards. A seed-spilling pomegranate half or two is a nice nod to the holiday, as are chocolate-covered strawberries. Carrot sticks, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, and mini bell pepper halves lend crunch and a lighter alternative to bread or crackers as a vehicle for dips or soft cheeses.
- Carbs: Crackers, Toasted Baguette slices, Pita Chips, or pretzels are among my favorites. Go ahead and invest in enough for 3 or 4; this will allow you to build the baseboard and refill as you nosh all night (plus leftovers won’t spoil any time soon).
Step-by-step instructions
- Select a cutting board or space on your counter or table that can act as your foundation. Arrange your meats in slices, rolls, or roses and arrange them near the border.
- Add a cheese next to each meat to continue to fill in the edges of the board.
- Add bowls of jams or other spreads to fill in the large holes. Fill any remaining gaps with fruit, nuts, crackers, Valentine’s candy, or chocolate-covered strawberries. Layer and overlap when needed; step back to view the board from afar to spot any slim spots. Finish by tucking flowers into any of those less-abundant spots, then add forks, cheese knives, spreaders, tongs, and other utensils where needed.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: I recommend planning on 1 to 2 ounces each of meat and cheese per person as a snack, or about 4 ounces of meat and cheese per person if this Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board is acting as your dinner. But, I always buy enough to fill my board so it looks abundant.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- Make ahead: Assemble the charcuterie board, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate up to one day in advance. Bring to room temperature right before date night (or your Galentine’s Day gathering) starts.
- Brie cheese cut-outs: As shown in the pictures, you can use a cookie cutter to make a heart-shaped cutout in your wheel of brie. Fill it in with fig jam, orange marmalade, or red pepper jelly depending on whether your board is sweet, savory, or a combination. Bacon jam would be great too!
- Sweets: Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to incorporate sweet treats like chocolate-covered strawberries, conversation hearts or other themed candy, chocolate hearts or truffles, and cookies. Pair them with meats and slices of cheese or focus on a full-blown dessert board.
- Kid-friendly: Charcuterie doesn’t have to be just for grown-ups! Make a kid-friendly board with cheese and crackers, ham roll-ups, olives, blueberry preserves, plenty of berries, Valentine’s Day candy, and anything else your kids love. Enjoy your platter during a family game night or watching movies, and have so much fun.
- Store-bought: The glory of the charcuterie board is that it involves little to no actual cooking. Just visit the grocery store and pick out your favorite things. Lots of flavors, less work!
Frequently Asked Questions
The last 5 years of internet creativity have taught us that there are no rules when it comes to charcuterie! That being said, my favorite ways to transform a classic charcuterie board into a holiday charcuterie board to share with your Valentine or Galentines is to build the board in the shape of a heart and add themed ingredients, such as salami roses, actual roses, chocolate-covered strawberries, Valentine candies, and pomegranates.
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Valentine’s Charcuterie Board
Ingredients
The meats:
- 2 ounces prosciutto or serrano ham
- 2 ounces capicola or bresaola
- 2 ounces soppressata or genoa salami
The cheese:
- 4 ounces Cheddar cheese
- 4 (5 ounce) log chevre or a small wheel of brie
- 4 ounces Gouda or Fontina
The spreads:
- fresh honeycomb
- fig jam
The fillers :
- red grapes
- berries or cherries
- Marcona almonds or other nuts
- crackers
- chocolate covered strawberries
- Valentine's candy
The garnishes:
- Fresh flowers such as red roses
- Fresh herbs
Instructions
- Select a board or space on your counter or table that can act as your foundation. Arrange your meats in slices, rolls, or roses and arrange them near the border.
- Add a cheese next to each meat to continue to fill in the edges of the board. Add bowls of jams or other spreads to fill in the large holes.
- Fill any any remaining gaps with fruit, nuts, crackers, Valentine candy, or chocolate-covered strawberries. Layer and overlap when needed; step back to view the board from afar to spot any slim spots.
- Finish by tucking flowers or fresh herbs into any of those less-abundant spots, then add forks, cheese knives, spreaders, tongs, and other utensils where needed.
Notes
- Yield: I recommend planning on 1 to 2 ounces each of meat and cheese per person as a snack, or about 4 ounces of meat and cheese per person if this Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Board is acting as your dinner. But, I always buy enough to fill my board so it looks abundant.
- Storage: Store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.