Build a beautiful vegan Thanksgiving charcuterie board with colorful plant-based cheeses, meats, and seasonal fruit. Great for the holidays!
Vegan charcuterie boards are easily customizable, a breeze to put together, and always a show-stopper. Remember it for your Friendsgiving or Thanksgiving get-together.
Charcuterie boards are always more impressive than they have any right to be.
With a variety of colors and textures, they immediately elicit ooh’s and ah’s. But it’s often just a matter of compiling to put them together.
And since Thanksgiving usually involves a lot of planning and effort, you’ve got to love an appetizer that invites heaps of praise with a minimum of work.
For this vegan Thanksgiving charcuterie board, there’s an assortment of flavorful vegan meats and cheeses. They’re sure to tide your guests over until the main event begins.
I’ve also included lots of fall fruits and veggies for their gorgeous seasonal colors.
With a delicious mix of sweet and savory, crunchy and creamy, this plant-based charcuterie board is guaranteed to please this holiday season.
Disclosure: I was gifted the vegan cheeses in this post from Darë Vegan Cheese. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase at no extra cost to you.
In this post:
Thanksgiving charcuterie board ingredients
Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe.
Seasonal fresh and dried fruit: Add any or all of the following – apple, pear, pomegranate, and/or dried apricots.
Olives: Canned ripe green olives or black olives feel very nostalgic this time of year, but use any type of olives that you enjoy.
Vegan cheese: Darë Vegan Cheese Lusty Mustard and Smoked Pimento pair particularly well with fall flavors.
Smoked Pimento is one of my all-time faves. This creamy spread goes beautifully with crackers and pickled onion. While Lusty Mustard offers a tangy kick that is terrific with soft pretzel sticks.
Use my exclusive link for a discount on any flavors of Darë Vegan Cheese. Sunday, November 23, 2025 is the last day to order in time for Thanksgiving.
Bread and crackers: Water crackers are a nice neutral option for snacking. Warmed pretzel bread twists offer a yeasty aroma and tender bite. You can find both options at Trader Joe’s, or get soft pretzels in the frozen section of most grocery stores.
Vegan pepperoni: Homemade vegan pepperoni is preferred, but store-bought also works.
Pickled veggies: Pickled red onions and cornichons bring tang and crunch.
Veggies: Sliced daikon radishes, rainbow carrots, celery sticks, and bell pepper slices.
Nuts: Roasted pistachios add crunch and salt.
Sage: Add fresh sage leaves to fill in any gaps and and to complete the look. They’re also terrific fried!
Apple chutney: This sweet and savory dip is similar to chunky applesauce. It has the warming flavors of curry, ginger, and cinnamon. Enjoy it warm or cold straight out of the fridge.
How to make a fall-inspired charcuterie board
This section shows how to make this recipe at a glance with process photos of the steps. For complete ingredient amounts & instructions, keep scrolling to the recipe card below.
1. On a medium or large sized charcuterie board, place all of your larger items like the container of pimento cheese, bowls of apple chutney and pickled red onions, and an apple. These act as your anchors.
2. Cut Lusty Mustard cheese (or your preferred hard vegan cheese) into easy-to-serve blocks by cutting along the diagonal of the wedge, and then breaking it into smaller chunks. Place a pile of it in the opposite corner from the smoked pimento cheese.
3. Snake the crackers and pepperoni slices around the pimento cheese container, and place warmed pretzel bread sticks.
4. Place all of the remaining veggies, fruits, olives, and pickled items on the board.
5. Finish by filling in any blank spots with pistachios and sage leaves, so that the board is mostly hidden underneath.
Be sure to put out plenty of appetizer forks, spoons, knives, and tongs, so that people can easily serve themselves from this holiday charcuterie board.
Make it your own
Personalize your vegan grazing board by varying the ingredients.
Vary the bread or crackers: Many butter crackers are accidentally vegan, and they pair well with cheddar-y vegan cheeses.
Vary the cheese: Other flavors of Darë Vegan Cheese would work well here – like pepperjack and smoked cheddar (two more of my favorites). For homemade options, use vegan feta cheese, jalapeno cashew cheese spread, or tofu ricotta.
Vary the olives: Add Castelvetrano or kalamata olives, or fried olives. Or put out a bowl of olive tapenade.
Vary the vegan meats: Add seitan chicken, vegan turkey, or store-bought plant-based deli slices. Or put vegan pickle roll-ups and roasted chickpeas on the board.
Vary the vegetables: Add cauliflower florets, cherry tomatoes, sugar snap peas, or cucumber slices.
Vary the fruits: Add orange slices, persimmons, figs, kiwifruit, grapes, blackberries, cranberries, or grapefruit.
Vary the nuts: Add candied pecans, air fryer pumpkin seeds, roasted chestnuts, cashews, Marcona almonds, or almond dukkah with olive oil.
Vary the pickled vegetables: Add pickled jalapenos, pickled turnips, or pickled shallots.
Vary the herbs: Swap out the sage for fresh rosemary or thyme.
Fill out your spreads: Add jam, cranberry salsa, beet hummus, or kalamata olive hummus.
Make ahead instructions
If you’re making this vegan snack board for Thanksgiving ahead of time, plan ahead by making and prepping the following up to two days ahead:
- Prepare and slice vegan pepperoni.
- Make a batch of pickled red onions.
- Make apple chutney.
- Slice bell pepper, daikon radishes, and celery. Peel carrots and cut them into sticks, if necessary.
If you’re prepping the veggies early, store sliced radishes and peeled carrots in cold water in the fridge to keep them crisp until you’re ready to assemble the board.
More Thanksgiving appetizers
For even more delicious vegan Thanksgiving appetizers, check out these other festive recipes:
If you try this recipe and love it, let me know! Leave a comment and ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the comment section below. It truly makes my day and is such a help!
📖 Recipe
Vegan Thanksgiving charcuterie board
Ingredients
- ½ cup pickled red onions
- ½ cup apple chutney
- 1 wedge Lusty Mustard vegan cheese from Darë Vegan Cheese or other hard vegan cheese
- 1 container vegan smoked pimento cheese from Darë Vegan Cheese or other creamy vegan cheese spread
- 5 soft pretzel twists salted and warmed according to package directions
- 1 apple or pear
- 1 log vegan pepperoni sliced
- 1 sleeve water crackers
- 6 ounces olives drained, green or black
- ½ bell pepper red, yellow, or orange, cut into slices
- 2 celery ribs cut into sticks
- 4 rainbow carrots peeled and cut into sticks, if necessary
- 1 daikon radish cut into sticks
- ¼ to ½ cup cornichons
- 1 pomegranate cut into wedges
- ½ cup dried apricots
- ¼ to ½ cup pistachios roasted and salted
- Handful of sage leaves
Instructions
- Get a medium-sized charcuterie-style board or chopping block. Put pickled red onions and apple chutney into their own separate bowls.
- Slice the Lusty Mustard cheese (or your preferred hard vegan cheese) into smaller squares. (To do this, cut in a diagonal, following the line of the wedge. Then cut each of those larger slices into smaller squares.)
- Put the smoked pimento cheese in one corner of the board, and the Lusty Mustard squares in the opposite corner. Place the warmed soft pretzel sticks next to the mustard cheese. (They taste amazing together.)
- Add the bowls of pickled red onions, apple chutney, and whole apple to the board. They will act as your "anchors."
- Swirl the slices of vegan pepperoni around the pimento cheese container, and then mirror that with the water crackers.
- Continue to fill in the rest of the board with olives, sliced bell pepper, celery, carrot, and daikon radish sticks. Add cornichons, pomegranate, and dried apricots.
- Fill in any blank areas with roasted pistachios or sage leaves. Ideally, none of the marble or wood block underneath should show.
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