Pimp my veggie tray

December 19, 2006 10:33 AM

I've been asked to bring the ubiquitous veggie tray to my aunt and uncle's house for Christmas Day. What can I do to pimp it up and make it more interesting?

Any suggestions for unusual/different veggies? Any double-dip-worthy dip suggestions or recipes? (yes, I can't believe I'm wasting my question on this, but hey. I care about my veggie tray.)

posted by printchick to food & drink (29 comments total)

Jicama. I love it.
posted by nekton at 10:36 AM on December 19, 2006 [1 favorite]

Bacon-wrapped water chestnuts. Because everything is better with bacon.

Hmmm. Perhaps you should wrap ALL of the vegetables in bacon.
posted by Ostara at 10:39 AM on December 19, 2006 [2 favorites]

At one party, the hostess got smaller sized carrots that still had their greens on top. She scraped them and blanched them and I think it made the platter fancier than just dumping a bag of baby carrots on there.
posted by spec80 at 10:50 AM on December 19, 2006

California Rolls are veggie sushi. They'd be fairly expensive to stack high, but that'd be a pretty awesome addition if you feel like deviating from the veggie/dip dynamic.

Ants on a log for some of the celery? If there are any kids there they'd appreciate it. And hey...I'd eat those too.
posted by cowbellemoo at 11:02 AM on December 19, 2006

sugar snap peas. yum.

and chipotle hummus from Trader Joe's, if you have one nearby. doubleplusyum.
posted by somanyamys at 11:03 AM on December 19, 2006

Roasted peppers! Cut several sweet peppers in half, put them under the broiler, and roast them till the skin starts to blister and turn black. Remove them, put them in a bowl, cover with foil, and let them cool for 15 mins. or so. Then peel off the skin (it will slip off pretty easily) and cut each pepper half into strips. This is fantastic with bleu cheese dressing.
posted by scody at 11:04 AM on December 19, 2006

Blanched asparagus or green beans, endive leaves, sugar snap peas, raw fennel, and red bell pepper strips are some of my favorites. Some shrimp (although not technically a veg) are also nice.

For dipping, try bagna cauda (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/2827) a super tasty mix of garlic, olive oil, butter, and anchovy. It sounds wierd, but is savory and awesome.

I also like to make a puree of white beans, goat cheese, garlic (raw or roasted) basil and olive oil with some water or stock to thin it a bit. I throw that together for parties all the time, and the bowl always gets scraped clean.
posted by mostlymartha at 11:05 AM on December 19, 2006

note: just to clarify, peppers should be cut in half lengthwise, not across. And if they're really large, you may want to cut them into quarters.
posted by scody at 11:06 AM on December 19, 2006

Anything that's local and fresh is always a surefire winner.

Jicama? Kohlrabi? Fennel? Add a bit of spice.... If you wanted, you could even wrap things in small strips of arugula leaf.

Although California Rolls (as traditionally made) are NOT vegetarian, cowbellemoo's suggestion is excellent, as there are plenty of sushi rolls which are. And, if you make them yourself (not too difficult), they're not terribly expensive at all.
posted by JMOZ at 11:07 AM on December 19, 2006

I eat bento boxes from a local place and they always have the cutest little food shapes goin on. Great examples of what I'm talking about at this awesome blog I just found. The fish shaped tofu and little chicky hard boiled egg kill me.

I found an ebay auction here that's selling veggie cutters here (not that it'll make it in time, just for reference), and I've seen friends use miniature cookie cutters for the same purpose.

Theres also some info on this page that has a list of places to get bento supplies, and they suggest hitting your local asian market.

HTH. The shapes will be a hit with kids and the adults will think you're so worldly and young at heart. :D
posted by dozo at 11:11 AM on December 19, 2006 [1 favorite]

Toss some light (yellow) miso in as a dip with a kick.
posted by iurodivii at 11:11 AM on December 19, 2006

Also bear in mind that often the veggie tray is the last vestige of complete predictability for people on restricted diets, counting calories, picky eaters, etc., so make sure there's at least one or two safe and recognizable options as well.
posted by condour75 at 11:12 AM on December 19, 2006

A spicy thai peanut sauce (like this) is tasty with veggies, and it's familiar enough for folks who like peanut butter, but exotic enough for those with more hi-falutin tastes.
posted by jessicak at 11:14 AM on December 19, 2006

I second bacon wrapped chestnuts and blanched asparagus. Yum! Bring a great homemade dip and any veggie tray will be a hit. I LOVE Ina Garten's homemade onion dip (or just about any homemade onion dip). It's to die for.

I also love grape tomatoes and peeled, sliced English cucumbers, but those are probably going on your tray anyhow.
posted by LoriFLA at 11:18 AM on December 19, 2006

Edamame!
posted by crabintheocean at 11:27 AM on December 19, 2006

make sure that the veggies you choose, though they might be typical to a veggie plate, are colorful and interesting, like red carrots or yellow cherry tomatoes.
As a vegetarian, there's nothing sadder on Christmas than a veggie tray full of meat. Which is not to say don't make the bacon chestnuts, but try to keep them contained and not oozing manteca onto the last carrot stick.
posted by Sara Anne at 11:36 AM on December 19, 2006

I third the blanched asparagus.

From my experience, you should have 2 or 3 times as many carrots as anything else, and skip the broccoli and celery. No one eats it.
posted by donajo at 11:52 AM on December 19, 2006

Sliced fennel! Its so easy and relatively-crowd-pleasing, and yet different enough that it will have some people asking what it is.

Also, I'd caution against bacon-wrapped-anything, you'll be preventing vegetarians from eating anything on the tray that might have touched it. Also, i'd caution against food that's been cooked, as floppy roasted peppers and the such are precisely the opposite of the neat/clean and crunchy finger foods that are the 'raison d'etre' of veggie trays.
posted by Kololo at 11:58 AM on December 19, 2006

You can make a nice dip with equal parts cream cheese and sour cream, water to thin it a little, chopped cherries, chopped walnuts or pecans, and a touch of honey. It's unusual for a veggie dip, but it works well, especially with celery.
posted by textilephile at 12:01 PM on December 19, 2006

I like to keep my dips unremarkable, but reliable, so I always use Hidden Valley Ranch and sour cream. If I want to spruce it up, I serve it in a bread bowl. In any case, many people don't try anything new at parties, so if you're changing it up for them, you may be misplacing your efforts.

As for the veggies, maybe you could arrange them in a fun way? I saw a Betty Crocker cookbook/pamphlet with broccoli forming a 2-dimensional tree shape on the platter with the other veggies in the middle. A website suggested attaching the veggies to a 3-D styrofoam tree shape with toothpicks, so maybe that would be nice? Again, as with anything, people don't usually try stuff that's different (e.g., jicama).
posted by parilous at 12:31 PM on December 19, 2006

The toothpick tree that parilous mentions sounds excellent, and in keeping with a Christmas theme! You can get green styrofoam at most craft stores, and you could totally use toothpicks to affix the vegetables, which would look like ornaments. You could have a selection of a few different dips under the tree - if you find some small square bowls, they might kind of look like presents.

You won't be able to fit terribly many veggies on the tree, though, so make a backup tree. Hard veggies like carrots might not work with toothpicks, but you could have those in a separate bowl.

This would be a great way to dress up the 'usual suspects', which addresses the concerns some of the above answers have mentioned re: limited diets.
posted by Sprout the Vulgarian at 1:01 PM on December 19, 2006

Try some assorted nuts (go easy on the salt and added oils), a good source of protein and essential oils. As Kololo mentions above with the bacon, best to keep separate from the veggies for the allergic and stricter types.
posted by rob511 at 1:06 PM on December 19, 2006

You could also dress it up with a great presentation.
You could stack a few cake plates with a bowl on top with the dip, etc.
you could use siler and crystal pieces and have the tall things like celery and beans, etc in pretty glasses and the others in bowls and have them all on a pretty tray.

Cuz thats how Martha would do it...
pics...http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=recipe1377&contentGroup=MSL&site=living&rsc=ns2006_m1

http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=recipe3127&contentGroup=MSL&site=living&rsc=ns2006_m3
posted by beccaj at 1:59 PM on December 19, 2006

Chipotle ranch (ranch dressing + tobasco chipotle sauce).
Wasabi Mayo (wasabi powder + Hellmans)
Horseradish Tartar Sauce (lemon juice, sweet relish, mayo, horseradish)

And wow I had these awesome bacon wrapped dates last week in Vegas!
posted by ilsa at 2:29 PM on December 19, 2006

As a slightly leaner alternative to bacon wrapped everything, melon wrapped in prosciutto is thoroughly pimpin snack food. Add olive oil drizzle, parmesan shavings, and a little cracked pepper, and you're guaranteed to impress. This also goes great with the above roasted red pepper suggestion.

Some lightly blanched green vegetables - asparagus jumps to mind - along with something a little more pickled, like those "drunken green beans" you find pretty much everywhere, would round this out into a very tasty antipasti course. A mushroom antipasto and roasted eggplant could also be included - both are great made ahead of time and served cold.

In fact, I find the above so tasty that I'm becoming jealous of your supposed quandary.
posted by mek at 3:35 PM on December 19, 2006

Whatever you do, don't take anything that contains nuts but doesn't look like nuts (such as peanut sauce - sorry, but that's REALLY not a great idea). You don't want somebody trying out your "tzatziki" sauce only to find out mid-bite that it's peanut sauce and having to go through all that 911-tube down the throat-trachaeotomy crap.
posted by watsondog at 3:46 PM on December 19, 2006

Holiday Eating Tips

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the holiday spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they're serving rum balls.

There are many more tips on this Dave Barry-type list.
posted by Cranberry at 4:19 PM on December 19, 2006

I'd bring a big bowl of wasabi peas. That's a vegetable. Oh, yeah. Jicama or kohlrabi matchsticks would be excellent. If you're going to serve carrots, do avoid the boring sack of orange wooden bullets that pass for carrots these days.

If you felt crafty, you could get a package of square wonton wrappers and make fried origami cranes for garnish.

I support the separation of bacon and vegetables. And not putting anchovies in dip without a little biohazard label.

Also, don't hide spitoutable things under harmless things. If you're going to put nuts or shrimp on something, it's good form to put them right on top to warn people.
posted by Sallyfur at 6:24 PM on December 19, 2006

My approach would be 6 different kinds of pickles...
posted by baylink at 10:07 AM on December 20, 2006