• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
    • Subscribe
  • Recipes
    • Easy Dinners
    • Dessert
    • Breakfast and Brunch
    • Thai
    • Gluten-free
    • Vegetarian

Inquiring Chef

menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Easy Dinners
  • About
  • Subscribe
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
  • ×

    Home > All Recipes

    How To Create a Festive Fall Cheese Board

    Published: Oct 19, 2016 · Modified: Apr 4, 2022 · by Jess Smith · · 1 Comment · This post may contain affiliate links.

    Fall Cheese Board on a wooden table
    festive fall cheese board
    Fall Harvest Cheese Board
    Fall Harvest Cheese Board
    Festive Fall Cheese Board

    Fall Harvest Cheese Board on a table

    Hi there friends. I wish you could all come over tonight to help us dive into this bounty of festive fall cheese board love. This time of year, this is my favorite way to entertain. Fill a board with flavorful cheeses, colorful seasonal sides, and a couple good bottles of wine and turn a regular old chilly fall night into a faux-fancy dinner party.

    Fall Harvest Cheese Board on a wooden table

    We're bringing you this post in partnership with our friends at Castello Cheese and Honest Cooking. Frank and I had so much fun creating a cheese board with these wonderful products last spring that we jumped at the chance to work with them again. (As always, all thoughts, opinions, and references to toddlers are entirely my own.)

    In my mind, when I envision a dinner party at our house it looks something like dinner at Downton Abbey. Candles and sparkly wine glasses and feisty conversation. And maybe if I had Mrs. Patmore flinging flour around in a cavernous basement kitchen (not to mention friends who wore ball gowns to dinner), that's the way it would be. But in reality, our style of entertaining usually involves tossing something in the slow-cooker while Molly and Clara shout that they want a bite / need to "help" / must have play dough.

    Fall Harvest Cheese Board on a wooden table

    But a beautiful festive fall cheese board helps keep things classy around here. And when we're putting it together, we go for a combination of savory, sweet, crunchy, and creamy.

    And wine.

    Of course.

    Savory

    Savory is the heart of a festive fall cheese board. I love a few salty olives and pickled peppers to add color and easy nibbles between bites of cheese. Castello's Extra Creamy Danish Blue Cheese is a savory / umami explosion that gives the board some variety. I could eat blue cheese every day and never get tired of it, but Frank is more easily sold on a crumbly, tangy cheese like aged Havarti. It has these tiny, tangy salt crystals that sort of pop when you crunch them.

    blue cheese and olives on a wooden tray

    Sweet

    A bit of sweetness really helps to bring out the flavors of the cheese. I love to assemble the perfect bite with a cracker + cheese + dollop of honey. Grapes and pears or other fall fruit add a sweet, fresh bite too. As does a spoonful of sweet and spicy red pepper jelly. We found candied walnuts in the produce section at our grocery store which were so good that they lasted all of two minutes after we finished the photo shoot of this board, but regular walnuts would be a great addition as well.

    honey in a small white bowl

    Crunchy

    Lesley Stowe Raincoast Crisp crackers are the crunch on this particular board. Packed with fresh ingredients like figs, apricots and all sorts of nuts, these crackers would help make just about any cheese board a happy place for eyes and taste buds.

    Lesley Stowe Raincoast Crisp Crackers on a wooden table

    Creamy

    For a bit of creaminess to top the crackers, we loved a creamy Havarti which gets delightfully soft at room temperature and a quarter pound of prosciutto sliced so super thin that you can see through it. I tell my grocery store's butcher that to slice it as thin as possible and it becomes so creamy and tender that it nearly melts like butter when you bite into it.

    cheese, nuts, olives and red pepper jelly on a wooden tray

    Pile all those items on a board or platter or regular old dinner plate, and it's sure to be a hit. We served ours with Folie à Deux Wines. We tend to gravitate towards the rich reds like Cabernets in cooler weather, but we usually set out a white as well.

    2 bottles of red wine on a wooden table

    Cheers to happy, easy fall entertaining! Enjoy!

     

     

    Related

    « Caramel Apple Pie Baked Apples
    Puff Pastry Bites with Caramelized Onions and Gouda »

    About Jess

    Hi! I'm Jess. I am the recipe creator and photographer behind the 900+ recipes you’ll find on Inquiring Chef. As a mom to three young kids and professional cook, my mission is to make every moment in the kitchen and around the table count. If you’re looking for easy, flavorful, family-approved recipes, you’ve come to the right place! Learn more about me here.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Sabrina B

      October 21, 2016 at 5:19 pm

      this looks great, thanks for this spicy jelly recipe and cheese board suggestions, nice photos too!

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter

    Welcome! We're Jess and Frank. Since 2010, we have been serving up easy, original recipes here on Inquiring Chef.

    More about us →

    Latest Recipes

    • Cashew Cream Sauce
    • Vegetable and Rice Stuffed Peppers
    • Lasagna Bolognese
    • Falafel Sandwich

    Trending Recipes

    • Crispy and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
    • Honey Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry
    • Mason Jar Overnight Oats
    • Beef and Broccoli Ramen Stir-Fry

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Sign Up! for emails and updates
    • Follow us on Instagram and Pinterest

    Contact

    • Email Us

    Copyright © 2023 Inquiring Chef