What Are Crudites? ♥ Vegetables 101
How to Create a Colorful Instagram-Friendly Platter of Raw Vegetables


WHAT ARE CRUDITÉS?
THE SHORT ANSWER Crudités are fresh, colorful and usually raw vegetables, cut small for easy finger food and displayed attractively, often on a beautiful platter or interesting tray with a dip or two but also in individual cups at kids' birthday parties.


Crudités for Word Dancers
HOW TO PRONOUNCE CRUDITÉS? It's a fancy French word, [pronounced kroo-de-tay, kro͞odəˈtā].WHAT'S THE SINGULAR OF CRUDITÉS? The singular use is the same as the plural use. One crudités, two crudités. If you see the word "crudité" (without an s, attempting to create a singlular form), the spelling is in error, the word always ends with s, singular and plural both.
IS THERE A BETTER WORD for VEGGIE TRAYS? Not that I can think of! What do you use? What do you call those veggie trays??? We might be stuck with crudités.
Dip Ideas for Vegetable Crudites
If you run out of time, just mix some fresh herbs into ranch dressing, it'll be a hit! But if there's time, a homemade dip or spread will look pretty and appeal to people who just don't do veggies without a dip. Here are a few favorites!




HOW TO SERVE RAW VEGETABLES: COLORFUL INSTAGRAM-FRIENDLY PLATES, PLATTERS & TRAYS of CRUDITÉS
Hands-on time: allow plenty of time, it always takes longer than I think
Time to table: serve within a couple of hours of assembling
Serves 1 to many
Time to table: serve within a couple of hours of assembling
Serves 1 to many
Thinking Ahead




Oh! The Color! Choosing the Vegetables





Not So Fancy Knife Work: Cutting the Vegetables




Raw Veggies Plus ...



Olives (in small bowls)
A few toasted nuts, stick to the savory side such as Party Nuts with Fresh Rosemary
Hard-cooked egg halves, perhaps the sweet little mini quail eggs
Roasted chickpeas
Fresh herbs, in sprigs
Cheese straws
Good Crudités Vegetables by Color

Asparagus (choose thin to serve raw, discard the woody ends, to use thick asparagus, use Party Asparagus with Aioli)
Broccoli (the stalks are especially nice, and unexpected!)
Cauliflower (those beautiful heads of romanesco)
Celery
Cucumber (usually English or mini for their tender skins but if you've got good garden cucumbers, you can "stripe" the skins and remove the center seeds and then cut rings)
Green beans (make sure they're tender enough to eat raw)
Snow peas (ditto)
Sugar snap peas (ditto)
Zucchini

Bell peppers & mini peppers
Carrots (especially multi-colored carrots; do peel carrots but consider leaving an inch or so of stem; repeat this three times: no baby carrots, no baby carrots, no baby carrots!)
Radishes (especially good halved and spread with a little butter, then sprinkled with a bit of good salt)
Tomatoes, grape or other mini (leave bits of stem on!)
Yellow squash

Cauliflower
Daikon (its bit of bite is much appreciated)
Fennel
Hearts of palm (drained well)
Jicama (one of my very favorites, so crisp and wet)
Kohlrabi
Mushrooms

Cauliflower (those lovely purple heads!)
Beets (pickled, such as Refrigerator Pickled Beets, drained well and held in a bowl so the color won't stain other vegetables)
To Blanch or Not to Blanch

Broccolini
Corn (cut in rounds)
Edamame in the shells (be sure to include a special bowl for the inedible shells)
Okra
Potatoes (the mini ones, maybe halved)
Crudités Vegetables to Avoid
AvocadoBeets
Brussels sprouts
Butternut squash
Cabbage
Eggplant (shouldn't be served raw)
Green onions! (who wants onion breath?!)
Kale
Parsnips
Rutabaga
Spinach & other greens
Sweet potatoes
Tomatillo
Turnips
Winter squash
Still Hungry?
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CRUNCH-CRUNCH!
MORE FAVORITE VEGETABLES for CRUDITÉS PLATTERS
~ Thai-Style Celery & Peanut Butter ~~ Baba Ganoush (Middle Eastern Eggplant Spread) ~
~ Asparagus Tapenade ~
~ more crudités ideas ~
from A Veggie Venture
~ Cucumber Dip with Feta ~
~ Herbed Ricotta with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes ~
~ Easy Italian Appetizers ~
~ more appetizer recipes ~
from Kitchen Parade, my food column
Looking for healthy new ways to cook vegetables? A Veggie Venture is home to hundreds of super-organized quick, easy and healthful vegetable recipes and the famous asparagus-to-zucchini Alphabet of Vegetables. Join "veggie evangelist" Alanna Kellogg to explore the exciting world of common and not-so-common vegetables, seasonal to staples, savory to sweet, salads to sides, soups to supper, simple to special.
© Copyright Kitchen Parade 2018 & 2019
© Copyright Kitchen Parade 2018 & 2019
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Thank you for taking a moment to write! I read each and every comment, for each and every recipe, whether a current recipe or a long-ago favorite. If you have a specific question, it's nearly always answered quick-quick. ~ Alanna