The quick answer: a grazing platter is a spread of small, ready-to-eat food that everyone picks from. Start with cheese, add crackers and something salty like twiggy sticks or cabana, fill the gaps with cut fruit and vegies, and put a dip in the middle. Below are 8 easy grazing platter ideas, what to put on them, and how to make a mini grazing platter you can take to a picnic, party or the park.
I'm Deanna, one of the two sisters behind Spixal. Platters are how our family eats on weekends, at picnics and at birthday parties. We lay everything out as a spread, cut up and ready to eat, and everyone helps themselves. Even my teenager eats a bit of everything when it's on a platter.
How to Build a Grazing Platter
- Start with the dip. Put a small bowl of dip in the centre. Everything else builds around it.
- Add the cheese. Cubed cheese is easiest for kids and for picnics. Add a wedge or two of something nicer for the grown-ups.
- Add something salty. Twiggy sticks, sliced cabana or salami.
- Add the crunch. Crackers, pretzels and rice crackers. Keep them away from wet food so they stay crisp.
- Add colour. Cut fruit and vegies like mini tomatoes, celery and carrot sticks, grapes and strawberries.
- Fill the gaps. Sultanas, dried apricots or a few sweet treats.
The trick is keeping everything in its own space. On a board, that means little piles. In a Roundie snackle box, it means six compartments around a centre dip container, so nothing touches and nothing goes soggy.
What to Put on a Grazing Platter
- Cheese: cubed cheddar, colby or tasty, brie, camembert, cheese sticks.
- Salty bits: twiggy sticks, sliced cabana, salami, ham.
- Crackers: Sakata rice crackers, water crackers, pretzels, grissini.
- Vegies: mini tomatoes, celery, carrot and cucumber sticks, snow peas.
- Fruit: grapes, strawberries, watermelon, apple slices, orange wedges.
- Dips: hummus, tzatziki, French onion, guacamole, salsa.
- Fillers: sultanas, dried apricots, olives, nuts for grown-up only platters.
- Something sweet: choc chip cookies, Oreos, chocolate frogs.
8 Easy Grazing Platter Ideas
1. Our Picky Cheese Platter
This is the one that comes to every family picnic, packed in the Roundie. What goes in depends on what's in season, but our regulars are cubed cheese, mini tomatoes, twiggy sticks, sliced cabana, celery sticks, pretzels and Sakata rice crackers, with a dip in the centre container. Our picnic food ideas show how we pack it with the rest of a family picnic.
2. The Fruit Platter
We always pack a cut fruit platter alongside the cheese one. Watermelon, grapes, strawberries and orange wedges. We pack ours in the Core stainless steel bento so it stays cold and nothing gets squashed. At parties it's the healthy add-on parents are happy to see.
3. The Sweet and Savoury Kids Platter
A mum friend uses her Roundie as a snackle box platter whenever she takes her kids to the park. Because it has six compartments, she mixes sweet and savoury without anything touching: sliced cucumber, mini tomatoes, apple slices, sultanas, carrot sticks, Oreos and choc chip cookies. Her kids love it every time.
4. The Lolly Platter
For birthday parties, we fill the Roundie with a kid favourite in each compartment: lolly snakes, chocolate frogs, banana lollies, sour straps, M&Ms, Haribo bears and Stix. It goes on the lolly table, and the lid goes back on afterwards to keep the leftovers fresh. More party ideas are in our kids party food ideas.
5. The Mexican Platter
Another mum friend did a Mexican themed picnic. She reconfigured the Roundie with guacamole in one section, salsa in another and corn chips in a bigger section. Her family loved it. Add cheese cubes, cherry tomatoes and capsicum strips to round it out.
6. The Vegie and Dip Platter
Carrot, cucumber, celery and capsicum sticks, snow peas and mini tomatoes around a big bowl of hummus or tzatziki. Easy, colourful and good for a hot day.
7. The Beach Platter
For the beach, keep it cold and sealed: cheese cubes, crackers, watermelon sticks and frozen grapes, packed in containers with lids to keep the sand out. See my sister Maggie's beach picnic ideas for more.
8. The Christmas Platter
Cheese, ham, cherries, mango, strawberries and a few chocolates. Keep it in a cooler bag until it's time to eat if you're celebrating outdoors.
Mini Grazing Platters You Can Take Anywhere
A big board looks great at home, but it doesn't travel. For picnics, park play dates and parties, a mini grazing platter in a container with a lid is much easier. The Roundie holds 1180ml, with six removable compartments around a centre dip container and a 3-clip lid, so you can pack it at home, carry it in a cooler bag and open it on the picnic rug as a ready-made platter.
- One per person or one to share. For kids, one each stops the arguments. For grown-ups, one in the middle works well.
- Keep dips in the centre container. The compartments are removable, so wet food can move between sections. The centre container has its own lid.
- Keep it cold. Carry it in a leakproof cooler bag with ice, especially on hot days.
Grazing Platter Tips for Kids
- Cut grapes and cherry tomatoes lengthways for little ones.
- Ask other parents about allergies before you share a platter, and keep nuts off any platter for kids.
- Mix in a few sweet things with the savoury. Kids go back to the fruit once the treats are gone.
How Much Food for a Grazing Platter?
The same rule we use for kids parties works here. Think about how much one person eats in a sitting, then multiply by the number of people. A platter is usually a snack or a light meal, so it doesn't need to be a full lunch each.
Grazing Platter FAQs
What do you put on a grazing platter?
Cheese, something salty like twiggy sticks or cabana, crackers, cut fruit and vegies, a dip in the middle and a few sweet fillers like sultanas or cookies.
How do you make a grazing platter for kids?
Use cubed cheese, crackers, mini tomatoes, carrot and cucumber sticks, fruit and a few treats, each in its own section so nothing touches. A snackle box like the Roundie makes it easy to pack and carry.
How do you take a grazing platter to a picnic?
Pack it in a container with a lid, like the Roundie snackle box, and carry it in a cooler bag with ice. Open it on the picnic rug as a ready-made platter.
How do you keep crackers from going soggy on a platter?
Keep crackers in their own compartment, away from fruit, tomatoes and dips, and add them close to serving time.
Less chaos, more calm.