There’s no need to choose between flowers and lunch! If you’re celebrating Mother’s Day, a birthday, or even a baby or bridal shower, give the honoree both, with this Crudité Bouquet. It’s a fun way to serve vegetables, whether it’s a salad lunch, or appetizers for a dinner party.
And if you have vegetables in your crisper, you can take what’s in your fridge and turn it into a spectacular salad also doubles as decor. It’s like having a centerpiece at every plate!
All it takes is a little forethought in slicing veggies and arranging them on a plate, and you’ve got a Crudité Bouquet that’s as gorgeous as it is healthy. Have fun turning vegetables into flowers! You can cut the vegetables with a knife, slice cherry tomatoes or other circular fruits and arrange them as petals, or use cookie cutters on some—like sliced peppers—if you have those on hand. (Older kids can help with some of the cutting—and the final product is so fun to look at, it might inspire kids of all ages to eat their vegetables!)
Once you’ve arranged your Crudite Bouquet, print out our downloadable banner calligraphed with Happy Mother’s Day, or choose the blank version to write in Happy Birthday, Love in Bloom, or whatever other greeting you like. You can fill in the border with gold paint pen or any other color you like, or print it on colored paper. (To make this extra-personal for grandma, have your kid write in Happy Mother’s Day!) Or, for an extra-special lunch or celebratory dinner, set a Crudité Bouquet at every plate and use the labels as placecards.
This bouquet is made of yellow and red cherry tomatoes, beets, yellow and orange peppers, cucumbers, broccoli florets, green beans, and greens including basil and arugula. But you can sub in your favorite fruits and veg! Serve this delicious display alongside sauces or dips (ranch, hummus, whatever you like). Don’t forget to let everyone know that this time, you DO eat the daisies!
If you want to serve Mom edible “flowers” at breakfast, too, try a Morning Glory Yogurt Bowl, or, if you’re hosting a Mother’s Day lunch, make our Mini Heart-Shaped Cheese Boards with “flowers” made of cheese and charcuterie.
What You’ll Need
- Greens! We used sorrel, basil, thyme, and chives
- Cherry tomatoes; we used both yellow and red
- Cucumber
- Green beans
- Small radishes
- Broccoli florets
- Red, yellow, and orange bell peppers
- A sharp knife
- Cookie Cutter (optional)
- Downloadable Crudité Bouquet label
- Scissors
- Pen (optional)
How – To
Step 1: Cut the vegetables into desired shapes. For cherry tomatoes and small radishes, that simply means slicing them into rounds that serve as petals. For larger vegetables, like peppers, you might want to use a round cookie cutter to shape a blossom. Or, simply cut them into flower heads, like the beets we shaped into tulips by cutting them round at the bottom and slicing peaks into the top.
Step 2: Arrange the vegetables and greens into a “bouquet” on a plate, with anything stem-shaped (like chives or asparagus) under veggie “blossoms.” Create multi-petal flowers by overlapping sliced cherry tomatoes, radishes, or cucumbers, and placing a different round slice in the middle.
Step 3: Optional: To make a radish rose, roll thin, round slices of radish, folded in half, into cones, then spread out the rounded edges into “petals” of roses.
Step 4: Optional: Download our printable Crudité Blossom label, print, and cut out. Write a greeting or name, place it on the bouquet, and you’re ready to say it with “flowers.”
