Make This Kitchen Garden Butter Board

You've probably seen the butter board trend on TikTok, but have you seen someone find all their toppings for the board inside their garden?

If you've got a garden, there are loads of things you can harvest to throw together a beautiful and delicious butter board that's sure to impress your friends, your kids, or yourself (no judgement if you want to eat the entire thing yourself).

This butter board could be a delicious treat for dinner, a get-together, or even a party. I made a board for my book launch last spring, and it was all anyone could talk about. Of all my garden-fresh treats, it's what my guests demolished first.

Here's how to harvest and put together your own garden-fresh butter board.

Garden-Fresh Butter Board Ideas

The best way to find toppings for your butter board is to take a pair of pruners and a bowl filled with water around your garden so you can harvest whatever delicious things you find. Here are some tasty additions for your butter board.

Herbs

My top two herbs for butter boards are chives and parsley (especially curly parsley, which adds a wonderful texture). You can also do basil, cilantro, dill, sage, mint, or rosemary, depending on the overall flavor profile you want for your board.

Edible Flowers

Edible flowers can make your butter board really pop with color. Some of my favorite options are calendula, lavender, pineapple sage, nasturtiums, snapdragons, pansies, and marigolds.

Many of your vegetables produce edible flowers you can use, as well. Spicy arugula flowers, for example, make a fun addition to a butter board and help you feel like you're eating a salad instead of drowning in bread and butter.

If you have any flowering chives, onions, or garlic, the flowers and seeds inside will add so much garlic or onion flavor to your butter board. For all my garlic butter lovers out there, you'll definitely want to toss some chive blossoms on your board.

Veggies

For a bit of crunch, grab some snap peas or beans. (You could even add flowers and pea shoots from your pea plants since they're what the French call mange toot, meaning you can eat it all.) I also like to add some French breakfast radishes for a little spice.

Your butter will be a little harder to scoop up if you add a lot of veggies, but it'll also feel more like a meal instead of just a snack. Veggies are delicious and nutritious, so here's where you make up for using pounds of butter. It's all about balance, right?

Garden-Fresh Butter Board Ingredients & Supplies

This recipe calls for two pounds of butter. (I know, I know. Don't tell your guests. Let them think it's healthy-ish.) You can always start with one stick or one pound if you're making a board for a smaller group.

Supplies

• Large serving board
• Scissors and/or herb scissors
• Harvesting bowl
• Zester

Ingredients

• Garden harvests, rinsed and dried
• 2 loaves French bread
• 2 sticks butter
• 2 teaspoons flaky salt
• 1 lemon for zesting

Step 1: Spread the Butter

Let your butter come to room temperature and then spread it over a clean serving board. Leave some room on the sides for the bread.

Think of this butter as the canvas, and everything you harvested from your garden is the palette. It's time to fill it in.

Step 2: Sprinkle Herbs

I like to start by adding all my green produce. If you're artistically inclined, you could try to do a landscape. Me, I just go for a wild and scattered look, and that actually guarantees all the different flavors are more spread out. My goal is for every herb to be present in each scoop.

If you have herb scissors, you can chop up your herbs right over the board. I cut my chives into thin slivers, but I do like to leave the parsley intact so that my board almost looks like a little garden itself. You do you. This is an art, not a science, obviously.

Step 3: Add Veggies

Place your veggies around the board. Make sure to slice radishes nice and thin. For peas or beans, you can add the entire pod or split them in half.

Step 4: Place Flowers

Here's where you'll really start feeling like Monet—adding flowers for color. You could put the whole flower on the board, but that might be a bit much to bight into. I recommend pulling off the petals and sprinkling them like salt and pepper on top.

Step 5: Sprinkle Salt & Lemon Zest

Finish your butter board off by sprinkling some flaky salt and lemon zest on top. It makes it super duper tasty. (Thanks to Justine Snacks for the citrus recommendation.)

Then all you have to do is slice or tear the bread into small pieces and place it around your butter board.

Now you have something so gorgeous and delicious, and all your guests have to do is grab their bread, dip it in, and have the most delicious garden-to-table experience.

Add Your Own Spin on This Butter Board Variation

There you have it! The garden version of a viral sensation. The cool thing is you only have to buy the butter and the bread, but you end up with this gourmet appetizer or treat that's just as beautiful as it is tasty. This is such a simple way to enjoy the garden this season.

If you want more ideas for incorporating the garden in your meals, grab my favorite cookbook, Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables, by Joshua McFadden (who actually came up with the whole butter board idea). Or check out my video on how to make garden smuice, the perfect hybrid of smoothie and juice.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go polish off my butter board.