Dairy and Gluten Free Cheeseboard | Blogmas Day 9

Since I no longer eat dairy there is one thing that I miss and that is cheese.  I used to love a cheeseboard at Christmas to snack on while watching festive films along with a bottle glass or two of wine.  Wensleydale & Cranberry cheese and Brie being a couple of my favourite kinds.  Now I need not miss out on a festive cheesey feast as Sainsbury’s have recently started stocking cheese in their free from range.  Yaaayyyy!! It is made from coconut oil rather than soya which is a plus for me as I don’t like soya products.  It even comes in different flavours including my favourite Wensleydale & Cranberry.  Yaaayyyy again!!  If you want to know how to make up a dairy and gluten free cheeseboard then read on to find out.

I was going to make this a vegan cheeseboard but could I find any biscuits that were suitable for vegans in the supermarkets? No! If they didn’t contain egg, they contained honey.  I did come across one type that were egg, dairy, gluten free and didn’t contain any honey.  They were the Angelic Cocktail Oatcakes that I picked up in my local shop.  The other crackers I used were date and walnut toasts from the Marks and Spencer’s Free From range.  These were both gluten and dairy free but it does contain egg.

Dairy And Gluten Free Cheeseboard

Now onto building the cheeseboard:

1. Get yourself a large surface like a wooden chopping board, slate or ceramic platter or even a marble serving tray.
2. Pick your cheeses.  Go for a few different varieties and textures if you are having a few guests.  Otherwise 2-3 types are enough for just the two of you.  Cut up some of the cheese into bite sized pieces and arrange on your surface.  Put the rest of the cheese block on there too so people can cut their own later on.
3. Add in the extras.  I took a couple of ramekins and filled one with green olives and the other with Red Onion Marmalade.  Sainsbury’s also do a good one so pick that up when you are in buying your cheese.  Other things you could use are chutneys, pickled onions, fresh nuts or if you eat meat you could add some charcuterie to the board as well.
4. Next place the crackers on the board.  Again a few different varieties and textures such as oatcakes, seeded crackers, crispbreads or toasts. You could also add in some fruits such as grapes, figs and apples or veg like celery and cucumber.
5. Decorate your board by filling in the gaps using fresh herbs, salad leaves, cranberries, pomegranate seeds or even edible flowers.

If you have small canapé plates then your guests could use them for their cheese and biscuits.  Otherwise napkins and cocktail sticks for sampling the cheese works just as well.  Plus it saves on the washing up as time is short at this time of the year.

If you know of any other dairy free cheese then comment below so I can try them out.  I can’t find grated cheese anywhere so if you know of any then holler in my direction as I’d love to get some. If you are looking for other dairy/gluten free Christmas goodies then check out my Free From Christmas post.