How To Make an Edible Gourmet Bouquet Centerpiece

I remember my sister and I helping our Mom to prepare for holiday family gatherings. I was often in charge of the relish tray and I usually made an arrangement of pickles and olives on a nice glass tray. Not very original or interesting.

Then one Christmas we decided to do something fun. One of us probably read about it in some magazine. We got a styrofoam cone, covered it with red foil, rounded up some toothpicks and we were in business. Our red cone was soon beautifully festooned with garlands of green olives, black olives, baby gherkins, cheese cubes and cherry tomatoes. It was a thing of beauty! I was hooked.

After a while I graduated to watermelons and I made a lovely watermelon basket filled with balls of cantaloupe, watermelon, and honeydew. Beautiful! I took this to my son's Little League potluck. OK, maybe it was over the top for the occasion, but I had fun making it and the kids liked it!

You can also add grapes, pitted cherries or blueberries to your edible centerpiece.

Fancy tools aren't absolutely necessary but they do make some tasks easier and they can add a special touch to your finished creation.

You will need:

A small head of cabbage, red or green
Decorative lettuce with ruffled edges
One bunch of parsley
Cherry tomatoes, one package
One bunch of celery
Olives, green and/or black
Broccoli florets
Cauliflower florets
Baby corn, one can
Pepperoncinis
Baby pickles, gherkin or dill
Cheese, such as cheddar, jack, colby jack
One bunch of radishes
Baby carrots or regular carrots
Mini peanut butter cups

This list is only a guide. Try for different colors and textures and go for things that you like. Feel free to substitute anything that you might rather have. There's no reason why you can't use fruit too. Grapes, kiwi wedges and pineapple chunks come to mind. Be adventurous!

Ranch dressing or other vegetable dip of your choice

Toothpicks
Wooden barbecue skewers
A tray or large plate

Go Shopping! Look around the produce section and the canned goods to get inspiration for something you might want to include. Don't forget to take your reusable shopping bag!

Get your apron on and let's get down to business!

First you'll want to wash all the vegetables.

Next we'll do some of the simpler garnishes. It will be much easier if your knife is very sharp. You can do these the day before and leave them in water in the fridge over night. They need time to blossom.

In this bouquet I have cut celery into small sticks and then fanned one end. You just make thin slices into the end of the celery stick. Put these in cold water and the cut parts will fan out.

Clean the radishes and then make fans or roses. To make a radish fan just thinly and evenly slice the radish but not all the way through. Again, put it in cold water so it will fan.

To make a simple radish rose make one or more thin slices down each of four sides. Cold water will make it bloom.

If you use regular size carrots clean them and slice into sticks or coins. Baby carrots can be used as is.

If you are using cheese this is best left until just before serving as it will dry out otherwise. At that time you can cut it into shapes with a knife or with a fancy canape or vegetable cutter.

There are many good books on garnishing if you want more detailed instructions on how to make fancy garnishes.

How to Assemble your Gourmet Bouquet

Cut off the core end of the cabbage to make it flat so it will not rock around as you work with it. This is the base for your design.

Line your plate or tray with the decorative lettuce, ruffles to the outside.

Place the cabbage on the plate.

Work with one item at a time. Let's start with the cherry tomatoes. Insert a toothpick into a tomato and then insert the pick into the cabbage. Keep doing this until you have as many tomatoes as you want. They should be somewhat evenly spaced. Do this with each item until your bouquet is nice and full.

Using a mixture of skewers and toothpicks will give your bouquet depth. You probably will want to cut the skewers in half so you don't have a leggy look with skewers showing. You just want them a little longer than the toothpicks.

In addition to vegetables I sometimes use candy. Choose individually wrapped items such as mini peanut butter cups. Remember what ever you use, you need to be able to push a toothpick into it.

When you are finished and if you have big spaces between items, fill those with parsley. Just tuck it down in there. This is called "covering your work". You want people to see the beautiful colorful veggies, not the toothpicks.

You're done! Make this beautiful gourmet bouquet, along with a dish of veggie dip, the centerpiece at your next gathering. I guarantee it will be well received.

OK, confession time here. I once took an edible vegetable bouquet to an end of the season Little League party. I guess this recurring theme is a commentary on our social life. ;-)
Anyway, kids and parents enjoyed it.

Photographic Print

Title: Still Life with Vegetables and Flowers
Artist: Rita Bellmann
Type: Photographic Print
Size: 24 x 18 in
Item #: 3291687

Our Price: $39.99
Buy at AllPosters.com

Framed   Mounted

Here is another idea for a cabbage center piece from a 1919 cook book.

A CABBAGE CENTERPIECE.

Take a head of cabbage, one that has been picked too late is best, for the leaves open better then, and are apt to be slightly curled. Lay the cabbage on a flat plate and press the leaves down and open with your hand, firmly but gently, so as not to break them off. When they all lie out flat, stab the firm, yellow heart through several times with a sharp knife, until its outlines are lost and then place flowers at random all over the cabbage.

Roses are prettiest, but any flower which has a firm, stiff stem, capable of holding the blossom upright will do. Press the stems down through the leaves and put in sufficient green to vary prettily. The outer leaves of the cabbage, the only ones to be seen when the flowers are in, form a charming background, far prettier than any basket.

Roses are best for all seasons, but autumn offers some charming variations. The brilliant scarlet berries of the mountain ash or red thorn mingled with the deep, rich green of feathery asparagus, make a delicious color symphony most appropriate to the season.

Title: Cabbage Kids
Artist: Anne Geddes
Type: Art Print
Size: 32 x 24 in
This fine art print is produced on Forest Stewardship Council certified paper, using post-consumer and sustainably sourced paper, and soy-based inks.
Buy at AllPosters.com

Framed   Mounted

Photographic Print

Title: Still Life with Flowers, Herbs and Vegetables
Artist: Rita Bellmann
Type: Photographic Print
Size: 24 x 18 in
Beautiful red poppes, garlic and herbs.

Buy at AllPosters.com

Gourmet Bouquet

This was the first book I bought on making edible vegetable arrangements. Lots of good ideas here!