Let's make the best smoked salmon brunch ever! A brunch charcuterie board with everything you need to build delicious bites: toasty bagels, pickled red onion, scallion cream cheese, and all your fave pickles, veggies, and crackers! This is a barely-cook breakfast or brunch that is so impressive but seriously easy. I love this year round, but it's especially fun as an Easter charcuterie board idea.
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Ok YES, let's take the ever-popular charcuterie board and turn it into our breakfast or brunch situation!
Smoked salmon is such a delicious ingredient that is really more than the sum of its parts, and can be put with TONS of other ingredients for snacking or breakfast-ing without much effort at all.
In this grazing board, I make a few things (the scallion cream cheese and pickled red onions), but other than that everything is storebought and arranged on a board to look perfect and gorgeous BUT OH WAIT it's not even a board, it's a sheet pan.
Trust. You can do this.
Ingredients
Here are some notes on the ingredients I used in this specific board. It's REALLY customizeable, though, so feel free to use whatever you like, leave out things you don't, add some bacon (candied bacon! yes!) or fruit or ANYTHING your heart desires.
- Packaged smoked salmon: I usually plan on 1 ounce of salmon per 1 whole bagel. I find that even salmon lovers have some smoked salmon and then move onto other things. Get more, though, if you have "omg this is my favorite food ever" guests joining you!
- Pickled Stuff: capers, olives, pickles of any kind
- Red Onion: we're going to pickle some quickly with the lemon AND serve some plain and finely chopped. One ingredient multiple ways = efficient.
- Plain Bagels: I go plain so that you can also put out butter and jelly for a sweet option, but onion bagels, everything bagels, and sesame bagels are all really good with smoked salmon.
- Scallion Cream Cheese: make your own, or buy some if you prefer!
See the recipe card below for full ingredient list and quantities.
First: A Little Bit of Prep
- The prep is a lot of chopping, and the only real thing to note is the red onions, which we use in 2 ways. Small-dice about ¼ of the onion, and thinly slice the other ¼. To the sliced onions, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon sugar. Boom, quick-pickled onions! Let them sit while you prep the rest of the board.
- For the bagels, I like a little bit of fancy treatment to amp up store-bought plain bagels. Quarter the bagels for smaller, easier-to-eat sections, and butter each piece of bagel (with salted butter! always salted butter!). Then, lightly broil the bagels until they're just slightly toasty. They won't be warm by the time you serve, but the buttered, toasted effect goes a long way!
How to Build a Charcuterie Board
- Once all the ingredients for the smoked salmon charcuterie board are prepped, it's time to build our board! I use a sheet pan because it's easy to move around - less risk of things falling off the edge. Start with your main and largest components - in this case, the smoked salmon and the scallion cream cheese.
- Then, start to fill in the board with anything in dishes or ramekins (pickles, onions) that you don't want to make anything soggy, and anything larger such as the bagels.
- Last, fill in any empty spaces on the board with small things, garnishes, and extra herbs tucked into any bare spots on the board. Fruits, veggies, crackers, lemon slices, and herbs like fresh dill are the last things to fill out the board.
- Then we serve! I like to sprinkle everything seasoning on the smoked salmon and cream cheese right before serving - you can also leave it out for people to use on their bagels.
Pro Tips and FAQ
I like any mild, creamy cheese with smoked salmon - goat cheese, mascarpone, and cream cheese are all lovely as part of a smoked salmon brunch situation.
-ish! I like to assemble boards within an hour of serving them; they don't keep super well in the fridge because anything bready or carby will change textures. That said, you can make the cream cheese in advance and wash and cut up all veggies, plus make the pickled onions. Then, all you have to do is put everything together last minute on your serving board!
What Else to Serve at a Smoked Salmon Brunch
I like this smoked salmon board alone with a few fun drinks and any fruit or veggies you have set out, buffet-style.
You can also make this a larger brunch by making some Cajun bacon, a ham and cheese quiche, a quick green salad, and a loaf of Dutch oven no-knead bread if you're feeling like a larger spread.
Enjoy this one - the completed board is so lovely to look at and munch from, and the fresh herbs + bright salmon are lovely for spring (or anytime, I love this most for Mother's Day, Easter Brunch, and Christmas breakfast!) and this is a delight to make without a ton of effort. I hope you love it!
Other Easy Brunch Recipes
Recipe
Smoked Salmon Charcuterie Board
Equipment
Ingredients
Mandatory Ingredients
- 6 ounces sliced smoked salmon (see note)
- 6 bagels plain or Everything
- 1 cup scallion cream cheese (homemade or storebought)
- ½ red onion
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- crackers, pickles, and veggies, see list below
- everything bagel seasoning
Optional Ingredients
- cornichons, olives, capers
- sliced apples or other fruit
- sliced cucumbers and any crunchy veggies
- crackers and pita bread
- lemon slices and fresh herbs
- jelly and softened butter for a sweet bagel option
Instructions
- Prep the onions: Finely chop ¼ of the onion and place it in a small bowl. Thinly slice the other ¼ of the onion (using ½ onion total for this board) and place it in a separate bowl with the lemon juice, salt, and sugar. Stir to combine and let the onions pickle slightly while you build the rest of the board.
- Do some more prep: Butter and lightly toast the bagels, slice any veggies you're using, and place pickly things in small bowls to avoid making anything soggy.
- Build your charcuterie board: Arrange small piles of smoked salmon sprinkled with everything seasoning and anything you have in dishes (Cream cheese, pickles, onions) on a large baking sheet or serving platter. Add the bagels, then fill in any empty spots with veggies, fruits, and crackers. Finish the board by filling in remaining gaps with fresh herbs and lemon slices until you can't see any of the serving vessel. Accept praise for your gorgeous brunch presentation. Enjoy!
Notes
I originally posted about this smoked salmon brunch charcuterie board in September 2012 after we took the ingredients on a trip and built one with some friends in the mountains. It remains one of our favorite brunches to throw together!
Love a good smoked salmon brunch board. What a fun idea!
This is going to be perfect for Easter brunch! You've included verything I love to serve with smoked salmon---it will be a huge hit with my family.
I love all the flavors here. They work so well together. So perfect for a party!