Stop Buying Those Expensive Veggie Trays For Potlucks — Do This Instead

There are some food-prep tasks that absolutely call for a professional, and then some we've just gotten used to the idea of paying someone else to do, when we easily could do them ourselves. Such is the case with veggie trays for gatherings like potlucks, which can cost a pretty penny at stores — but it's certainly possible to create your own and have plenty of food left over to keep your fridge's produce drawer stocked for days, saving money in the long run. 

You probably shouldn't attempt to create a lavish, tiered-and-towered spread for a 200-person event, but if you need to contribute a healthy snack for a small or medium-sized group of people, it's within your grasp from start to finish. You can and should skip the markup for store-bought veggie trays, because you truly do not need to pay a premium for someone else to peel a few carrots. If you can meal prep, you can batch cook, which is essentially all this is.

Cutting your own vegetables isn't a revolutionary proposal. A bag of whole carrots, a head of cauliflower, a few peppers, and some cucumbers don't cost very much. But once they're washed, trimmed, sliced, and arranged around a cup of ranch, the price jumps. This is because you are paying for someone else's time, labor, and expertise.  But, anyone with a knife and cutting board can figure out how to break down a broccoli; the basic idea is to take off the parts you can't eat, and make it bite-sized. If you want to get fancy, you can practice mastering different knife cuts, which can be fun.

Time and stress all have a cost, and sometimes it's worth paying. But a potluck isn't that time. Even enough victuals for a large gathering can usually be handled with a chunk of steady, strategic prep, especially if you approach it like a cool, calm, collected cook, not a fish-out-of-water, frazzled host trying to do everything at once.

The main things that take this could-be tedious task from overwhelming to well worth it are to set yourself up for success, and not to treat every vegetable like its own little project. Sharpen your knife, set out your cutting board and all your ingredients, and then think, "like with like." Wash everything together, trim all the carrot butts, then peel them, then slice them, and pop them into cold water so they don't oxidize. When you complete one category, move on to the cukes, the zukes, radishes, and so on. Keep a big scrap bowl near your cutting board to reduce trips to the compost or trash. 

Each motion is fast and frictionless when it's repeated. Put on a podcast, clear the counter, and get through it. This is how professional prep cooks organize their workflow to handle high volume. If you want to save a little bit of time, you can consider bags of pre-cut produce, but these tend to be pricier because they require more labor to prepare, and also pose serious health risks. 

Doing it yourself also allows for something the store-bought version can't: Your own artistic vision, quality, and creative control. You can pick the prettiest vegetables off the produce shelf and cut them right before serving. You can decide what's on the plate, how many of each, and if they're cut into thick spears or thin coins, or if you want to take the extra time to make all the carrots look like plum blossoms, or the radishes like roses.

Then there's the arrangement, which is half the fun and the reason those trays exist in the first place: To wow all your friends. A simple sunburst works every time, and there's nothing to it — just pick a centerpiece and fan the veg around it. But if you have the time and inclination, look up a few charcuterie board ideas and get wacky or whimsical with it. You could map out a whole landscape tableau, with cauliflower florets as clouds, broccoli trees, cucumber slices as stepping stones, and a little bowl of dip for a pond. Or try a panda face, or a flower, or geometric patterns! Your imagination and the size of your platter are your only limitations.