Tessellation Triangle Appetizer Board (Printable)

An artistic board with cheeses, veggies, and fruits arranged in perfect tessellated triangles.

# What you'll need:

→ Cheeses

01 - 3.5 oz aged cheddar, sliced into triangles
02 - 3.5 oz Manchego, sliced into triangles
03 - 3.5 oz goat cheese, chilled and cut into triangles

→ Vegetables

04 - 1 medium cucumber, peeled and sliced into thin triangles
05 - 1 large red bell pepper, seeded and cut into triangles
06 - 1 small cooked beet, sliced into very thin triangles

→ Fruits

07 - 1 large pear, cored and sliced into thin triangles
08 - ½ cup seedless watermelon, cut into small triangles

→ Accompaniments

09 - 3.5 oz whole grain crackers, cut if needed into triangles
10 - ¼ cup roasted almonds
11 - ¼ cup pomegranate seeds for garnish

→ Optional

12 - 2 tbsp honey for drizzling
13 - Fresh thyme or mint for garnish

# Method:

01 - Arrange a clean, large wooden board or platter to use as your canvas.
02 - Slice all cheeses, vegetables, fruits, and crackers into similarly sized triangles to facilitate tessellation.
03 - Begin at one corner of the board, alternating colors and textures while positioning triangles tightly together to form a seamless interlocking pattern.
04 - Fill any small gaps in the pattern with pomegranate seeds and roasted almonds.
05 - Lightly drizzle honey over goat cheese triangles if desired, garnish with fresh herbs, and serve immediately.

# Expert Advice:

01 -
  • It's a conversation starter—guests will actually pause to photograph it before eating, which means you've already won the entertaining game
  • No cooking required means you can spend time with your guests instead of sweating in the kitchen
  • The geometric arrangement somehow makes everything taste more intentional and delicious, even though you're just combining beautiful ingredients
  • It works for any dietary need since you're simply arranging whole foods
02 -
  • Uniformity is everything—if your triangles vary wildly in size, the tessellation falls apart visually and gaps become impossible to fill gracefully
  • Prep every single ingredient before you start arranging, because once you begin, stopping to slice more cheese breaks your momentum and the pattern
  • The board will naturally separate slightly as people eat from it, so don't arrange it more than an hour before serving—the geometry holds better when fresh
  • A mandoline slicer is genuinely worth using here because hand-sliced vegetables won't be thin enough for tight tessellation, no matter how sharp your knife
03 -
  • Keep all soft cheeses and fruits chilled until the last possible moment—they hold their shape better and make for crisper, more defined triangles that tessellate beautifully
  • Use a sharp knife or mandoline slicer at a consistent angle to create triangles that are actually identical in size; even a few degrees of variation compounds across 50+ pieces and creates visible gaps
  • Arrange your board no more than 30 minutes before serving because certain fruits begin to oxidize and soften, making the pattern less crisp visually
  • If you're nervous about the arrangement, sketch a quick color pattern on paper first—it takes two minutes and gives you a roadmap so you're not improvising in the moment
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