Turkey Vegetable Platter
A Crunchy, Cute Delight
This Turkey Vegetable Platter will be the hit of your Thanksgiving gathering.
It is whimsical, easy to make, and most importantly SUPER affordable. This is a a great platter to offer to bring to your holiday celebration that won’t break your food budget.
It is a healthy appetizer, and who doesn’t love dunking anything and everything in ranch?
The full, printable recipe and steps for making this festive bird are linked at the end of this post. First, however, I want to walk you through a few tips and tricks.
The Carrots
It is important to cut your carrots from actual carrots and not use the baby carrots. The carrots need to be long to secure all the layers of the feathers in place!
They also need to be more block cut so that they do not roll around. Baby carrots are rounded so they will not be as secure and will shift. This will mess up your feather design.
Save Face
Make sure to save the base of your red bell pepper so that you will be able to use it for the turkey face. You will also need to save one piece of the yellow pepper for the gobbler and a carrot tip for the beak.
I show you how to assemble the face below.
Building Your Bird
The steps are outlined below in the full, printable recipe.
Be sure to use an upside down ramekin in the bowl before pouring in your ranch. This is so that the turkey face has a place to rest on.
I also use three toothpicks to act as legs for the face. This also allows you to secure the gobbler and the beak to the pepper face.
I used halloween eyes secured with cream cheese. You can also use cream cheese and black olives for the eyes.
Worst case scenario, the face falls into the ranch and you take it out and rinse it off.
Full, Printable Recipe Below
This printable recipe will have all you need for your veggie turkey. If you want tips for the real thing, check out my Thanksgiving Turkey post.
Turkey Vegetable Platter
This Turkey Vegetable Platter will be the hit of your Thanksgiving gathering. It is very easy to make after taking the time to cut your vegetables. The best part of this recipe is that it costs little to no money to make but is a super special appetizer to bring to your holiday party.
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 Large Carrots, Peeled
- 2 Seedless Cucumbers
- 1 Red Pepper
- 1 Yellow Pepper
- 1 Orange Pepper
- 1 Green Pepper (or any green veggie of your choice like pea pods, peppers or green beans)
- 1 Head of Cauliflower
- 2 Cups of Ranch Dressing
Instructions
This Turkey Vegetable Platter is very simple to make and is quite self explanatory from the picture but I will outline a few steps below to help facilitate the process.
- Peel and Slice your carrots into approximately 3 inch long pieces and about 1/2 inch wide. I used about 3 or 4 carrots to have enough to fill the large, round platter I used. Do not use baby carrots, you want the carrots to be more square cut so that they do not roll around when you're layering the other vegetables as the feathers. The baby carrots are rounded and will not hold the shape of the turkey as well as square cut carrots.
- Scrub your cucumbers but do not peel them, as the green and white color helps the turkey feathers to be more colorful. I cut the cucumbers into 1/2 inch rounds.
- Wash and slice your peppers, be sure to cut and save the bottom of your red pepper so that you can use that as your face for your turkey. Also save on slice of the yellow pepper and a tip of a carrot for the beak.
- Assemble the bird as shown in the pictures and in the steps above in this blog post.
- When it comes time to fill your bowl with ranch, I used a bowl that was approximately 6 inched wide and about 3 inches deep. In order to place the birds face on top of the ranch I place a small ramekin upside down in the bowl and the pour the dressing over it.
- To make your turkey face, I used two candy eyes I had leftover from halloween that I also ordered on Amazon, or you can use two dots of cream cheese with a cut black olive for a pupil.
- I then added two toothpicks to the back at the top to act as a brace for the face and then one in the center pushed through from the back far enough to attach the gobbler (yellow pepper) and the carrot (beak) These three toothpicks along with the upside down ramekin helped the face stay above the ranch line. I added the face and the ranch after I go to the party.
- You can also cut up all the veggies and transport them to the party and then design your bird. It takes about 10 minutes. This is also a fun activity to ask the kids for help with.