Smoked Salmon Bagel Brunch Board

Are you looking for a seemingly fancy, but low maintenance, brunch or breakfast to wow a crowd? Look no further than this smoked salmon bagel brunch board!

Inspired by the classic smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel – a noble stead in the world of bagel toppings – this platter heroes a zesty lemon-dill cream cheese. Requiring just a few minutes to whizz up, it makes for one seriously tasty, yet simple, bagel spread.

With everyone grabbing a bagel and topping as they see fit, bagel boards are a relaxed, fun and flexible way to eat. Like other platter ideas, there are no real rules too. Simply adapt ingredient quantity based on the number of mouths to feed or dietary preferences.

Ingredients Needed

• Bagels need no introduction. These doughnut lookalikes are revered for their shiny, crisp crust and dense, chewy interior. Pick your favourite brand or make – I aim to cater a bagel per person.
• Cream cheese. A soft, mild-tasting fresh cheese made with milk and cream. If you can, opt for a spreadable cream cheese. The consistency is easy to beat with a hand mixer.
• Cold-smoked salmon. A type of smoked salmon that’s salt cured then smoked away from heat. It’s typically sold pre-packed and sliced very thinly. Aim for around 50g per person as a standard serve.
• Fresh produce and herbs. Lemon and fresh dill are the stars of your bagel spread, while tomatoes, cucumber and red onion work well as bagel toppers. Feel free to bring in peppery rocket or thinly sliced radishes too!
• Flavour bombs aka seasonings. Add small bowls of sea salt, pepper, chilli flakes and capers to amplify flavour.

Tools of the Trade

You’ll need a few kitchen serving items to build your brunch board:

• Start with a base. Grab a wooden or marble platter, a serving tray or a few large plates. You could even just place down baking aka parchment paper, or brown kraft paper, and build directly on that🤙.
• Top with a few small bowls or containers to house and seperate out dips and seasonings. Nothing needs to match – an eccentric collection is fun.
• Add a couple of cheese knives or forks to spread the spread and help load toppings onto bagel.

Nutrition Information

A loaded bagel here ticks off each food group with carbohydrate-rich bagels, protein-rich salmon, fat-rich cream cheese and colourful produce.

In addition, salmon, like other oily fish, is an excellent source of omega-3. This is a crucial type of dietary fat – our body can’t make it from scratch, so we have to get it through foods we eat.

Omega-3 is quite the bodily allrounder. It’s anti-inflammatory(1) and plays a critical role in the maintenance of day-to-day brain health (2)(3) and general heart health(4).

Thanks for reading! After more platter inspiration? Head to my guide on how to build a healthy platter.