Thanksgiving Board with Sassool

Hi, friends! Hope you are loving November (aka the best month of 2020) as much as I am. With Thanksgiving coming up in a couple of weeks, I am looking forward to taking a few days off to spend time with my family. For this post, I partnered with Sassool to create a Mediterranean board that would be perfect for Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, or any other gathering. I am so happy with how it turned out!

If you are not familiar, Sassool is a local, family-owned Lebanese/Mediterranean restaurant, with locations in North Raleigh and Cary. Both locations have a market section where they carry specialty grocery items that you can’t find elsewhere in the area. They have a great selection of cheeses, olives, dried fruits, nuts–basically everything you would want for a cheese board!

For this board, I used a lot of goodies from their market section as well as some side items from their restaurant. I am listing all of the ingredients below, and pictured are the grocery items from the market section! What I used on the board is only a fraction of their offerings, and I strongly encourage you to check out Sassool’s market to explore all of the options!

FROM THE RESTAURANT

Hummus topped with Chickpea Salad – can we just talk about how good the Chickpea Salad smells?!

Beet Hummus – this is a gorgeous pink color!

Sweet Potato Salad – because fall! I Also delicious–I kid you not when I tell you Su ate half of this while we were putting the board together.

Beef and Chicken Kebabs – if you’re not a meat eater, you might want to put falafels instead!

Grape Leaves – another one of Su’s favorites!

Stuffed Dates – these are dessert-y and absolutely scrumptious.

Baklavas – we got the vegan ones, and they were delicious! They have chocolate baklavas I am definitely getting next time!

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FROM THE MARKET

Hand Braided String Cheese – how fun is this braided cheese? We got a flavored option, but they have traditional/unflavored kind as well.

Kashkaval Cheese – TBH my knowledge of Mediterranean cheeses was limited to feta, but I really enjoyed this one!

Feta Cheese – I had to include a feta. This was majorly devoured by Jiyoung.

Green Olives Stuffed with Peppers – for olive lovers! They have an extensive selection of olives to choose from.

Cornichons – another classic cheese board accoutrement!

Sesame Pita Bread – when we opened the bag, the sesame smell was gloriously pungent.

Garlic Pita Chips – I love adding crunchy carbs to any cheeseboard!

Dehydrated Papaya Spears – these are a vibrant shade of orange, and a fun change from candled orange slices I use typically. I’d say they are semi sweet.

Pistachios – they have so many nuts to choose from, but I went with pistachios because they’re a family favorite.

Peanut Crunch – to quote Alex, these were “sweet and savory and addicting.”

Cinnamon Sticks – the perfect seasonal element in my humble opinion!

I hope this blog post inspires you to create a Mediterranean board of your own. If you are still weary of putting it together, absolutely no worries! Sassool will have this board and a smaller size board (pictured above) available for ordering. You can email simone@sassool.com for Cary pickups and noelle@sassool.com for Raleigh pickups. The large board ($70) would be enough for ~12 people to snack on, and the small board ($40) would be enough for ~6 people to snack on!

I had so much fun planning and making this board (shoutout to Su’s Food News for her moral and physical support on this)! If you make a board of your own or order one from Sassool, I’d love to see a photo!