Thanksgiving Turkey Veggie Tray
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Published Nov 21, 2018, Updated Nov 07, 2023
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Need a healthy app to snack on before your Thanksgiving feast? Make a Thanksgiving themed turkey veggie tray. It’s super easy to whip up, healthy and so cute!
Over the years I’ve come to realize that every party needs a veggie tray and it’s sort of becoming my go-to dish. Not only do veggie trays provide a super healthy option to snack on while mingling, but they’re also really fun to make – especially when you create themed veggie trays for different holidays. A few years ago I made a Christmas tree veggie tray that was a huge hit so this year I decided to try my hand at making a Thanksgiving veggie tray.
I mean if a turkey sitting in guac isn’t the cutest Thanksgiving dish you’ve ever seen, I don’t know what is!
I have to give a little shout-out to Maria because she totally took the lead on this one and came up with a fun design for the feathers. She’s a bit more crafty/artsy than me which I so appreciate.
I served this for a Friendsgiving party we had at our house and everyone thought it was so cute. The only trouble is that no one was eating it because they didn’t want to mess it up. Be aware that this might happen if you make a themed tray. My advice… be the first one to load your plate up with veggies. Once one person dives in everyone else will follow.
Here’s What You Need
- broccoli – 1 to 2 crowns of broccoli is more than enough!
- endive – looks like lettuce and will hold its shape when using it to scoop dip.
- mini cucumbers – one pacakage of mini cucumbers is plenty.
- mini sweet bell peppers – you’ll use these to make the arms, legs and face of the veggie turkey.
- carrot chips – pick up some carrots and slice into chips yourself or make this an easy dish to put together and get pre-cut carrot chips.
- cherry tomatoes – just a few, but you can always add more if you like them.
- jicama – you can get 1 jicama or buy pre-cut jicama sticks.
- greek yogurt – you need the smallest amount to hold the eyes to the turkeys “face.”
- peppercorns – for the eyes!
- guacamole or hummus – I used Wholly Guacamole for this tray which made the prep extra easy. No need to make homemade guac but if you want to go above and beyond try my healthy guacamole recipe.
You’ll also want to use a round veggie tray. It’s is best for the configuration of the turkey. I got mine from Target and love it.
How to Assemble a Thanksgiving Veggie Tray
First, put your dip of choice in a small bowl near the bottom of the tray, like seen above.
Next, riffle through the bag of mini bell peppers and pick out the best-looking yellow pepper to use for the face. Find another yellow one for the wings, an orange pepper to use for the legs and beak, and a red pepper to use for the snood.
Start placing the feathers around the edge of your platter. We did a pattern of 1 endive leaf (with a mini bell pepper underneath to prop it up and two broccoli florets. Start filling in under the broccoli with cucumber slices. Add a small slice of yellow bell pepper to the center of each endive leaf. Then add a cherry tomato at the bottom of each leaf. Add another layer of carrot chips and cucumber slices.
Arrange the jicama sticks along the bottom half of the tray.
Now, assemble your turkey. Chop off the top of the yellow mini bell pepper, empty the seeds out and place it upside down at the top of the bowl. Add the wings using half slices of another yellow bell pepper. To make the eyes we filled a plastic baggie with a couple of teaspoons of greek yogurt, cut off the tip and used it to pipe two dots of yogurt onto the head of the turkey. We then situated two peppercorns in the middle of the yogurt dots. We were able to just sit the mini bell pepper beak and snood on the head and they stayed in place on their own. For the legs, grab an orange bell pepper and cut out two legs with little toes.
tip! If you're using guacamole, add it to the dip bowl last, right before serving, so that the guac doesn't get brown on you.
Dip Variations
I used guacamole but you can serve any hearty dip you like! Hummus is a great option:
Need More Holiday Appetizer Inspiration?
- Stuffed Dates
- Sweet Potato Bites
- Everything Bagel Dip with Almond Flour Crackers
- Zucchini Pizza Bites
- Hummus Deviled Eggs
- Thanksgiving Salad
Thanksgiving Veggie Tray
Ingredients
- 1-2 crowns broccoli
- 2 heads endive
- 1 package mini cucumbers
- 1 bag tri-color mini sweet bell peppers
- 1 bag carrot chips
- 1 package cherry tomatoes
- 1 jicama or package of jicama sticks
- 1 teaspoon greek yogurt
- 2 peppercorns
- guacamole or hummus, a thick dip works best
- round tray or platter
Instructions
- Put the dip in a small bowl near the bottom of the tray. This will be the body of your turkey. If you’re using guacamole do this step last/right before serving so that the guac doesn’t get brown on you.
- Before making the veggie tray go through the bag of mini bell peppers and find a good yellow pepper to use for the face. Find another one for the wings, one orange pepper that you can use to cut out the legs and the beak and a red one you can use to cut the red snood.
- Start placing the feathers around the edge of your platter. We did a pattern of 1 endive leaf (with a mini bell pepper underneath to prop it up and two broccoli florets. Start filling in under the broccoli with cucumber slices. Add a small slice of yellow bell pepper to the center of each endive leaf. Then add a cherry tomato at the bottom of each leaf. Add another layer of carrot chips and cucumber slices.
- Arrange jicama sticks along the bottom half of the tray.
- To make the turkey, chop off the top of the yellow mini bell pepper, empty the seeds out and place it upside down at the top of the bowl. Add the wings using half slices of another yellow bell pepper. To make the the eyes we filled a plastic baggie with a couple teaspoons of greek yogurt, cut off the tip and used it to pipe two dots of yogurt onto the head of the turkey. We then situated two peppercorns in the middle of the yogurt dots. We were able to just sit the mini bell pepper beak and snood on the head and they stayed in place on their own. For the legs, grab a orange bell pepper and cut out two legs with little toes. Serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is so cute!! Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Planning to make this and will take a picture of it on my iPad and pop it up next to it with text saying gobble me up!