Crudités. Sounds fancy…but it’s just raw vegetables served with a dip of some sort….said in, you know, French.

It’s funny how some words are just part of your growing-up vocabulary, and you imagine they are part of everyone else’s, too. My Mom was — and is — a bit of a Francophile. Which is a slightly fancy way of saying the woman likes French things and France. So when she puts out raw vegetables for guests, it was called a crudités platter or basket. And that was just the name for it.

So sounds highbrow, but again: raw vegetables. That dip above is Blue Cheese Dip.

ANYWAY, whenever I am thinking about hors d’ouevres (OH! I’m lapsing into French again, this is just so adorable {pronounced ador-AB-le}) or, um, appetizers I do always try to include some simple veggie thing because a) it’s always a good thing to have something vegetarian and b) it’s a good thing to remember that appetizers aren’t supposed to wipe out people’s appetites, but rather pave the way for more eating.

Though that’s a rule I break often.

ANYWAY again, raw (or lightly cooked but still crisp) vegetables with a dip are a perfect no-brainer way to give people something pretty to nibble on with drinks.

Any assortment of vegetables will work, and it’s fun to change them up with the seasons. What’s also fun, as you can see here, is to pick a color, or maybe a couple of colors, and stick with that hue for the whole basket. Visually arresting and in the case or this green collection, very fresh looking as well.

You can see it served up with a Hot Spinach and Goat Cheese Dip (coming very soon!):

And you can see it served up with Arugula Basil Dipping Sauce here:

I was sticking hard to the green theme, as you can see.

My friend Carrie Crow and I had a little bit of a blast making this GIF—see how easily this pretty box of vegetables comes together! Fun, yes?

And because a gorgeous crudités basket is always the right thing to add to an appetizer moment, check out this array of gorgeousness: