Fire Flower Veggie Tray

Recently, my friends and I held a "Nintournament". It was an evening long tournament in which we competed in preselected games on the different Nintendo console systems and accumulated points in different categories to determine an overall winner. It was a fun evening and I learned that I am REALLY bad at Duck Hunt. :P

Anyways, I was in charge of bringing a veggie tray to the event. As I was super excited for the event I wanted to make a special veggie tray for the occasion.

This instructable will walk you through the steps of how I made my Fire Flower Veggie Tray.

Materials Needed:

Large flat tray (I used an oven liner tray)

Paper

Pencil

Marker

Cling Wrap

Tape

Cutting board

Knife

Peeler

Celery

Cucumber

Red Pepper

Yellow Pepper

Broccoli

Cherry Tomatoes

Vegetable Dip

Container for Vegetable Dip

Cover your tray with paper. I taped together 4 sheets of printer paper so that it would cover the whole tray. Tape the paper to the tray so it will not move around.

Sketch your design in pencil. When you are happy with your lines, go over them with the marker. You can also colour in the background of your design if you want to.

Cover the whole tray with a layer of cling wrap. You will be able to see the design through the cling wrap. Tape the wrap into place to make sure it does not shift later.

I selected the order in which I placed my vegetables for a logical reason. They are placed so that if the ingredients that are placed later overlap the previous ingredient you will still have nice clean lines to your design. (That's why we place the red ring of the Fire Flower last).

Place your dip container in the middle of the Fire Flower. I used a small plastic snack container that was approximately the same size and shape as the middle ring. If you don't want to have dip in the middle of your fire flower (or you don't have a container that works), another option is to fill the middle ring with cauliflower and simply have dip beside your veggie tray.

Wash and cut up your yellow pepper. I cut them into length wise slices and then I cut those slices in half. Arrange them around the dip container so that they fill the 2nd ring of the fire flower.

Wash, peel and slice the cucumber. I chose to peel the cucumber before I slice it, but you can leave the peel on if you prefer.

Slice up your cucumber and place them in an overlapping line around the edge of the leaf design. When you have filled the outer edge, make a line down the middle with overlapping cucumbers.

Repeat for the other leaf.

Celery stalks were wash and cut lengthwise down the middle. Then they were cut down into snack sized pieces.

Arrange them vertically (up to the flower, down to the grass), in the stem section of the design.

Broccoli was washed and cut into small florets. They can be arranged along the bottom edge of the tray to imitate grass.

Wash the tomatoes and red pepper. Slice up the red pepper the same way you did for the yellow pepper.

Arrange the cherry tomatoes in the outer ring. Use the red pepper slices to go around the inner and outer edge of the ring. They will help clean up the lines of your design.

Add the dip to the middle before serving. You can use leftovers of any of the vegetables to make the eyes. Just cut them down to the right size. Place the eyes in the dip.

This instructable told you how to make Fire Flower Veggie Tray, but you can take the same basic idea (sketch the design and fill it in with appropriately coloured food items) with anything you want to make.

And don't stop at veggie trays! Fruit trays offer you a whole new range of possibilities!

Here are some colour ideas if you want to make a fruit Fire Flower Tray

Red: Strawberry, Raspberry, Red Grapes, Watermelon

Yellow: Pineapple, Starfruit

Green: Green Grapes, Kiwi, Lime, Green Apple

White: Yogurt Dip

*Raisins for eyes