build a brunch board: what to serve with lox and bagels

A bagels and lox brunch board is the perfect way to start your weekend, but what should you serve with lox and bagels? Learn all about brunch boards in this post including: why you should make one, when to serve one, how to build one, brunch board themes, what to serve with bagels and lox, and all of the ingredients you need so your guests can build their own bagel sandwiches!

My love of brunch blossomed in my early twenties, when I could use the meal as an excuse to get together with girlfriends, stuff my face full of the best of both breakfast and lunch, drink cocktails in the morning, and then after a sufficient amount of bottomless beverages, take a post-brunch nap on my couch.

I’m not as young or as spry as I was 10 years ago, which means I’m rarely going out to eat for brunch (you know, because of adult responsibilities like kids, running important errands, cleaning the house, or exercising on a Sunday morning) but when I do, I either make sure to go to a place that serves some of Charlotte’s Best Brunch, or make us a delicious brunch at home.

Why make a brunch board?

A good starting point: what is a brunch board?

A brunch board is inspired by the cheese and charcuterie board trend, but rather than cheese and meat, you fill it with your favorite brunch foods (I have a whole guide on cheese boards vs. charuterie boards that goes into the terminology you should use when it comes to food board building as well as other great tips like surfaces, ingredients, and amounts to serve).

There are a few reasons I like putting basically any food, brunch and bagels included, on a board. 

Boards are both easy and beautiful.

Making a beautiful food board boils down to “artful arranging;” it’s a combination of easy recipes from scratch, high quality store bought ingredients and then making those things nice and delicious on a board, plate or platter.

Board building is not just the pinnacle of easy entertaining (therefore cutting down your kitchen stress), it’s also thinking about food as art (added bonus, I get the same kind of relaxed and therapeutic feelings when I build boards that I do when I create art).

You do all the work ahead of time.

When it comes to brunch boards, or boards of any kind, you just need a little bit of prep work up front to have a gorgeous, colorful and delicious display of different flavors and ingredients as your final product.

Based on photos you see on social media or in cookbooks, boards or platters may seem intimidating or something you don’t have the skills for, but they don’t need to be daunting, difficult or time-consuming.

I always like to first think about my board concept (in this case, brunch boards featuring a lox bagel or bagels all the way) and narrow down my ingredients and amounts before I even go shopping.

Then what’s left to do the morning of the party before serving is maybe making a few easy-to-follow (like making a flavored cream cheese, some candied bacon and egg muffins if I’m serving brunch) uncomplicated recipes ahead of time, and then arranging everything to make the board look bountiful and beautiful (which usually takes me about 15-30 minutes depending on how complicated I want to make it.

And after a little bit of work ahead of time, you actually get to enjoy the fruits of your labor and eat!

Guests can serve themselves.

Beyond boards being showstoppers, what I love about them is they take serving at a party or gathering out of the equation because guests can just help themselves.

I’m a big fan of making boards or food bars (a Build Your Own Bloody Mary Bar or Taco Bar are both fan favorites in this house) because people can mix and match different ingredients, components, toppings and garnish to make themselves the perfect bite or cocktail.

And you don’t have any other work to do except maybe replenishing ingredients.

When to serve a brunch board

You don’t need a special occasion to make yourself or your family a brunch board at home.

A brunch board is something just two people or a crowd of twenty will enjoy and its a fun way to serve a delicious breakfast at home. If you’re looking for some times when brunch boards would be totally welcome and appropriate: 

• Birthdays
• Easter
• Baby showers
• Bridal Showers
• Mother’s Day or Father’s Day
• Christmas
• New Years Day
• No reason, just because you want to build one!

Brunch board ingredients

There is no set list when it comes to creating a brunch or breakfast board, they are super customizable and versatile!

You can approach your ingredient list in a few different ways:

• use your favorite brunch or breakfast items and ingredients and put them on a board
• feature some savory and some sweet elements and ingredients
• pick a brunch theme to focus on and build your board around that theme and then round your board out with other breakfast staples

There’s no right or wrong way when it comes to ingredients (like if you don’t want to pick a theme, then don’t) but usually I like to pick a theme because it gives me a basic set of ingredients to work with and then I can pick complementary elements from there.

One of my favorite brunch board themes is bagels and lox (or also known as a salmon bagel), or a DIY, build your own bagel bar situation. The reason? Bagels are one of my favorite breakfasts!

I think my love for bagels is not just because of my love for carbs, but because of the family memories I have associated with a cream cheese bagel. Saturday morning bagels were a ritual in our house growing up. My go-to order as a kid was just a plain bagel with plain cream cheese.

I know, so boring.

But as I got older and became a more adventurous eater, my bagel order also got more adventurous, branching into things like sesame seeds, pumpernickel, everything bagels, scallion cream cheese, and eventually lox, and now bagels all the way (with lox, tomato, onions, and capers) are one of my favorite foods.

I love a bagel board because it features all of the makings of a delicious bagel with lox, including all the fixings and then some, and you can also include different flavors of cream cheese, some extra veggies and breakfast staples like bacon and eggs. And it gives me fuzzy family memories too.

What is lox?

Lox is a fillet of brined salmon.

True lox is brined in a salty solution or a sugar salt solution which cures the fish and leaves a briny, salty taste.

Lox is only brined or cured, never cooked.

Wait…Chrissie you just mentioned “true lox.” So is what I’m usually eating on top of my bagel not lox?

What you are eating could be lox, but it also could be smoked salmon.

Smoked salmon (also known as Nova smoked salmon or Nova lox), is a more generic term for lox. But its actually different from lox because smoked salmon is salmon that is cured with a light salting and then cold smoked after the curing or brining process.

Cold smoking salmon doesn’t cook the salmon while the fish is slowly exposed to smoke over a few days , which is why the flesh of the salmon stays very pink and moist giving it a similar texture to lox. (This is different than hot smoking, where the salmon is cooked through and ends up with a drier, flakier texture like grilled salmon).

In the bagel and schmear world, and the word lox is often used interchangeably with lox (brined but not smoked) and smoked salmon (brined and then smoked). The smoking (or cooking) makes all the difference between the two. 

Beyond lox and smoked salmon, there’s also gravlax, which is the Scandinavian specialty for lox.  Lots of herbs and spices like dill and juniper berries and pepper, along with liquor, are added to the brining process when making gravlax, and it is the different mix of curing ingredients which makes gravlax different than lox. 

Why are lox called lox?

Why are lox called lox?

Fun fact: the English word lox is derived from the Yiddish word for salmon, laks. The Yiddish word is actually derived from the German word for salmon, lachs.

In Scandinavian languages (which are also from Germanic languages), cured salmon is called gravlax or gravad laks.

I find food etymology fascinating!

How much lox per person?

When it comes to a bagel and lox brunch board where guests can pick and choose their toppings to build their own bagels all the way, I recommend having at least two ounces of lox or smoked salmon per guest but up to four ounces (1/4 pound) if you have a lot of smoked salmon or lox lovers in your group.

Smoked salmon or lox can be pricey, so if you have a lot of guests and want to try to keep your budget lower, think about rather than serving a certain amount of lox per guest, you could always make a smoked salmon spread or smoked salmon cream cheese as a board option.

What to serve with lox and bagels

My favorite way to serve bagel and lox is to put a variety of ingredients on a board to let guests pick and choose to build their own open faced bagel sandwiches.

The basics for a bagel and lox (or what I like to call a bagel all the way) are:

Fresh store bought bagels. I love getting my fresh bagels from a bakery  or bagel shop rather than the grocery store, and Poppy’s is my place in Charlotte. You’ll want at least 1 bagel per person. Offer different bagels: our favorites are plain bagels, everything bagels, sesame bagels, poppy seed bagels, onion bagels, asiago cheddar bagels, and pumpernickel bagels.

Lox or smoked salmon

Cream cheese. You can also buy cream cheese at the bakery with your bagel or get your favorite store bought kind. You can kick cream cheese up a notch with a variety of mix ins like chives, scallions, everything bagel seasoning, fresh herbs, or more. It’s always fun to offer a variety of different flavors. You’ll want about 2-3 ounces of cream cheese per person. Set up the different flavors of cream cheese in small bowls on your board or surface.

Thinly sliced red onion

Fresh, sliced tomatoes

Capers

Fresh dill and lemon for garnish

Favorite bagel toppings

Your bagels all the way are not just limited to the list above…build your bagel board beyond the basics!

Here are a few other topping ideas beyond the basic ingredients for bagels and lox:

Smoked seafood salads. You can serve something beyond just smoked salmon or lox! Whitefish, tuna or salmon salad are all good choices.

Lox spread (you can get cream cheese flavored with fresh lox or salmon).

Sliced fresh cucumbers (or other raw vegetables)

Sliced avocado

Green onion

Arugala or lettuce

Radishes

Pickled veggies

Sprouts

Sliced hard boiled eggs

Bacon

Jams, honey or other spreads for people who prefer a sweet tasting bagel

Other brunch board themes and ideas

Brunch boards are not just limited to bagels! If prefer pancakes or waffles are calling your name, here are a few other breakfast and brunch themes that could star on your brunch board beyond bagels:

• Pancakes
• Waffles
• French toast
• Doughnuts
• Breakfast sandwiches
• Toast

Pick a theme (or at least your main foods), then pick complementary items and the round your board out with breakfast staples. Here are some ideas of ingredients that work well on a brunch board to make a delicious breakfast spread at home:

• Bagels, plus accompaniments like smoked salmon and cream cheese
• Waffles or pancakes, plus accompaniments like syrup, butter, honey or jam
• Prosciutto or bacon
• Brie, Goat Cheese, or burrata
• Soft or hard-boiled eggs
• Muffins (e.g. blueberry, banana, egg, etc…these banana oat muffins are easy and delicious!)
• Coffee cake (and if you’re looking for a recipe, try this healthy coffee cake one!)
• Sliced avocado
• Fruit (e.g. berries, cherries, peaches, grapes, melon, persimmons or whatever is in season!)
• Veggies (e.g. sliced tomato or cherry tomatoes, sliced cucumber, etc…)
• Prosciutto-wrapped melon
• Greek Yogurt
• Granola
• Sliced banana bread
• Toast
• Doughnuts
• Whipped butter, honey, or fruit jams
• Herbs for garnish (e.g. dill, basil, or mint)

Also, in my opinion, cocktails are an important part of brunch, so don’t skimp on mimosas (or mimosa bar), Bloody Marys (or a Bloody Mary bar) or even a Strawberry Bellini, Sparkling Peach Sangria or some Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade Punch would be delish.