What, pray tell, is more fun than a bagel board for breakfast? I adore bagels. It’s a little known fact here on The Rose Table, although some of my die hard readers might have noticed my staunch love of bagels by the fact that I usually will order the lox and bagel at least once while on vacation. Bagels are so filling and not the lightest breakfast on the planet so to me, this is the perfect brunch dish to make you feel like you’re on vacation at home.

This is hardly a recipe but I’m writing it up as one. The bagel board photographed would serve four people. I got the idea a few weeks ago to make a bagel board featuring homemade Norwegian Gravlax for New Year’s Day brunch with my mama. We both adore smoked salmon (I’m going to level with you here: I often refer to lox and gravlax as smoked salmon, even though it is cured and not smoked) and I thought it would be the most festive way to ring in the new year. I see many bagel boards in my future!

Capers, lemons, cream cheese, tomatoes, and of course tomato slices are a must. It’s more traditional to have red onion slices but I don’t like raw red onion so I did tiny green onions instead.

Bacon is a really fun thing to include on a bacon board. Here I made brown sugar bacon: dredge bacon in brown sugar, lay on a rack sprayed with nonstick spray and set over a jelly roll pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 until crisp to your liking.

Whole lemons and dill sprigs are beautiful to tuck around the sides for a really beautiful board. Be sure to have some lemons already sliced, because lemon juice is delicious with lox and bagels!

I hope you love my homemade gravlax as much as we did. My mom said, “This is the best cured salmon I’ve EVER had and this is literally the best bagel of my life.” So there you go. This recipe is 100% Mama Rose Table approved.

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