A serving bowl is, of course, a bowl that is designed to be used for serving food. This is a function it carries out very well; however, there are many other uses for a serving bowl that we will uncover here.
If you are looking at getting a new serving bowl, you are probably wondering that size will be best because there is a huge array of serving bow sizes available.
Serving Bowl Sizes
Small
Small serving bowls will have a diameter ranging between 3 inches and 6 inches. This is a good size serving bowl to serve small appetizers in, such as olives, nuts, or after-dinner mints. Small serving bowls are great for putting in the middle of a dining table and letting people nibble appetizers while waiting for their meals to be served, or you can set out several small serving bowls on side tables and coffee tables when guests are visiting so that they can snack while socializing.
Small serving bowls can double up as individual servings bowls if you run out of your regular bowls or you want to impress with a more fancy type of bowl. You could serve individual portions of ice cream or soup in small serving bowls.
Medium
Medium serving bowls will range between 7 and 10 inches in diameter. These are great for positioning on a table to let people help themselves to the food. Common foods to serve in medium-sized serving bowls include nachos, chips, popcorn, bread rolls, side salads, chicken wings, and fries.
If you are feeding an average-sized family, then you could use a medium serving bowl at dinner time for pasta, risotto, or salads; however, these serving bowls would be too small for a main dish at a larger gathering, so in this case, you could use medium serving bowls to hold side dishes, such as roasted vegetables or mashed potatoes. For a party with a lot of guests, you could use medium serving bowls to serve dips and salsas to ensure that nobody runs out.
Large
Large serving bowls will have a diameter of between 10 and 15 inches. These are great to use when you have guests visiting as they can hold a generous amount of food that people can help themselves to. You could serve a main dish in a large serving bowl, including pasta, salad, risotto, curry, or casserole. Large serving bowls are also great for casual parties to fill with chips, popcorn, and other snacking foods that people can graze on throughout the evening.
Serving Bowl Uses
Serving Food
The main function of a serving bowl is to serve food. You can use your serving bowls to hold large amounts of food at family celebrations, positioning the bowls in the middle of the dining table so that everyone can help themselves to their desired amount.
This is great if you don’t know what your guests’ favorite foods are because it means they can get a large amount of mashed potato and a small number of roasted carrots. For example, to suit their tastes.
This ensures everybody gets exactly what they want and avoids wastage. You can also use serving bowls on a regular basis to serve family dinners, or they can be used for dinner parties. Serving bowls are also great for more casual events such as family movie nights, to hold a large amount of popcorn or chips that everyone on the sofa can share together.
Segmented Serving Bowl
This is a type of serving bowl that has been specifically designed to hold an array of different foods at once. A segmented serving bowl will have ridges running across the width of the bowl to separate it into different areas. Often these bowls are used for serving crudites, with cucumber, celery, carrots, and other types of raw vegetables separated into each segment.
Some segmented bowls will have a central smaller section for keeping dip or salsa. These bowls can also be used to serve different flavors of chips in each section or different types of nuts with different coatings, such as honey roasted peanuts, chili peanuts, pistachios, and brazil nuts. They also work well to serve after-dinner snacks, such as candies or small chocolates.
Empty Centerpiece
Some serving bowls are very decorative, which can make them great to use as a centerpiece on an empty dining table. If you have a favorite serving bowl, you love the look of, you may even choose to use it as a permanent ornament and enjoy the aesthetics of it on a daily basis, rather than hiding it away in the kitchen cabinet only to be seen on special occasions.
Filled Centerpiece
A serving bowl can double up as an interesting centerpiece if you fill it with decorative objects. Some ideas for objects to fill your serving bowl with could be pine cones, seashells, pebbles, dried flowers, candles, and potpourri.
This type of decorating can work as a centerpiece on a dining table, or smaller serving bowls could serve the same function on coffee tables, side tables, or window sills. Serving bowls filled with decorative items can also work well as table centerpieces at weddings.
Fruit Bowl
Serving bowls are commonly used as fruit bowls because they tend to be a similar size and shape to fruit bowls. You can use a large serving bowl to display your fruit on a dining table or on a kitchen countertop if you have a family who enjoys grabbing fruit for a snack, or you could use a medium serving bowl for this purpose if you have a smaller family or people in your household who don’t eat much fruit.
Displaying fruit in your serving bowl can be a good way to encourage members of your home to eat more fruit because it will look appealing and appetizing, and it will remind them that it is available, as opposed to fruit kept in the refrigerator or cabinet that gets forgotten about.
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