During the summer season, when the weather is fine outside, many people are used to throwing barbecue parties by grilling meat in their backyards and enjoying it with their family and friends. Meat is smoked for a long time over wood or charcoal and served to the guests. This is more or less a tradition practised especially by Americans for a long period.
When we hear the name barbecue, what comes to our mind instantly are the mouth-watering side dishes that are served alongside the meat. Whether you crave for a healthier dish like coleslaw or desire a more filling side dish like a creamy pasta bowl, you will have everything ready at hand in a BBQ function.
The side dishes you wish to prepare for a BBQ party should also be easy to prepare. When you host a party, besides the food requirements of your guests, you have many other things to worry about. Thus, the side dish recipes must not be very complicated. Here, we have listed some delicious side dishes that you can serve with BBQ.
BBQ Side Dishes for a Crowd
When you plan a BBQ party for a large crowd, you will have to prepare each food item in large batches. Therefore, the side dishes you wish to serve the crowd with should be easy to prepare. Here are some side dishes you can serve for a crowd.
- Caprese Pasta Salad
To prepare this pasta dish, cooked pasta is mixed with halved cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese balls and sliced basil leaves and tossed with a creamy blend of balsamic vinaigrette. Finally, the dish is seasoned with salt and black pepper. This should be kept in the refrigerator for around 2 hours.
- Corn Salad
This colourful summer salad is extremely easy to make. You just have to toss corn, halved cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, finely chopped red onions and sliced basil leaves with some extra-virgin olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper and send to the table.
- Homemade Pickles
Sliced cucumbers are packed into a jar with garlic and dill and brine made by combining water, vinegar and salt is poured over the cucumbers. The jar is sealed and kept for sometimes before serving. Anyone who likes sour pickles will surely love this side dish.
- Wild Rice Salad
Wild rice cooked in the vegetable broth mixed with tomatoes, bell pepper, cucumber, red onion and avocado and coated with a blend of cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper is a dish that would be loved by all your guests. When serving, you can also garnish the rice dish with some red pepper flakes and fresh parsley. This is a very colourful salad.
Kid-Friendly BBQ Side Dishes
If you plan to invite kids from your neighbourhood for the BBQ party, you don’t want to bore them with old salad recipes. You need to add some delicious kids’ favourites to the party menu. Here are some yummy sides that will be loved by every kid.
- Fruit Kebabs
Kids love to eat fruits at any time of the day. You can easily make these fruit kebabs by dicing fruits such as pineapple, strawberries, grapes, bananas, apples, mangoes, mandarin oranges and cubed cheese and loading them up in the skewers. Arrange the fruity kebabs on a platter and they will quickly vanish.
- Macaroni Salad
Preparing a tasty macaroni salad is an easy way to feed your kids with vegetable which they don’t like to eat otherwise. Boiled macaroni, diced carrots, bell peppers, green and red onions are combined well with a scrumptious blend of mayonnaise, mustard, Greek yoghurt, vinegar, salt and pepper. You can also add some parmesan cheese on top of the macaroni dish. The best thing about this dish is that you can make this ahead of time and save your precious time.
- Cornbread
The batter made combining flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, salt, milk, buttermilk, butter and eggs is baked in an oven to prepare cornbread. This will be great with either a sweet jelly or a chilli mix.
Healthy Side Dishes for a BBQ Party
Many health-conscious people prefer light and nutritious side dishes over oily and filling sides. Here are some healthy sides to serve along with the barbecue.
- Roasted balsamic asparagus & cherry tomatoes
Asparagus and cherry tomatoes coated with olive oil and balsamic vinegar are roasted for 15 minutes and topped with feta cheese to make this healthy side dish. Asparagus is a good source of fibre.
- Butterbean, Radish and Cucumber Salad
Butter beans, radish and cucumber mixed with a salad dressing of garlic, parsley, lemon juice and zest, mint, olive oil, salt and pepper is a great and healthy side salad to serve with barbecue.
- Aubergine Raita
Aubergines are burnt until their skin is blistered by placing them over barbecue coals. Then, they are left to cool and halved. Next, they are blended well with spring onions, natural yoghurt and fresh mint leaves and seasoned with salt and pepper. This raita is a nice accompaniment to barbecue meat.
- Italian Potato Salad
Boiled potatoes, basil and sun-dried tomatoes mixed with olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper is a delicious and healthy side dish to accompany with BBQ.
Conclusion
It is widely accepted that every BBQ party is about the perfectly grilled barbecue meat. Little do many people know that it is the side dishes that enhance the flavour of the smoked meat. When planning the menu of a barbecue party, you should pay special attention to select and prepare the side dishes. They need to be healthy, easy to prepare as well as cater to the requirements of all guests irrespective of their age. This guide in which we have carefully elaborated eleven delicious side dish ideas will help you plan out the menu of your next backyard BBQ party.
