As the summer season approaches, there are certain ideas for outdoor activities that would come to your mind. One of them might be heading out to a fantastic location and enjoying a barbecue party. A barbecue or BBQ party with music and a round of drinks with your friends or family sounds fantastic! You need not worry about the food and grill if you hire a professional caterer for the event.
If you plan to do everything yourself, then you’ll need to make a lot of preparations. As a host, you’ll need to make sure that you have the right equipment for the barbecue. You’ll also have to arrange the drinks and the systems for music. If you’ve hired a good caterer, you can provide some fabulous suggestions in food. Let’s take a look at them:
1. Main dishes
You can impress your guests with the right combination of classic BBQ dishes and some innovative recipes. The caterer would grill the food to perfection. It would involve allowing adequate time for the ingredients to smoke and char. The caterer would also see to it that the ingredients don’t lose their flavor in the process.
Among the main dishes you can consider for your BBQ party are prawns, chicken wings, or chicken thighs. If you have vegetarians among the guests, you can include vegetable kebabs, courgette and halloumi skewers, and stuffed peppers.
2. Side dishes
You must ensure that your guests have some variety in the barbecued food. It is, therefore, recommended that you serve at least three side dishes for the BBQ party. Things would be quite manageable if you’re prepared for everything well in advance.
There are some excellent options that you can include for the vegetarians in the group. They include potato salad, coleslaw, mozzarella salad, and sun-dried tomato. Grilled asparagus and barbecue baked beans are the options that you can have for the vegans.
3. Desserts
When it comes to BBQ food preparations, there are many who forget about desserts. It would be great if you end the meals at the barbecue party with something sweet. An excellent option in desserts would be raspberry ripple with white chocolate cheesecake.
You can also consider strawberry mille-feuille and s’mores. For vegans, you can offer some dairy-free options such as fruit kebabs and raspberry sorbet. All these things have a wonderful flavor and they’re refreshing as well.
4. Drinks
You can’t ignore the drinks while planning the menu for your barbecue party. A BBQ party is not just about delicious grilled food. Drinks also play an important role in a barbecue party as it cheers up everyone. The best way to start off with drinks at a BBQ party is to offer a welcome cocktail or mocktail.
Some of the best options in cocktail are mint and lime mojito, champagne, and a gin. For an alcohol-free option, you can consider rhubarb, rose, and juniper mocktail.
5. Sauce and condiments
While considering the best options in food, you might forget the little things that enhance their taste. These are the things that make your burger or steak taste great. The things we’re talking about here are the condiments, spices, and sauces.
Depending on what your caterer plans to cook, the need for these ingredients might vary. Whatever choices you have in these ingredients, you must make sure that they go well with the main dishes. Marinade, salsa, and hummus are some of the options you can include.
