There is no such thing as a single perfect side dish when throwing a BBQ party. Because there are several perfect side dishes. All at the same time are glorious and absolutely must-try this season. What’s even greater about it all is that you don’t have to spend much time preparing them – all attention on the centerpiece of the grill and the table – your protein of choice. Lamb chops, turkey cutlets or beef steaks – all meats (and their alternatives!) are equally great with the following dishes. Having a big party? With the right spices and mise en place, you can make them all almost in no time.
What’s more classic than a regular coleslaw? There are basically two kinds of it. Creamy is made with mayo, sour cream, buttermilk, yogurt, or a mix of them in different proportions. Sweet-and-sour made with vinegar and sugar. Which one to choose is up to you. Chop or grate your veggies, namely one onion, one carrot and half a cabbage (add bell peppers and/or radishes if you’re feeling like you have to), mix’em up with the dressing. That is ¼ cup vinegar, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 3 tsp sugar, salt, pepper, mustard powder. Leave in the fridge until ready to serve. Scoop generously, praise the cook.
While scorching your meat on a grill, don’t forget that you can actually give it a good char to your greens too. And one of the simplest, yet crazy delicious, recipe is grilled scallions. That is green onions. Tasteful, beautiful, tender! These are the words people will be shouting out while you’ll be serving them scallions. The method is dead simple. Trim some scallions, halve them lengthwise, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt. Grill them on a grill topper around one minute per side until well charred and tender. Serve as is, with a simple vinaigrette, some hot sauce, or with orange/lemon zest, you choose the song. You won’t be disappointed by its chorus.
Proteins marry with proteins. That’s not something completely undebatable but we will stick to it at this point. That leads us to the marinated eggs at a BBQ party. And if you are able to serve them with a liquid center, guests will be really amazed. To do that, you’ll have to cook the eggs for 7 minutes, place them in the ice water, drain and peel. Then put them in a ziplock bag and cure for 12 hours. The longer they are sitting in the brine, the firmer and darker they get. The cure is really simple. Just mix together mirin (sweet rice wine), miso (fermented soybean paste) and soy sauce for Japanese style eggs. Or wine and cider vinegar, sugar, sriracha (hot sauce), garlic, and spices for an American style side. Whatever the way, you’ll be glad you did it. Can’t wait to start grilling to taste these awesome dishes.
What do you think?