Great BBQ Side Dishes

The main course of any BBQ is definitely the meat. This does not mean however that you have to limit yourself to grilling meat when summer rolls around though. Plus, some of your guests may be vegetarian or just doesn't eat red meat.

For these people and to add some variety to your BBQ menu you can prepare delicious side dishes that will only take a little prep time beforehand and can be cooked on your grill. Just make sure that you have some aluminum foil on hand to do your cooking and you’ll be fine.

Wild Rice Pilaf

You can make something as elegant sounding as a pilaf at your next BBQ. The first step is to cook a cup of fresh mushrooms over medium-high heat with a little butter or olive oil for about five minutes. This step should be done in a saucepan and can be done the night before.

Bring out a foil pan, something that measures about 8x12 inches. Put your mushrooms in this pan; add two cups of boiling water. Next put in a quarter cup of dry white wine, it’s important you use a white wine. Next add a half-cup of brown rice, and a half-cup of wild rice. If you don’t have wild rice you can use all brown rice or half brown and half white rice.

Now chop up half an onion, half a yellow pepper and two ripe tomatoes. Add this to your foil pan. Now add a teaspoon of salt, a quarter teaspoon of pepper and about a half teaspoon of cumin. Stir everything together and then cover it with a piece of aluminum foil and seal it tightly.

The next part involves your BBQ grill. Place your covered foil pan in the middle of the grill, after half and hour open the pan and give it a good stir. Reseal again and leave for another half hour. Your pilaf might be done earlier if your fire is very hot so keep checking on it. You want the rice to be tender not crisp.

Simple Dessert

A simple dessert that you can make at a BBQ is grilled pineapple chunks. This is a healthy dessert but it tastes wonderful and takes so little effort. Simply cut a pineapple into chunks or rings, though chunks are better for grilling on your BBQ grill, and place until you see light char marks. Take it off your grill and sprinkle with brown sugar. It tastes delicious and is simple to make.