Side dishes to go with cold or BBQ meats.

msfortune

I'm looking for ideas for side dishes, especially salad style sides, to go with cold or BBQ meats.

So far I have thought of:

Layered Salad
Iceberg lettuce, grated carrot, sweetcorn, halved cherry tomatoes, cucumber and maybe red/spring onion, grated cheese and/or beetroot - anything else?

Potato Salad
chopped boiled potatoes, chopped boiled egg, finely diced red onion or spring onions all tossed in mayonnaise and maybe some cooked diced bacon

Coleslaw
finely sliced white cabbage, finely sliced onion and grated carrot tossed in mayonnaise

Beetroot, Carrot & Apple Salad
beetroot fresh or jar (not sure if pickled would work) diced and mixed with grated carrot, grated eating apple and salad cream

Curried Rice Salad
halfway through cooking rice add a handful each of frozen peas and sweetcorn, fry off finely diced peppers and onion in a little oil with curry powder to taste and mix thoroughly

Tomato & Onion Salad
Diced tomatoes, finely chopped red onion, pinch of dried coriander, pinch of dried mint, splash of olive oil and vinegar to taste - may also add diced cucumber and/or feta cheese

I do have feta to use up, but the kids are not that keen on it so any ideas for that welcome. Used half a block for a salad to take to a bbq Friday night with nice lettuce leaves, diced tomatoes, sliced red onion, drained tin of chickpeas, sliced avocado, olives and crumbled feta tossed with olive oil and balsamic dressing. Everyone at the bbq disliked olives so I omitted them, added cucumber chunks and used halved cherry tomatoes. I got sent home with the remainder and in hindsight I think the feta would have been better cubed and, along with the avocado, placed on top. The avocado was also overripe and yesterday looked horrible and mushy. In traditional OS we still ate it all up of course!

In the fridge there is also natural yogurt and sour cream to use up. Any ideas for dressings? Or I could stir them into cream cheese with chives, garlic, onion or sweet chilli sauce to make simple dips to serve with crudite.

Am tempted to serve jackets with sour cream, spring onion and bacon bits, but there will only be 4 of us, I don't really want to put the oven on and there are already carb dishes. I also love cooked rice mixed with finely chopped onion, tin of broken mandarins,small bag dry roasted peanuts and salad cream, but I already have a rice dish.

Dried fruit such as sultanas, is only ok if we can pick them out and olives are a big no, no for us all (the salad equivalent of marmite!).

Since this is my first Christmas down under I would especially like ideas for nice side dishes that are a bit more special than the norm.

Many thanks and Merry Christmas to you all :xmassmile

Lilyplonk

Do you like cous-cous? We get packs of 'Roasted Veg Cous-cous' and 'Moroccan Cous-cous' in our local Tesco. There's also another version that has 'Olives and small cubes of Feta Cheese' but you could leave out the Olives (I do that as I can't stand them either).

Cheesey Pasta Mayo or Tuna Pasta Mayo or Coronation Chicken Mayo are other good additions to salads/buffets.

Fresh boiled beetroot (cubed) mixed with finely sliced red onion and grated carrot is another good one if you like beetroot.

We also like the 'bean based ones' like 'Four Bean Salad' - but I know those aren't to everybody's tastes.


They are all very easy to 'make from scratch' once you've decided what you want to make - just experiment with different sources of 'carbs', veggies and dressings .

Have you tried halves of peppers stuffed with cous-cous - you can push cubes of feta cheese into the cous-cous, wrap in tinfoil and 'bake them' on the BBQ.

Why don't you go 'online' with the major supermarkets websites (the ones where you can order for delivery) to see what they offer on their 'Salad Bars' - you'll get lots of ideas.

Enjoy your first Christmas Down Under.

msfortune

Thanks Lilyplonk, I had forgotten about couscous especially with roasted veg stirred in. The other's aren't that fond of it, but if I can find some over here it will definitely be on the menu again. I've stuffed peppers with rice before, but the couscous sounds a good idea and easy to bbq too. I love beans and hadn't considered those, I have a tin of 3 bean mix any ideas what should I do with them to make them into a nice side salad dish? The chickpeas were really nice in the feta and avocado salad I made the other day and I hadn't thought of using them in a salad before either.

Things like tuna/chicken pasta salad I think of more as lunch dishes rather than sides, but the cheesy one sounds ideal. Is it just pasta, cheese and mayo or does it need a little something else?

Having grown up with salads consisting of iceberg, cucumber, tomato and a chunk of cheese or slice of ham with no dressing and a side of sliced bread it's all a bit new to me. Occasionally there would have been the odd radish, bit of beetroot, cress or a boiled egg thrown in to mix things up;). End result I used to use lots of salad cream and despise salad:undecided.

I don't have much clue about what dressings to use on what salad either and there must be some that would use natural yogurt or sour cream for a change.

With it being summer here sometimes it is too hot to want to put the oven on, so we will be eating a lot of BBQ and cold meats and the more ideas for side dishes the better or we will be bored of plain old salad, potatoes, corn, etc.

:xmassign:

Lilyplonk

Hi misfortune - you can use a little natural yoghurt (or low-fat crème fraiche) to 'water down' the mayo to make it a bit more runny. My sister would even add a little 'milk' if she didn't have those in the cupboard.

For my Cheesey Pasta Salad - I would do some pasta, grated cheese (maybe two types - one of them quite bright coloured to add colour), some chopped spring onions (adds some 'green' into the dish) and possibly some finely diced red onion. You can also add some finely diced peppers (whatever colour you like the look of to balance out the appearance of the finished dish).

What about buying some 'Tricolour Pasta' (I'm sure you can get that in Oz) to add colour to some dishes that are a little on the 'pale side'. I always use it in Tuna Pasta Mayo when it comes to a Christmas Buffet.

Another one that I've seen on shelves consists of diced beetroot, Pomegranate 'bits', diced red apple and grated carrot in a small amount of 'red wine vinaigrette' (stops the apple from discolouring). It's very 'jewel-like' in appearance due to the 'little rubies of pomegranate'.

One of the Bean Salads that we've had in the past contained a 'minty dressing' but I'm not sure what else was in it.

I sometimes buy these things from a supermarket to have for Lunch while I'm out - not always sure of the exact ingredients. Maybe, when I find one that I really like, I should write down the ingredients so I can make my own in future :rotfl:.