Picnic ideas!

[CurlewKate]

I’m planning a special picnic for 8 adults and I’d love some new ideas! What’s your one picnic favorite? It doesn’t have to be quick and easy-I love to cook and have a whole day to prepare. It doesn’t have to be carried far and we’ll have a table. Egg and chocolate free ideas particularly welcome. I have to make Ottolenghi’s giant cous cous salad or my dil will cry but I need at least one other salad. And all your other ideas!

The only vital foods for a picnic imo are:
vegan sausage rolls

hard boiled eggs in their shells with salt and pepper in little twists of paper

radishes with salt

celery

baguette and butter and a hunk of brie

lovely baby tomatoes, ideally the yellow ones

crisps

strawberries

good apples

brownies or something else delicious and cakey

Radishes and hard boiled quail eggs with celery salt

Pitta breads stuffed with falafel, green salad, and humus

Smoked salmon, cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches on brown bread

Frittata

Indian snacks eg samosas

Sushi

Raspberries with Greek yogurt

This is my favourite potato salad https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/epic-potato-salad.html
I’d also do coleslaw and pesto pasta with mozzarella and tomatoes.

Some sort of pie / tart quiche (maybe not the last one if you are avoiding eggs).

Cheese straws. Bread sticks. Tortilla chips.

Dips - garlic, guacamole, hummus, raita, maybe a tomato salsa.

Cheats baba ghanoush. Put one large aubergine in the oven for 10 mins, then put in a colander and prick all over with a fork, leave for 20 mins for the liquid to drain out.

Use a knife to scrape the aubergine flesh out of the aubergine and mix with mayonnaise.

For a dip base mix 50/50 greek style yoghurt and mayonnaise (use vegan to get rid of the eggs).

If you do decide to make dips, there’s an incredible feta and pistachio dip recipe - I think it’s Sabrina Ghayour.

There is a mob pearl barley salad that is great for a picnic https://www.mob.co.uk/recipes/pearl-barley-super-salad

I use the garlic bags to roast chicken drumsticks or thighs to take, the chicken is then very succulent- you get them in the super

focaccia bread
brie
grapes
tomatoes
bulgar wheat salad
avocado tomato mozzarella salad,
humous

Chargrilled asparagus, courgette and manouri salad is lovely, I make it with halloumi

Feta, water melon and mint salad is always lovely in the summer.
A fig, Gorgonzola and prosciutto flat bread always goes down well.

I really love marinating chicken drumsticks and cooking them and having them cold. My favourite marinade right now is honey, soy sauce, and orange juice then sprinkled with sesame seeds.

But otherwise a few years back I went through all my old English children's books and copied their various picnics. So eggs and a screw of salt and all that and proper ham sandwiches. Then I also love the picnic in the last bits of Rosamunde Pilcher's Winter Solstice where it featured flasks of French onion soup 'laced with sherry'.

Ooo @ScottishEggs I do similar with chicken wings with honey and orange juice but I put a bit of spice in usually smoked paprika. OP if you do this take plenty of wet wipes or kitchen paper, they are not called 'sticky chicken wings' for nothing

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/picnic-loaf.html
other fillings work well too

DD brought home some garlic and Rosemary focaccia yesterday that I could literally eat my own body weight of.

I believe that it's better to keep things simple on a picnic and have 5-6 great things rather than 25 piddling faffy little trays/dip tubs/packets etc, and I will die on this hill!!

So based on some of the lovely ideas already, you could do:

• Your couscous salad
• A German-style potato salad with honey-mustard-mayo dressing and chives
• Some sort of big savoury pastry such as a spanokopita, sausage roll, pork pie, game pie etc
• A garlic and rosemary focaccia (very easy to make)
• One massive wedge of a very delicious cheese (I would probably choose something like a cambozola)
• A hardy traybake for dessert, e.g. frangipane slice or maybe blondies

The Focaccia probably is very easy to bake. DD was given hers so it was even easier

And I do agree with you, better to have 5 or 6 good things and plenty of them

I make summer rolls. You can make the night before and if wrapped in cling film, they remain moist and fresh. They are vegan and gluten free, although I'm neither and have made with prawns, duck, teriyaki chicken etc before. Lots of youtube videos on how to roll them. Lots of recipes include lots of ingredients, but I keep it simple.
I use coriander, mint, carrot and cucumber batons, vermicelli noodles, lettuce and beans sprouts.

My cheats satay sauce:
In a jar mix about 2T peanut butter, 1T sweet chilli sauce, 1teasp sesame oil, 1teasp soy sauce and shake. Add a little water and shake until you get a consistency slightly thinner than honey.

thank you everyone! I agree about not too many things. So a muffelatata, some veggie sausage rolls. Couscous salad and another couple of salads. A focaccia (incredibly easy to make-I’ve got a great recipe-fail safe if anyone would like it!) strawberries and cream. Lemon posset. Hummous. And scotch eggs because I really want to try making them. Have I forgotten anything?

Cheese!

I am tempted- and I’m saving that idea for a smaller group. Or smaller appetites!

Alcohol?