BBQ for 30-40 people-half are veggies-how do I make the food interesting?

[Pawslikepaddington]

Need tried and tested (fairly memorable and poshy) meat, fish and veg recipes that went down well, than I can do en masse on 3 bbq's. Also great salad tips (but have googled this so have a few maybes). Anything that could be made in advance would be good too!

Vegetable kebabs are nice - onion, red pepper and courgette.

baked mushroom parcels - foil package. Inside a large mushroom with some nice cheese on top, some herbs (possibly rosemary or thyme).

Veg kebabs - maybe with halloumi - can thread onto rosemary stalks.

Corn on cob is good.

Fish parcels also good - foil package with piece of fish (white fish or salmon) with some white wine, lemon slice, black pepper, maybe cherry tomatoes and olives. Possibly some pesto?

Sardines work well on barbeque.

Meat - marinades will make all the difference. Also good quality burgers/sausages. Or doing butteflied lamb - Jamie Oliver has good recipes for barbequed meat.

Onions in foil
(sorry like foil but is also easy to prepare in advance and bung on when needed)

With Veg Kebabs Halloumi cheese is a really nice addition, you could also do:

Beef tomatoes on a skewer cut them in have and cut them across put balsamic vinegar salt and pepper leave for 30 mins, bbq lightly until soft skin side down

Coat panneer in yoghurt, tandorri spice mix leave for an hour or so and skewer with onions, peppers and tomatoes

Spice up some parboiled sweet potato chunks

and this is also really nicewww.deliaonline.com/recipes/toasted-sweetcorn-salsa,1229,RC.html

that should be half

Split courgettes three quarters of the way.
Stuff with goats cheese and walnuts, blue cheese, feta and raisins, whatever you fancy really.

Lightly brush with olive oil and then wrap up in tin foil. Cook directly on the hot coals, takes about 20 mins.

Buy quality hamburgers , put a knob of blue cheese in the middle and then roll up in to a ball. throw on barbie.

Grind the meat up really small and stuff it in the veg. They'll never notice.

(sorry, not an original joke!)

Homemade burgers- mince

Homemade bean burgers- dont have recipe tho sorry

chciken drumsticks marinaded in sweet chilli sauce, rosemary and soy sauce- always goes down well

chicken satay skewers

pork, pepper and pineapple kebabs (pork can be marinated in orange juice andsweet chilli sauce for extra kick)

halved peppers stuffed with rice/couscous and veg done in oven finished on bbq (they wont cook enough on BBQ i dont think)

salads:
green
couscous and veg
potato salad
coleslaw
pasta salad

Basically, all the things armadillo said.

When doing a barbeque, chicken which is partly precooked is always easy. And sausages cook well and always go down well.

Mushrooms with bacon/Parma ham/Pancetta wrapped around are delicious and make an excellent early snack to tide people over - you can cook them over a fairly hot fire.

I like roasted butternut with goats cheese and pine nuts as a salad (cook the butternut with some chilli and rosemary) for barbeques - the colours work really well. You can also add a few spinach leaves if you want to slot in some green.

Garlic bread. You can't go wrong!

If you have a bbq with a lid a nice alternative to chops, burgers etc is to do a joint of meat. The advantage to this is that it requires less supervision, so you can concetrate on your veggie skewers etc on the other barbies.

Try a deboned leg of lamb, or racks of lamb. Make a marinade with garlic, rosemary, lemon zest and sea salt - crush it all together in a pestle and mortar or blender and rub it over the lamb.

Or what about pork ribs? Rub racks of ribs with paprika, salt, garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper, dried thyme, dried oregano. Pour over a bottle of beer and marinate for a couple of hours. Remove ribs from marinade and bake in oven, tightly covered in foil, for 2 hours. Remove from oven. Smother with a spicy bbq sauce (homemade if you can) and bbq on a medium heat until ribs are nice and browned and sticky on both sides (6-8 minutes per side)

Sorry, don't have much to add to the already suggested veggie options.

Salad suggestions -

Tabbouleh - cous cous, loads of parsley, finely chopped tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, salt and pepper to taste and a squeeze of lemon juice

Brown rice salad with finely sliced red onion, green beans, red pepper, sultanas and fresh mint. I add a citrus dressing with fresh squeezed orange juice, olive oil, a splash of light soy sauce, brown sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice if it needs a bit more tartness.

Just remembered, I once had bbq peppers with blue cheese. The peppers were cut into large chunks (quarters probably) and grilled, when they're almost cooked turn them skin side down and place a chunk of blue cheese on each piece until it melts. They were yummy.

Oh, desert... split a banana, still in it's skin, and stuff with chopped chocolate. Wrap in tinfoil and throw in the coals while you're eating the main course. Whip out of coals and serve with spoons and ice cream later. Delicious.

I love you all!!! This is AMAZING!! Thank you!

don;t know if it has been done but my absolute favourite is

halloumi and courgette kebabas

and pepper, tomato and red onion kebabs too

Courgette and salmon kebabs taste and look lovely.
Bean salad.
Tandoori and BBQ chicken (cooked through in the oven and flashed on BBQ if you have the space)

We do the veg and halloumi kebabs but also do a huge bowl of all the bits-the meat eaters go for that as well then. Generally courgette, peppers, onion, garlic, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and halloumi with salt and pepper, some herbs and some chilli oil. Can cook it in the oven or in a foil parcel/dish on the bbq

I'm a veggie and at every big bbq that I've been to, the veggie stuff goes first because it always looks so good. So my advice is to make extra veggie stuff.

Other than kebabs you can -

Cut aubergines into long thin slices (like sliced meat) and lay some cheese or halumi on it, roll it up, skewer it and cook it. You can do this with loads of stuff, courgette, potato, squash etc..

If your feeling lazy, quorn do a range of stuff that can be thrown on the bbq, satay kebabs and grill stuff.

I second the banana with chocolate in tin foil, it's really yum. Also marshmallows for fun, you can do a chocky or strawberry dip too.

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Oh these are so so good! Where can I find your recipes bloss-this is sheer BBQ heaven! Hurrah!!

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Look for paneer in the cheese ailse. It's a bit like haloumi, doesn't melt and grills. If you cna get some tikka spice mix and add some peppers it is very tasty.