16 Standout Side Dishes for your Next Cookout
Turn to these recipes for crowd-pleasing summer cookout spreads.
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
No cookout is complete without a tasty assortment of side dishes. Here, we're featuring warm-weather options that would make perfect additions to your menu, from Classic Slaw that's right at home alongside smoked meats to a Gazpacho Salad that allows seasonal produce like heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil to shine. You can also try grilled corn, a fresh watermelon salad, or smoky-sweet baked beans. Pick one, two, or three to complete your spread with cookout side dishes.
Japanese Potato Salad
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
To make her versatile, vegetable-packed potato salad, chef and cookbook author Sawako Okochi adds vinegar directly to the potatoes while they’re hot to ensure they absorb flavor and seasonings completely. Kewpie mayo delivers tons of richness and creamy texture.
Stone Fruit Salad with Collard-Peanut Pesto
In this savory fruit salad, roasted peanuts, collard greens, and Parmesan yield a hearty pesto that's the perfect partner for honey-dressed wedges of plums and nectarines. Fonio, a West African grain similar in texture to couscous, soaks up the pesto, flavoring each bite of this salad.
Classic Slaw
"When you visualize a table loaded with barbecue items, I bet there is a heaping bowl of slaw," says barbecue expert and 2021 F&W Best New Chef Matt Horn. His cole slaw recipe is a natural side for smoked meats, with a cooling, creamy, tart-sweet dressing that balances the richness of barbecue.
Pineapple and Serrano Ham Salad with Thai Red Curry Vinaigrette
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
Slices of Spanish ham are draped around radicchio leaves and pineapple wedges for an eye-catching interplay of bitter, sweet, and salty in this dramatic salad. The radicchio becomes tenderized and less bitter as it sits in the bold, savory dressing.
Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint
Chef Jacques Pépin's easy summer watermelon salad is perfect to make for eating under the warm sun. Watermelon and mint add plenty of refreshing flavor, while briny olives and feta offer the perfect counterpoint to the sweet fruit.
Esquites-Style Poblano Pasta Salad
Turn the creamy corn salad version of elote into a pasta salad, loaded with charred corn, zucchini, scallions, and poblano chile. A crema-mayo mixture flavored with lime and cilantro adds a bright finish, with sprinkles of Cotija and ancho chile powder.
Roasted Hot Honey Sweet Potato Salad
Hot honey dressing provides a bit of tangy heat to these sweet potatoes, which are balanced out by smoked paprika and cumin. Homemade pickled red onions, crunchy toasted pecans, and fresh parsley complete the dish for a colorful side that can accompany a variety of mains.
Mac and Corn Cheese
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Christine Keely
Brightened with snappy kernels of sweet corn, pungent onion, and zippy jalapeño, food writer Eric Kim's stovetop macaroni and cheese is table-ready in just 40 minutes.
Gina Mae's Baked Beans
Scholar Regina Bradley (nicknamed Gina Mae as a child) added a few special touches to her husband's baked beans recipe to make it her own. "A cookout's DNA is found in the sides and who made them. This task is not for the faint of heart or the thin-skinned," wrote Bradley, in her essay on the hierarchy of a cookout. For this summer-perfect side, Bradley dresses up store-bought barbecue sauce with extra brown sugar; apple cider vinegar balances the smoky sweetness.
Grilled Corn on the Cob with Calamansi Mayo
Chef Sheldon Simeon's recipe for a Hawaiian version of Mexican elote features grilled corn slathered in a creamy, cheesy calamansi mayonnaise, which gets its acidic twang from a sour citrus fruit native to the South Pacific. Japanese chile flakes (ichimi togarashi) add heat; aonori (dried seaweed) flakes add umami oomph and island style.
Gazpacho Salad
Chef Anne Quatrano celebrates the best of summer with a combination of chilled gazpacho and chunky, fresh vegetables. "It's a perfect way to highlight all that is right about summer vegetables at their peak," she says.
Fairy Tale Eggplant with Crispy Shallots and Thai Dressing
2014 F&W Best New Chef Joe Ogrodnek adds plenty of crispy-crunchy texture to his silky grilled eggplant by stuffing each one with peanuts, fried shallots and garlic, fresh herbs, onions, and radishes before drizzling the punchy dressing on top.
Masala Grilled Vegetables with Spicy Mint Chutney
Vibrant grilled veggies with a chile-spiked herb dressing make a stunning side or light main course. The dish can be served either warm or at room temperature, so it's a great option if you'd like to cook the vegetables in advance.
Sweet Corn Succotash with Shiitakes and Sugar Snaps
This summer-perfect side from 1998 F&W Best New Chef Katy Sparks comes together in just 15 minutes. She swaps in sugar snap peas for the traditional lima beans and adds shiitake mushrooms for meaty depth of flavor. It pairs wonderfully with anything grilled.
Mini Kabob Potatoes
A crisp exterior and soft, fluffy center make these quick-cooking fried potatoes fun to serve alongside kebabs, burgers, or whatever else you're throwing on the grill. Dusted with Aleppo pepper, they're just as good dipped in ketchup as they are with hummus or eggplant dip,
Grilled Zucchini with Ricotta and Pomegranate Molasses
Super easy yet impressive, this grilled zucchini is gussied up with toasted pumpkin seeds, dollops of ricotta, fresh tarragon, and a drizzle of sweet-tart pomegranate molasses — you only need 25 minutes to put the dish together.
For more Food & Wine news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on Food & Wine.
