Outdoor Dining : Firing up the BBQ or Pizza Oven

Todays Outdoor Dining Collaborative Post is thanks to Jacamo.

Do you love eating outside? We do, and on average households in the UK have 10 BBQ’s a year. I’m sure last year that average increased a little with the long hot summer we had. What kind of outside dining is your favourite?  We love a burger, veggie for me.  I make a mean spicy halloumi kebab with peppers and mushrooms, but we also adore BBQ’d sweetcorn on the side. Last weekend we were lucky enough to be invited for a BBQ with a difference, a pizza from an outdoor pizza oven.

Outdoor Dining – Pizza Oven

There’s something about cooking outside that just make the food taste better. We’d love to invest in a pizza oven like this. My husband loves cooking outside, he finds it relaxing, especially when he gets to experiment with flavours.  I love the prep side and all assembling of the side dishes.  So we make a good BBQ team I think.  Whatever we decide on though it has to be accompanied for us by a huge salad packed full of different textures and of course something to drink too.

Outdoor Dining – So happy with her pizza

You can see on the below graphic made by Jacamo some facts about the UK and their love of BBQ’s. I love the recipes that have been shared.  I think my top tips would be as follows:

1. Make sure the BBQ and all of the implements are clean. Everything is refrigerated before being cooked or eaten. That everyone washes their hands.
2. Make life easier for yourself and do the prep first, so that you can then relax and enjoy it.
3. Have a container to bring all of the condiments and seasoning out in one go.  You always forget things and this way you are only making one trip…hopefully!
4. Plastic/bamboo – We have a large set of plates and drinking cups to use outside that won’t break. Especially important if there are children or pets around.
5. Lots of napkins. You can pick up cloth ones in the sale really cheaply. I love mismatched ones to give an eclectic look to a table.
6. A large jug of water with ice, lemon or cucumber. Keep hydrated in the warm weather.

 

So today I thought I’d share with you my perfect BBQ salad, that we love in the summer. Something fresh with lots of different textures.

Cyprus Salad

The perfect summer BBQ salad.

Ingredients

• 4 sticks of celery, if they have the leaves on them, add those too.
• 1 whole cucumber
• 1 green pepper
• 8 tomatoes
• large handful of walnuts
• 4-6 sliced dried figs (they are hard to find in the UK as we usually sell soft ones)
• 1 pack of Halloumi
• 3 tablespoons of capers from a jar

Dressing

• Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil per person
• 1 teaspoon of red wine vinegar per person
• A little sea salt

Method

1. Chop the cucumber into bitesize pieces.
2. Finely chop the celery too, using the less stringy hearts of the celery, and adding the leaves if you have them.
3. Quarter the tomatoes, smaller if they are really large.
4. Finely slice the green pepper.
5. Lightly chop the walnuts and then slice the figs.
6. These should then be all added to a salad bowl with the capers and mixed together.
7. Grill the halloumi, which should be sliced lengthways.  I recommend doing this as thinly as you can, I just think it tasted better after grilling. Make sure you do both sides.
8. For the dressing add the ingredients together and whisk.  Add it to the salad at the very last minute, you can also add some greek oregano for a stronger flavour.

That’s it a simple Cyprus salad, that is perfect for a summer BBQ!

Thanks again to Jacamo for collaborating with me on this post.