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41 Best Cookout Food Ideas

These easy cookout food ideas include main dishes, grilling sides, salads, desserts, and more! Perfect for BBQs, picnics, or any summer gathering.

These cookout food ideas include everything you need for a crowd-pleasing summer BBQ! You’ll find recipes for mains like veggie burgers and sandwiches, grilling side dishes, snacks, salads, desserts, and more. Some of them are out-of-the-box and inventive, like grilled watermelon with a crispy corn topping. Others are my go-to versions of cookout food classics like pasta salad, potato salad, and corn on the cob. Whether you’re planning a full cookout menu or just looking for a dish to pass, you’re bound to find some recipes you love. Main Dish Cookout Recipes When I’m planning a cookout menu, I always…

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Healthy Potato Salad

This healthy potato salad recipe is perfect for picnics and BBQs! A creamy, tangy dressing coats tender potatoes, fresh herbs, and crunchy veggies.

summer / salads

This healthy potato salad recipe is a fresh riff on classic creamy potato salad. Over the last few summers, it’s become a new favorite on our picnic table. It’s just as creamy, savory, and tangy as the traditional kind, but it has a lighter Greek yogurt dressing, no hard boiled eggs, and plenty of veggies tossed in for crunch. It couldn’t be more perfect for potlucks and BBQs, because it tastes best when you make it in advance. We’ll have it on repeat all summer long, and I hope you will too! Healthy Potato Salad Recipe Ingredients Here’s what you’ll…

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Roasted Artichokes

This roasted artichoke recipe is my favorite way to cook baby artichokes. Tender and flavorful, they're a delicious appetizer or side dish.

I make this roasted artichoke recipe whenever I see baby artichokes at the farmers market or grocery store. I have a soft spot for anything mini – from cherry tomatoes and peppers to skillets and spoons – so whenever the little, purple-streaked artichokes catch my eye, I can’t resist buying them. They’re super cute, of course, but they have other advantages too. If you’ve ever cooked full-sized globe artichokes, you know that you need to scoop out the fuzzy choke inside the artichoke heart. That’s not the case here: once you peel off a baby artichoke’s outer leaves, you can…

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Easy Mango Salsa

This fresh mango salsa recipe is sweet, spicy, and easy to make with 8 ingredients! Scoop it up with tortilla chips or top it onto tacos and more.

This mango salsa recipe is one of my favorite appetizers to make throughout the spring and summer. It’s refreshing, fun, and so darn simple, made with fresh ingredients like sweet, juicy mango, red bell pepper, crisp red onion, cilantro, and lime. Ready in 10 minutes, it’s a quick and easy dip to serve with tortilla chips at potlucks and parties. I also love it on tacos, burritos, and other Mexican dishes! After you follow this mango salsa recipe once or twice, you’ll be able to leave the measuring cups in the drawer and just eyeball the ingredients. And after that, you…

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Pinto Beans

Once you learn how to cook pinto beans from scratch, the canned kind will never taste the same. Creamy and flavorful, they're a delicious side dish.

side dishes / cooking basics

“I’m never buying pinto beans in a can again!” I told Jack last week, as I savored spoonful after spoonful of pinto beans straight from a pot on the stove. Maybe I was exaggerating (canned beans are darn convenient, after all), but I’ll certainly reach for them less often than I used to. If the last year has taught me anything, it’s that cooking pinto beans from scratch will yield creamier, more flavorful beans every time. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m arriving late to the dried beans party. A few years back, I did try cooking them, but without…

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Asparagus Salad

This asparagus salad recipe is a delicious spring or summer side dish! This refreshing salad features crisp veggies, feta, and a creamy avocado dressing.

spring / salads

This asparagus salad recipe is a perfect spring or summer side dish. It combines all my favorite seasonal produce—asparagus, crisp radishes, sweet peas, and fresh herbs. Tossed with lemon, olive oil, and creamy avocado dressing, it’s bright, refreshing, and delicious. Every year, I make this asparagus salad recipe to celebrate the arrival of spring. After a long Chicago winter, nothing says sunnier, warmer days are ahead like this vibrant salad. Enjoy it as a side dish with practically any dinner, or prep it ahead for lunch. Easy to toss together in under 30 minutes, this recipe is a staple for me during…

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Artichoke Dipping Sauce

This rich, tangy artichoke dipping sauce is a delicious partner for steamed artichokes. Made with 7 simple ingredients, it comes together in minutes.

Is it just me, or is half the fun of eating artichokes the sauce you serve with them? This artichoke dipping sauce recipe has been a favorite of ours lately. It’s creamy, rich, and tangy, a perfect savory accent for the bright, nutty artichoke leaves and heart. It’s easy to make (you only need 7 ingredients, and one of them’s pepper!), and it comes together in a fraction of the time it takes to cook artichokes. Sit back and relax while they steam, and whip up the artichoke dipping sauce right before you eat! Artichoke Dipping Sauce Recipe Ingredients You…

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How to Cook Artichokes

Once you learn how to cook artichokes, you won't be able to get enough of them! In the spring, I make this steamed artichoke recipe on repeat.

A few years back, when I saw a fresh artichoke at the farmers market for the first time, I knew immediately that I’d be taking it home. It was so pretty, with its tightly packed petals and thick stem tinged with purple. How could I resist it? But when I got back to the house, I realized that I had one tiny problem….I had no clue how to cook artichokes. That spring, I passed off the artichoke prep to my mom, who happened to be visiting (thanks, Mom!), but since then, I’ve mastered how to cook artichokes myself. I wanted to…

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Simple Green Salad

This green salad recipe is simple, but it's still packed with delicious textures and flavors. It's a perfect side dish - you can serve it with almost anything!

spring / salads

We all need a good green salad recipe in our back pocket…which is why I can’t believe that in almost 10(!) years of blogging, I haven’t shared a simple green salad until today. That’s not to say that there’s a shortage of salad recipes on the site (broccoli salad, pasta salad, or avocado salad, anyone?). But it has been missing a quick, refreshing salad that you can toss together at the last minute and serve with almost anything. Well, let me introduce you to my favorite green salad recipe. It’s simple, but it doesn’t skimp at all on texture or…

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Carrot Salad

This raw carrot salad recipe is a healthy, 15-minute side dish! It's tossed in a bright lemon dressing and filled with sweet dates, herbs, and pistachios.

spring / salads

This carrot salad recipe features shredded raw carrots, dates, pistachios, and herbs tossed in a spiced lemon dressing. It’s super simple—this carrot salad comes together in just 15 minutes!—but the flavors are still unexpected and delicious. I love how the dates and dressing highlight the carrots’ natural sweetness. This carrot salad recipe would be a stunning side dish for a special occasion brunch or dinner, and it packs up nicely for lunches, picnics, and potlucks too. Most often, though, I eat it at the counter, scooping forkful after forkful straight from the bowl. It’s light, bright, aromatic, and refreshing. You…

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Pickled Eggs

In this pickled eggs recipe, red and yellow beets give the eggs their bright hues. I love to eat them as a snack or serve them as part of a spring brunch.

appetizers / snacks & dips

How CUTE are these pickled eggs?! They’re my new spring obsession, a grown-up substitute for the Easter eggs I dyed with my family as a kid. Back then, I colored my eggs with little bottles of food coloring, but in this pickled eggs recipe, I use natural ingredients instead. Red beets turn the eggs pink and purple, and a mix of yellow beets and turmeric creates that sunny yellow. I love keeping a jar of these pickled eggs on hand in the fridge for healthy, protein-packed snacking (though they’d be a fantastic addition to a spring brunch spread, too!). They’re…

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Welcome to Love & Lemons!

I'm Jeanine Donofrio, a New York Times bestselling cookbook author and recipe developer. I share fresh, delicious vegetarian recipes that celebrate seasonal ingredients and flavors.

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