A fun party around the grill, with food items that make a summer day more enjoyable. Major preps for this menu can be done a day in advance.
This grill party menu is planned in a way that you can do most of the preps a day before, so you can have your energy and time saved for your guests. It has components to also keep the vegetarian guests and kids happy. Recipes are linked below, scroll down for prep and serving tips.
FOR THE GRILL
Hariyali Chicken Skewers
Halloumi Tikka Bites (Vegetarian)
Beef Kabab
SALADS
You can make either or both of the following salads, depending upon the number of guests you are having.
Watermelon-Feta Salad
Couscous Salad
SIDES
Marinated Onion
Spicy Mint and Coriander Chutney
DESSERT
For dessert, here are two recommendations. You can choose to make either one or both.
Mango Ice Cream
Dragonfruit-Watermelon Popsicles
DRINK
Watermelon-Masala Lemonade
Preps
For this menu, it is highly recommended to do the major preps a day in advance. These kind of menus are my favourite kind. Not only this will save you a considerable amount of time and effort on the day of hosting, but marinating and prepping in advance will make certain food items more flavourful.
- Hariyali Chicken Skewers: Marinate the chicken a day in advance. It makes the skewers much more flavourful. If you are going to use wooden skewers for the grill, soak them into water for 30 minutes before you insert the chicken into it. Soaking will prevent them from burning while grilling.
- Halloumi Tikka Bites: You can marinate the halloumi cheese and cute the veggies a day in advance. Store them separate into an airtight container in the fridge. Take them out, about 30 minutes before you plan to grill them.
- Beef Kababs: You can prepare the beef kababs mixture and shape the kababs a day ahead of time. When storing, put a sheet of baking paper in between each layer of kabab so they won’t stick to each other.
- Salads: Salads are best made as near to serving time as possible. But when hosting, it is not possible to leave things for the very last minute. What you can do is prepare the salad and the dressing an hour or two before serving and store them (separately) in the fridge. Do not add the dressing to the salad beforehand. Once you are ready to serve, add the dressing to the salad and mix. This way your salad will remain fresh and won’t become soggy until serving time.
- Marinated Onion: This can be prepared up to 24 hours in advance and left on countertop. The onion will absorb the oil and vinegar, and will get nicely marinated.
- Spicy Mint and Coriander Chutney: You can prepare this chutney for up to 2 days in advance. If you store it in an airtight container in the fridge, it will keep fresh.
- Mango ice cream/ Dragonfruit Watermelon Popsicles: You can make these several days in advance as they store well in the freezer. If you couldn’t prepare them earlier, make it a day in advance to ensure it freezes through.
- Watermelon Masala Lemonade: You need to make it immediately before serving. Otherwise the watermelon solids separate and the drink doesn’t remain homogeneous. What you can do to prepare is to cut the watermelon, and store it along with all the rest of the ingredients into an airtight container. When you are ready to serve it, add everything into a blender and blend. Just add ice cubes into the glasses before serving.
Serving suggestions
Take out the components out of the fridge which need to go on the grill about 30 minutes ahead of grilling. The temperature needs to come up a little so they can cook through on the grill. You can either prepare a big tray with all the grilled components laid together, garnishing with marinated onion and putting a bowl of green chutney in between. Or you can serve the items individually, directly out from the grill. This makes more sense if you have vegetarian guests or guests with certain food restrictions. This way, they can choose and pick themselves without the items being contaminated.
The salads and sides could be served on a table. As suggested above, dressing should be added to the salad when you are ready to serve it and not earlier. If you wish, you could add some bread on the menu as well. How about these homemade wholewheat burger buns?
Ice cream/Popsicles could be served on a bed of ice cubes/crushed ice. Same with the drinks. You can also add bottled drinks to the menu to offer a variety.