44 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.

I never thought I’d be so excited to share these cookout food ideas with all of you. But after spending last summer picnicking on our own, the prospect of inviting family and friends over and gathering around the grill sounds amazing. Warm weather, good food, and great company? Life doesn’t get much better than that. You’ll find my best cookout food ideas below. They include 44+ recipes for veggie burgers and sandwiches, grilling side dishes, salads, snacks, desserts, and more. Some of them are out-of-the-box and inventive, like Chickpea Harissa Veggie Burgers or Grilled Watermelon with a crispy corn topping.…

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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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Breakfast Burrito

This breakfast burrito recipe is the best way to kickstart your morning. Filled with eggs and fresh veggies, it's healthy, fun, and easy to make!

breakfast / vegetarian

This breakfast burrito recipe is my ideal weekend breakfast. I love it because it’s fun, fresh, filling, and healthy, and it’s also a great way to use up odds and ends of ingredients I have leftover from recipe testing (or, you know, just making dinner) during the week. That half bunch of cilantro? Gone. The last little bit of cabbage? In it goes! Random black beans or avocado? This breakfast burrito is starting to sound good… Breakfast Burrito Recipe Ingredients I make this breakfast burrito recipe a little differently every time, but no matter what, I always start with these…

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How to Make Scrambled Eggs

Learn how to make scrambled eggs! With this 5-ingredient recipe, they come out soft, creamy, and flavorful every time. An easy, delicious breakfast.

breakfast / cooking basics

Scrambled eggs are one of the little luxuries of everyday life. When I make them, I savor every bite. They’re soft and creamy, rich and flavorful, and they just so happen to cook in under 5 minutes. Seriously, how amazing is that? If you poke around the internet in search of the best scrambled eggs recipe, you’ll find a million sites claiming to have it. Don’t be fooled – when it comes to scrambled eggs, “best” is a matter of personal taste. You can load them up with butter or sour cream, or just keep them simple like me. The…

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Chia Seed Pudding

This easy chia seed pudding recipe is a perfect healthy breakfast or snack! It tastes like dessert, but it's filled with fiber, protein, and healthy fats.

breakfast / snacks & dips

Now that the weather’s warming up, this chia seed pudding recipe has become my go-to breakfast/afternoon snack. It’s cool, creamy, and lightly sweet, with warm depth of flavor from a pinch of cinnamon. Topped off with fresh fruit, homemade granola, and a drizzle of maple syrup, it tastes like dessert, but it’s packed with fiber, protein, and healthy fats. Another reason I love this chia pudding? It’s super easy to make, and it keeps in the fridge for about 5 days. So if you’re a big fan of meal prepping, this recipe is for you. Make a batch of chia…

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How to Make Almond Butter

Learn how to make almond butter at home! Made with just 3 ingredients, it's smooth, creamy, and nutritious. You'll love it on toast, oatmeal, and more.

snacks & dips

I started making this homemade almond butter recipe in an effort to clear out my pantry. It sounds silly, I know, but partway through last winter, I ended up with jars and jars of different nuts in the cupboard. Pistachios left from this carrot salad, hazelnuts left from this kohlrabi slaw, and so forth. I had one big canister of almonds that was begging to be eaten, and since Jack and I had a great time making homemade peanut butter last spring, I decided to try blending them into homemade almond butter. Let me tell you, I am so glad…

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Creamy Asparagus Soup

This lightly creamy asparagus soup is bright with lemon and packed with herbs and veggies. It's the perfect fresh meal for a cool spring night.

spring / soups / vegan

On rainy spring afternoons, I hole up in the kitchen and make this asparagus soup recipe. It’s my spring substitute for the butternut squash soup I love making in the fall. When it’s too wet to be outside, I find it soothing and meditative to simmer a pot of asparagus soup on the stove and listen to the rain pattering on the roof. To me, it’s the perfect spring soup. Fresh basil makes it aromatic and refreshing, peas lend it a subtle sweetness, and blended potato makes it lightly creamy without any heavy cream. Serve it as a starter with…

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Artichoke Pasta

This artichoke pasta recipe is an easy, elegant spring dinner. It's tossed in a rich, flavorful lemon butter sauce and garnished with lots of fresh mint.

I got the idea for this artichoke pasta recipe a few weeks back, when my fridge was overflowing with spring artichokes. Jumbo ones, baby ones, and every size in between. One day, I had steamed a few of the large artichokes for this post, and after I finished taking the photos, I stood at the counter, snacking on the meaty leaves dipped in lemon butter sauce. Of course, I knew that artichokes and butter were a classic combination, but it had been a while since I’d tasted them together. After one bite, I started grinning. The artichokes and lemon butter…

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Lemon Butter Sauce

This rich, flavorful lemon butter sauce is delicious on pasta, roasted veggies, and more. Made with 5 ingredients, it comes together in minutes.

Earlier this spring, I started making this lemon butter sauce to serve with steamed artichokes. Since then, I’ve started serving it with so much more – pasta, roasted veggies, couscous. It’s deliciously buttery and rich, with a bright, savory flavor from lemon juice and garlic. You only need 5 ingredients to make it, and it comes together in less than 5 minutes. I mean, why not drizzle it over everything? Lemon Butter Sauce Recipe Ingredients You only need 5 ingredients to make this recipe: Butter, of course! I recommend using unsalted butter here. That way, you have complete control over the…

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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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Strawberry Muffins

These strawberry muffins are moist, fluffy, and bursting with fresh fruit. Pair one with coffee or tea for a sweet-yet-wholesome breakfast or snack.

On a cool spring morning, nothing gets me out of bed like the thought of these strawberry muffins. To me, they’re the perfect balance of cozy and refreshing. Cozy because they’re moist, fluffy, and warmly spiced with cinnamon. And refreshing because they’re packed to the brim with fresh fruit. I love savoring one for breakfast with a cup of coffee or tea and grabbing another in the afternoon for a sweet, yet still wholesome, snack. Oh! And if you’re looking for a last-minute addition to your Mother’s Day menu this weekend, these strawberry muffins would be great for that too.…

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Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.