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Quick and Easy Barbecue & Picnic Recipes

By Lori Taylor

Jul 09, 2019, Updated May 25, 2021

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Mann’s Fresh Vegetables sponsored this post. 

Quick and easy outdoor dishes

It’s barbecue and picnic season! The beauty of backyard barbecues and park picnics are their casual, laid back feel. Complicated and time-consuming dishes have no business at these relaxed gatherings. Mann’s makes it easy to throw an easy-peasy outdoor meal with their Veggie Slaw Blends, Nourish Bowls®, and Family Favorites Veggies. How easy, you ask? Let us show you!

Easy Salads using Mann’s Veggie Slaw Blends

Every outdoor meal needs a refreshing, cold salad. Turn Mann’s Kale Beet Blend® into Kale Beet Mediterranean Salad. This Mason jar salad packs up perfectly in a picnic basket!

Kale Beet Mediterranean Salad

Dressing Ingredients

• ½ cup sherry vinegar
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• salt, pepper, and honey (optional: if sweetness is desired), to taste

Salad Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounces) bag Mann’s Kale Beet Blend
• ½ small red bell pepper, diced
• 2 Persian cucumbers, diced
• 3 ounces crumbled feta
• ½ small red onion, diced
• 3 hardboiled eggs, chopped and divided
• 3 tablespoons roasted sunflower seeds, divided
• 3 ounces Dijon vinaigrette (recipe below)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Dressing Directions

1. Add vinegar, oil, and mustard to a mixing bowl, food processor, or immersion blend. Whisk by hand or blend until emulsified. Add salt, pepper, and honey to taste.

Salad Directions

1. Add one-third of Kale Beet Blend to a large glass jar or container. Build your salad in layers by adding bell pepper, cucumber, feta, red onion, egg, seeds, and salt and pepper. Repeat this 2 more times to complete all 4 salads. Divide 3 oz dressing into 4 small to-go containers and pack one with each salad. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Another option is Lemon Rainbow Salad using Mann’s Rainbow Salad mix. Containing all of the fiber and none of the prep work, this colorful blend makes for a stunning summer salad!

Lemon Rainbow Salad

Dressing Ingredients

• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ cup lemon juice, fresh
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper

Salad Ingredients

• 2 (12 ounce) bags Mann’s Rainbow Salad
• ¼ cup sliced red onions
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

For Dressing

1. Add dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk to combine (Dressing can be prepared 1 day in advance).

For Salad

1. In a large salad bowl, add salad ingredients and toss well to mix. Add dressing and toss well again.

Fiesta Fun with Nourish Bowls®

Turn your backyard barbecue into a fiesta with Southwest Chipotle Guacamole. Simply combine Mann’s Southwest Chipotle Nourish Bowl® with a few avocados, lime juice, and salt and pepper to get a flavorful guacamole that everyone will love.

Serve it with tortilla chips or spread it onto sandwiches. Better yet, encourage kids to dip washed and ready to eat veggies, like carrots and broccoli, into the guac. Kids (and adults) always find it more fun to eat veggies when a great dip is involved! 

Southwest Chipotle Guacamole

Ingredients

• 1 Mann’s Nourish Bowls® Southwest Chipotle
• 4 Del Monte® Fresh Hass avocados, ready to mash
•  ½ cup diced white onion, (optional)
• Juice of 2 limes
• ½ cup chopped cilantro leaves, (optional)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 bag Tortilla Chips

Directions

1. Prepare Mann’s Nourish Bowls® Southwest Chipotle according to directions. Let cool.
2. Open avocados and scoop out the flesh. Mash the flesh with a fork. Add the fully cooled Mann’s Nourish Bowls® Southwest Chipotle. And stir thoroughly. Stir in any extras to your liking. Serve with tortilla chips.

Crunchy Sides with Stringless Sugar Snap Peas

Mann’s award-winning Sugar Snap Peas are crunchy and sweet. Best of all… they are stringless! This is one veggie that you won’t have to fight your kids to eat. Parents everywhere, rejoice over this veggie that kids actually love to snack on!

Pack Mann’s Sugar Snap Peas in your picnic basket and eat straight from the bag. Or, dip them in hummus or Ranch dressing. Whichever way you choose, one thing’s for sure, there won’t be any left to pack back home.

For backyard barbecues, try Snap Pea Potato Salad. The best potato salads includes one or two crunchy ingredients for added texture. Sugar snap peas deliver a satisfying crunch, bite after bite.

Snap Pea Potato Salad

Ingredients

• 1 pound red potatoes, sliced
• 4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
• ½ cup chopped celery
• ½ cup chopped green onions
• ½ cup chopped dill pickles
• ¼ cup pickle juice (from jar)
• 5 tablespoons light mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• ½ teaspoon garlic salt
• Salt, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• 1 (8 ounce) bag Mann’s Stringless Sugar Snap Peas, chopped

Directions

1. Place sliced red potatoes into a large pot and fill with water to cover. Over high-heat, bring the water to a boil and cook potatoes until tender, about 10-15 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine the eggs, parsley, celery, green onion, dill pickles, pickle juice, light mayonnaise, mustard, garlic salt, salt and pepper. Stir well. Add cubed potatoes to bowl and chopped sugar snap peas.  Gently toss to combine all the ingredients. Refrigerated until ready to eat.

Enjoy these easy, outdoor meals all summer long! For more quick and easy everyday recipes, browse Mann’s recipe catalog, peruse their Pinterest boards, or download one of their many free eBooks like this Summer Salad Recipe Guide or this Stringless Sugar Snap Peas Recipe Guide.

Coming this fall, Mann’s will be introducing a new veggie to the market… CAULILINI® baby cauliflower! CAULILINI® baby cauliflower is an Asian-style variety that requires minimal prep. Softer than cauliflower with tastes similar to BROCCOLINI® baby broccoli, it’s the next best thing to hit the food scene. This extraordinary veggie is extraordinarily versatile. It can be fried, steamed, grilled, blanched, or sautéed. The entire veggie is edible — from stem to floret. It’s 100% cauliflower and non-GMO. Learn more here.

What are your favorite summer dishes to pack in a picnic basket or whip up for a backyard barbecue? Share your best barbecue and picnic recipes in the comments below!