It’s Labor Day!
Your barbecue can taste as good as it is good-for-you with these inspiring ideas and recipes. All you’ll need to add are friends and family!
Craving a steak or a burger? Go ahead and enjoy every bite. Just have a sensible portion of the main dish and fill the rest of your plate with veggies and a green salad. Instead of mayo on the burger, give the bun a smear of avocado for some heart-healthy fats. Or be adventurous with the burgers this year and give bison a try. Our Cowboy Bison Burgers are simple to make and ready to serve in 30 minutes or less.
Want to try a different spin on grilling? Make Cedar Plank Salmon with Lemon Pesto Butter. Cedar plank grilling keeps the food away from the direct heat of the grill, cooking it gently and resulting in moist, tender salmon with a mildly smoky flavor. The key is remembering to soak the planks for at least four hours before grilling. Our video walks you through it step by step:
Skip the barbecue sauce and bring a world of fresh flavors to your cookout:
Make Korean-inspired kebabs by marinating cubes of flank steak in soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, ginger and garlic. Thread beef onto water-soaked skewers with pieces of scallion and bell pepper, then grill.
Bring the flavors of India to your table by marinating chicken breasts in lime juice, curry powder and mint and then grill. Serve with lime wedges and a spoonful of mango chutney.
Shrimp and salmon both take well to Middle Eastern flavors. Make a paste of minced garlic and ginger, cumin, lemon juice and olive oil and rub over peeled shrimp or salmon fillets and grill. Serve sprinkled with chopped fresh mint or cilantro with lemon wedges on the side.
For an easy Mexican dish that’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, try our Chicken and Grilled Vegetable Fajitas. Made with boneless, skinless chicken thighs, loads of fresh veggies and spices you probably already have in your pantry, these are an almost-no-labor way to celebrate Labor Day!
Make sure a platter of nutritious grilled veggies is part of your backyard menu. Try our recipe for Grilled Italian Vegetables – it’s easy, quick, colorful and everyone will love the flavor of the flame-kissed eggplant and summer squash. If you’ve got room on the grill, grilled corn is a favorite for barbecues and nothing could be simpler to make. Watch our video to see how easy and foolproof it is.
Fruits are fantastic on the grill, too.
They make a refreshing dessert or try them along with the main course. Serve chicken with grilled peaches or mangoes, pork chops with grilled plums, steak with grilled figs or salmon with grilled citrus slices. To grill fruit, halve and pit fruits like apricots, plums or peaches. Cut citrus or melon into slices and cut figs in half. Then toss very lightly in olive oil and grill, turning often, just until softened, for about 3 to 5 minutes.
