Summer hopefully means sunshine and a picnic. Beware though, not all summer foods make perfect picnic food, though do some work better than others. It's a good idea to check out what does and doesn't and make sure your picnic is a safe picnic.
I have put together this recipe collection of summer foods to make a perfect picnic, now all we need is for the sun to shine.
1. Tips for a Perfect Picnic
If you are about to plan a picnic there are a few tips that it may be worth bearing in mind before you set off. Always better to be safe than sorry.
2. Cold Soups Make Perfect Picnic Food
Summer soup recipes are wonderful but on a warm, summers' day what could be lovelier than a bowl of cold soup. Cold soup recipes make perfect and elegant starters for a dinner and really shine for outdoor eating and especially at picnics and barbecues. as they can easily be carried in a flask and drunk from a glass.
3. Salads: Summer Sunshine in a Box
Courtesy of British Asparagus
Salads are always great picnic food. Pack them in an airtight box, a couple of forks and away you go. Perfect.
A warm asparagus salad is suitable for a simple, lunch and great cool for a picnic. Use fresh British asparagus when in season or whenever fresh asparagus is available. This asparagus salad recipe is filled with the best of summer vegetables, peas, beans and rocket. If you can't find any of these just use any that take your fancy.
This colorful and nutritious salad is so, so easy to make. The salad is good served alongside cold meats, quiche or simply on its own. If you can't find fresh thyme, don't worry. Try fresh basil instead.
4. The Best Tomato Tart and Friends
Pastry based tarts are a lovely picnic food. Wrap them carefully in foil or place into a platic box and you're away.
This Summer Tomato Tart is the perfect tomato tart recipe when you have lots of fresh, fragrant tomatoes in the garden. It is one of my most requested dishes from family and friends. Served cold it goes really well in a lunch box or as picnic food.
I like to decorate the tart with salty, canned anchovies and a few black olives, but that's optional.
More Tarts for Perfect Picnics
5. Cold Cooked Chicken - Delicious
Cold, cooked chicken is always a great ingredient for the picnic basket. Hot or cold chicken keeps it flavour so what could be better. There are many recipes but this Lemon Roast Chicken recipe is perfect cooked, cooled and then jointed and packed for the basket. Yummy.
Another great is classic British dish Coronation Chicken. Coronation chicken was designed for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as a representation of the, then, colonial nature of the British Empire so includes fruit, curry and mayonnaise.
6. Old British Favourites for a Picnic Basket
No British picnic basket would be complete witht a few of the old favourites. I am sure these dishes were designed for the pic basket they are so well suited to being transported and eaten cold outdoors.
7. Don't Worry About the Mess
Photo © RFB photography
As the story goes: Eton Mess was traditionally served at Eton College but how it came to have the name is not clear but the story is a Labrador dog sat on a picnic basket in the back of a car and squashed a strawberry and meringue dessert. So as this dessert is already squashed it is great for a picnic, no-one has to worry about the dish being messed up.
The dessert is quick and easy to make and makes great use of ripe strawberries at the height of summer when they are plentiful. Frozen or canned strawberries don't work.
8. Sweet Things - Tarts and Flapjack
Photo © RFB Photography
Jam tarts are one of the first things my mum ever taught me to bake probably because a jam tart recipe is just so easy just a little pasty and jam or, for lemon tarts, using lemon curd. Packed into a little box they are such a great picnic snack treat.
Another great sweet food is a box of tasty flapjack. Traditional Flapjack is one of the quickest, easiest and importantly cheap baked goods to make. This traditional flapjack recipe is delicious and check out all the variations also possible.
Note: British Flapjack is not the same as a US flapjack which is more of a pancake.
9. And to Drink: Elderflower, a Beer or a Pimm's - You Choose
Taking something to drink of course is important. You choose if those drinks are non, or, alcoholic as it will depend on the time, occasion and who is present.
One of the most refreshing, non-alcoholic drinks for the summer and spot on for a picnic is an Elderflower Cordial. An Elderflower Cordial is quick and easy to make when the flowers are in season and its a great excuse for a long walk collecting flowers.
Pimm's is the quintessentially summer drink in the UK, it brinsg the scents of summer, parties, picnics and Wimbledon together.
And, if it is a beer you fancy, check out how to match the two together.
