Pillog, are you meaning foods that are cooked with bbq sauce or just foods cooked on the grill?

Different salads. I like roasted peppers with half a tomato inside the pepper, with some sundried tomato pieces, garlic slivers and olives roasted and served at room temperature. Lot of green salad, potato salad..... pick and choose. As for desserts, a fruit tart or ice cream in a cone. Easy.

Here in the midwest -- the heart of KC BBQ territory -- must sides are baked beans (very sweet and thick with chunks of smoked meat in them), coleslaw (any kind will do but we prefer the oil and vinegar one -- you don't have to worry about mayonnaise) and a cheesy corn casserole. Wheb I serve BBQ I do the oil and vinegar coleslaw and beans.

As Islay. Freshly made potato salad, green salad and grilled vegetables. Maybe hummus. Summer pudding, gooseberry fool or redcurrant shortbread.

For traditional KC BBQ (smoked meats) what Martha mentioned and add potato salad. Onion rings are also sometimes added to top smoked meat sandwiches. Most BBQ joints also offer fries.

I like to do a broccoli salad with red onion, raisins, sunflower seeds, bacon bits, and a mayo/cider vinegar dressing. Pasta salad is also popular for summer meals.

I say know your crowd and cater to it. To us, A BBQ means a party,which means its time to indulge a little. So no, a raw veggie tray will not go down well. Neither will any other veggies. Not for a party. Baked beans. Potato salad. Chips and different dips. Mac and cheese is a must. But that's us.

If your crowd like veggies and salads and fruit or whatever, go for that. Just don't invite me,cuz ill bring a tub of nacho cheese to make it feel like a party.

We get our starches from salads - potato, macaroni or pasta, quinoa, couscous or tabouli, grilled corn salad, mixed bean salad. And desserts tend to be fruity and no-cook - watermelon with feta, fresh local cherries (icy cold) or a big favorite, fresh peaches and pineapple grilled on the BBQ,

In summer and with any heat, no one in my crowd wants anything very heavy - no mac and cheese and even baked beans often get passed over. To be honest, mac and cheese is just not a big draw here at all unless you are under the age of 10 :-)

It wasn't a barbeque but a beachside picnic dinner on Saturday - cold grilled shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce, potato salad, hummus with seasoned plantain crackers (a first for me but delish!), cuke slices and celery, and grapes and cherries. And ranger cookies for anyone's sweet tooth. All washed down with an icy coldrosé Prosecco! Pretty decent thrown together meal :-)

My kind of barbecue, gg. To me mac and cheese is a filling winter main course. If I ate it as a side I wouldn't be able to manage anything else.

Definitely salads like pasta and potato, along with cole slaw - either creamy (green cabbage) or vinaigrette (purple cabbage). Corn on the cob is another traditional side for us, and I like bean salad and carrot raisin salad too. My mom's neighbor makes a broccoli & dried cranberry salad that most everybody raves about, but I don't care for it. I prefer the classics. There's often fresh pineapple and watermelon as well. My mom will insist on baked beans, but hardly anybody eats them.

Desserts are usually chewy chocolate brownies topped with nuts and chocolate ganache - maybe some ice cream too.

Salads, for sure. One of my favorites is panzanella which is especially great with homegrown tomatoes. Corn and black bean salad is another good one. To make it a little more "main" I sometimes add chicken that's been marinated in a tequila-lime marinade and grilled. There's a place here (Clearman's Northwoods Inn) that makes the most amazing red cabbage cole slaw. I'll often make a run over there to pick some up to serve with grilled meat/poultry. I also often serve my cole slaw with horseradish dressing.

Regarding desserts, people always seem especially happy when I serve a peach and/or berry fruit crisp or homemade ice cream sandwiches.

slaws [including kohlrabi] ... potato salads .... three-bean salads ... bbq beans .... amd melon/fruit salads

Like mentioned it is best to know your crowd. Friends and family. I've made maybe 4 dozen fresh raw salads since this year February. ...menu prep i started planning a few months ago for the covid-post-safe-vaccinated BBQ's. First is this next weekend. July 4th. It is only 12 guests including us but may quickly increase to 22 guests by the end of the week....the 4th of July temps in the moutains at the family farm is 65º high. All day. I can easily serve 30 if needed. (we always plan near double just in case).

My crowd is 80% raw diet, no vegans. No specific diets like keto, or gluten-free. No allergies that i know of....my menu will suit all diets if a freak secondary unknown visitor shows up...(a new girlfriend, etc...). like a few years ago it is not an issue.

I might have a semi-vegan-egg-dairy-fish-sometimes family, lol. And maybe a teen daughter in another family geeking vegan, but a BBQ one day i'm not concerned.

All salads are gluten-free. All desserts are gluten-free. No one will know either way. Enough keto-vegan-raw offerings it is not an issue.

Sorry to be slow in getting back, Lizbeth. Wild working weekend. I was thinking classic barbecue flavors, or at least the char of a real fire, because people make all kinds of indoor food on their grills, but anything someone wants to say is fine with me!

Thanks, Everybody, for all the interesting answers!

Amylou, these were parties, and people were scrounging for vegetables which weren't very present. I totally respect your desire not to eat vegetables at parties. That's why I mentioned you in my top post--because I know you feel opposite to me about these things. You'd be welcome with your tub of cheese--just don't be insulted if not much of it gets eaten! At one of these parties there was a platter of finger sized sticks of white colored cheese rolled up in what looked like smoked turkey or ham. It was very pretty and just dying of neglect. If I came to one of your parties, I would nibble from your mom's veg platter if the contents looked fresh and nice. :)

Dave, do tell about kohlrabi slaw. I've never heard of such a thing. Is it just like cole or broccoli slaw, or something different? I love kohlrabi.

Re mac and cheese, I also don't understand it as a side dish, but it's often served that way. I do like good mac and cheese in general, but can only eat about a tablespoon of the really good stuff. I used to make a great, lighter version with soy "cheese" but it was that particular kind and I haven't found a good replacement, or figured out how to adapt it to what I can get. It's simple, with onion powder, a little salt and pepper, but not much other seasoning, small but not tiny elbows, and the super melty cheese. It's satisfying but doesn't eat heavy like the real thing. Stir in a generous amount of salsa picante and reheat it, steaming off some, so it's all caramelly and crunchy on top, and it's super good. But I'm really over trying to find a good "cheese" for it. If anyone has suggestions, do tell!

I hadn't thought of baked beans. They do go well with barbeque, though I didn't see any at the parties or TV show. For me, they're not hot weather food. We have a lot of very chilly, damp Summer evenings, when barbecue sounds like a good idea at the cooking hour, but it's dank out by the eating hour, and baked beans are nice and warming then. :) "It was hot earlier" food. :D

you shred the kohlrabi like cabbage, add a granny smiyh apple or two ... and dress it up with a coleslaw-esque dressing ... we like it heavy on the celery seed and even some of those nice plumpy mustard seeds .... poor man's caviar

Normally we would have grilled zucchini, eggplant, peppers,onions, maybe some sliced tomatoes with basil and mozzerella. Grilled peaches with a drizzle of balsamic (and maybe a scoop of ice cream!) for dessert.

But everything is late this year! We have plenty of zucchini, but only 1 eggplant and 1 pepper. peaches are late!

We've had mothers day and fathers day. one was hot, one was not. The cooler one I did make a homemade tater salad, which was devoured. The hotter was so hot I caved and bought some deli tater salad, which was OK at best

Dave, thanks! That's raw kohlrabi?

yes, raw.

foil baked potato, foil baked sweet potato,

white potato pie, popovers,hush puppies

watermelon pizza,crab dip. soft pretzel

kimchi.

Here it‘s not a barbecue without potato salad and coleslaw. Greek salad is also popular. For dessert, usually gelatine-set cheesecake or pavlova, sometimes fruit salad and cream or icecream.

Pasta salad with grilled/roasted veggies is always welcome.

I love my potato salad; not the kind laden with mayonnaise, etc. Mine is just cooked chunks of potato, skins on; then tossed with olive oil, red wine vinegar, grainy mustard and minced herbs.

Other than what's been mentioned, fruit salads are popular and actually, still . . . jello salads, the fruity kind are popular but not something I usually make unless I want to impress my Dad. As for desserts, a lot of people use a gathering event like a BBQ or picnic with guests as a chance to make a cake without having a ton of leftovers. Cobblers, buckles and crisps are great with seasonal fruits as well. I use a BBQ as an opportunity to make my favorite dessert that doesn't keep well - PIE!

I don't mind a pasta or potato salad, because I mix in lots of vegetables or protein in the form of eggs, beans or cheeses because I am mostly vegetarian. I have a million coleslaw variations and like all of them, plus any other type of raw vegetable salad. My Mom was famous for her cucumber salad with lemon, chives or scallions and sour cream but there are vinegar versions of same . . . I make that a lot when I can get good cukes . . . or any other type of chopped marinated salad, maybe toss in some feta before serving . . . I love corn chips with bean dip or pita wedges with hummus or baba ganoush or even mock chopped liver made with green beans or mushrooms.

When i take something usually bean or corn salad or a grain based dish; no mayo

I'm also Midwestern, although I'm in Michigan, so is there a Northern Midwest? (grin)

Here there is usually baked beans and everyone seems to love them, they are always first to go. Potato salad is common, although those foil wrapped potato slices on the grill are often seen instead. Fresh summer fruit is served, but there's always a cake for dessert, fruit is a side dish. Coleslaw, nearly always, although I also tend to like the vinegar/brine based slaw instead of the creamy mayo dressed stuff. Whatever is ready in the garden, whether it's sliced cucumbers, pickled zucchini, fresh tomatoes, corn on the cob which is sometimes also grilledd. There could a salad made with fresh "leaves", cheese, meat, hard boiled eggs, crumbled bacon, etc., but never a veggie tray. Those normally just become chicken food, no one eats the celery stick/baby carrot things when there are so many fresh local things to be enjoyed. Oh, and bread, there is always bread. Sometimes it's those store bought Hawaiian rolls and sometimes I bake them, but there's always at least a loaf of sliced bread to mop up any stray BBQ sauce.

No mac and cheese. I don't like white pasta or cheese, so it's a no-go for me, but no one else seems to make it for "cook outs" either. Pasta salad is common, but not mac and cheese for some reason. And, of course, it's the food that The Princess always wants!

Annie