24 Grilling Side Dishes

By Food & Wine
Updated August 02, 2018
These terrific side dishes include cooling cucumber salad, crispy broccoli and smoky asparagus.
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Grilled Eggplant, Apricot and Tomato Salad


Credit: CON POULOS
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This simple summer salad from Portland, Oregon, chef Joshua McFadden perfectly showcases summer produce at its peak.

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Smashed Cucumber Salad with Butter Beans and Tarragon


Credit: Jennifer Causey
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Gently crushing the cucumbers for this salad releases their aroma and creates nooks and crannies for soaking up the dressing.

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Creamy Cucumber and Grilled Potato Salad

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“When I was a kid, my mom would marinate cucumbers, red onions and canned potatoes in jarred creamy Italian dressing,” says Jamie Bissonnette. “I’m not saying she was a great cook, but creamy Italian dressing is still my favorite. I make a version of it for this salad.”

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Thai Cucumber Salad with Peanuts

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In this refreshing salad, crisp cucumbers and aromatic cilantro are tossed with a tangy dressing made with lime juice, fish sauce and fiery Thai chiles.

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Bacon and Tomato Salad

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Serve with crusty bread and extra hot sauce.

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Grilled Broccoli with Chipotle-Lime Butter and Queso Fresco

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If you’ve never tried grilling broccoli, you are definitely missing out: The vegetable becomes tender and deliciously charred. Tossing the broccoli with a butter flavored with lime zest, honey and smoky chipotle Tabasco makes it luscious.

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Charro Beans

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"Most people prefer margaritas either frozen or on the rocks. In Texas, it's the same with refried beans versus charro," says Tim Love. Refried beans are made with mashed pintos; for charro—a Tex-Mex take on pork and beans—the beans are served whole in a spicy broth.

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Barley and Grilled-Vegetable Salad

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Green Bean-and-Roasted Red Pepper Salad

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Private chef Michael Emanuel's late-harvest salad gets its surprisingly meaty richness from the sliced red bell peppers he roasts in a clay oven; a broiler also works well.

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Grilled Potato and Onion Salad with Blue Cheese and Bacon

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Jeri Ryan's favorite sandwich stuffing is a mix of crumbly cheese, crispy bacon and charred red onions. She likes the savory combination so much she's turned it into a salad with tender new potatoes. It's incredibly good as a side with grilled beef tenderloin or steak.

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Charred Corn Salad with Mint, Parsley and Cilantro

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Yotam Ottolenghi loves mixing unorthodox ingredients, like lime juice, jalapeño and maple syrup, into his Middle Eastern food.

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Grilled Eggplant Salad with Walnuts

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Terrific as a salad or a spread for flatbread, adzhapsandali is like a Georgian version of ratatouille. Grilling the eggplant gives the dish a luscious, smoky flavor.

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Watermelon Salad with Feta and Mint

Credit: Tom Hopkins
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Although Jacques Pépin cuts a small, seedless watermelon into rounds with a melon baller (adding the trimmings to the salad, too, so as not to waste them), you can also chop the watermelon into cubes.

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Grill-Roasted Bacon-and-Scallion Corn Muffins

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When baking these bacon-and-scallion-flecked corn muffins—a great accompaniment to all kinds of barbecue—Nick Fauchald prefers the grill to a conventional oven for two reasons: The muffins absorb some of the grill’s great smoky flavors, and he can spend that much more time outside.

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Grilled Fava Bean Pods with Chile and Lemon

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Chef Nate Appleman quickly grills whole fava beans, tosses them with a crushed red pepper dressing and serves them hot. They can be eaten whole—the tender pods develop a lovely charred flavor on the grill—but it’s also easy to eat them in the traditional way by popping the beans out of their pods and outer skins.

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Potato Salad with Hummus-Yogurt Dressing

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Two Middle Eastern staples make one great dressing.

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Tomato Salad with Pickled Walnuts and Blue Cheese

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Richard Blais garnishes his take on a caprese salad of tomato and mozzarella with pickled walnuts, made by tossing candied walnuts with a little vinegar. (Alternatively, use British pickled walnuts, available at some specialty food stores.) “The blue cheese and the celery give this dish a little ‘adultness,’” he says.

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Grilled Corn on the Cob with Roasted Garlic and Herbs

Credit: KANA OKADA
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“Butter is not the villain it once was,” says Michel Nischan, who adds a little bit to roasted garlic to create a rich, creamy spread for corn on the cob.

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Smoky Glazed Asparagus

Credit: Courtesy of Quentin Bacon
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Chef Nate Appleman swears by coating vegetables with a mayonnaise-based marinade; it creates a beautifully blistered crust when grilled. Here he offers a marinade for asparagus that is also fabulous on broccoli and fennel.

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Adler & Fertig's Knife and Fork Grilled Vegetable Salad

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Steam helps loosen a pepper's charred skin from its flesh. To create steam, place the hot pepper in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, or place in it a plastic bag and seal, then let sit for 5 minutes and remove. The skin should slip right off.

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Rösti Potatoes

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Rösti potatoes are Swiss-style shredded potatoes shaped into cakes. Francis Mallmann's directions for making them are very precise: Once the cakes touch the hot griddle, cook them very slowly and don't touch—except to flip them over—until they're done. That's the only way to get a sensational crust.

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Grill-Baked Potatoes with Chive Butter

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These supereasy, indulgent potatoes are based on a recipe Brooklyn butcher Tom Mylan found in a South Dakota centennial cookbook. They're layered with pats of chive and sour cream butter, then wrapped in foil and grilled until soft and delicious.

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Corn on the Cob with Curry Mayonnaise and Chile Salt

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For his Asian take on elote, the grilled corn on the cob sold on the streets of Mexico, Bill Kim seasons mayonnaise with a spicy and tangy mix of lime juice, curry powder and chile paste. In place of the cheese that’s commonly sprinkled on top, he dusts the corn with a mix of lime zest, lemon zest, chile and salt.

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Peach-and-Fennel Slaw

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This sweet and crunchy salad with lots of immune-boosting vitamin C is delicious with grilled pork or in a pulled-pork sandwich. To wilt the fennel slightly, Michel Nischan briefly marinates it in vinegar and salt before tossing it with firm, ripe peaches.

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