25 Flavorful Side Dishes to Make This Summer

Jennifer Causey

When you think of summer side dishes, you might first think of, say, potato salad. It’s a warm-weather staple, frequenting picnics, barbecues, and neighborhood block parties. We’re not hating on the classic—in fact, we have several recipes for it—but we’re here to remind you that you have other options, too. You can do several different takes on corn, from grilling it and slathering it with mango-habanero butter to making a salad with citrus aioli; we love the combination of ember-roasted sweet potatoes with a coconut caramel sauce (and yes, we included some potato salad recipes too). Check out the full spread here for recipe inspiration.

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Grilled Strawberry-Avocado Toasts with Burrata

CON POULOS

These hulking avocado toasts with strawberries and creamy burrata are a great early summer lunch or, cut into thick slices, a crowd-pleasing appetizer. Be sure to use a quality balsamic vinegar here.

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2 of 26

Grill-Roasted Bacon-and-Scallion Corn Muffins

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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Baked Beans with Maple-Glazed Bacon

For a zippy version of a New England classic, Laurence Jossel bakes buttery Rancho Gordo Yellow Eye beans in a tangy-hot mixture of apple cider vinegar, molasses, brown sugar and crushed red pepper. Regular Italian cannellini or Great Northern beans can replace the Yellow Eyes.

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Grilled Corn with Mango-Habanero Butter

Bobby Flay likes to cook corn on the cob with the husk tied back into a kind of handle. He soaks the bundle in cold water before it goes on the grill for two reasons: It steams the kernels a little, making them tender, and it prevents the husks from burning.

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Grilled Peach, Onion and Bacon Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

The secret to this salad is using big, juicy sweet onions like the Vidalias that Linton Hopkins favors, which get nicely charred on the grill.

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Napa Cabbage Salad

This Asian-inspired recipe is rich in cancer-fighting antioxidants.

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Smoky Glazed Asparagus

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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Grilled Tomato-and-Scallion Salad

"If it were up to me, I would throw everything on the grill," says Tim Love. Case in point: He cooks tomatoes and scallions over a hot fire for a simple salad flavored with a little lime juice and crumbled cheese.

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Potato Salad with Green Beans and Salsa Verde

A terrific salsa verde makes this velvety potato salad extraordinary. Here the salsa is made with parsley and chives; try making it with other summer herbs, like tarragon or basil, as well.

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Grilled Eggplant and Tomatoes with Parmesan-Basil Crumbs

Fresh bread crumbs are an underrated way of adding fabulous crunch to recipes. Here Francis Mallmann uses bread crumbs tossed with fresh basil and lots of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese to create a great topping for tender grilled vegetables.

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Green Bean Slaw

In this salad, tender haricots verts get tossed with crunchy strips of carrot, red pepper and parsnip. Feel free to add bacon too, though it’s just as delicious without.

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Sweet Corn Succotash

Birmingham, Alabama, chef Chris Hastings uses fresh field peas, like black-eyed peas, in his succotash, but green peas are nicely sweet.

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Nutty Brown-Rice Tabbouleh

This heart-healthy, nutty-flavored grain holds up beautifully in salads, like this slightly spicy one full of vegetables and herbs.

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Charred Fava Bean Salad with Lemon and Tarragon

It’s impossible to grill tiny favas, but the sweet-starchy beans get a similar smoky flavor when they’re charred quickly in a hot skillet. Jean-Georges Vongerichten tosses the charred beans with garlic, jalapeño, tarragon and cubes of cheese for a warm salad.

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Potato Salad with Bacon and Barbecue Sauce

The mayonnaise dressing for this potato salad gets pungency from mustard oil (store-bought spicy mustard works fine, too) and a hit of smoky-sweet flavor from bacon and bottled barbecue sauce.

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Zucchini-Tomato Strata

A French take on strata, or savory bread pudding, this simple summer dish contains zucchini, onion and tomatoes layered with slices of baguette, then baked with chicken stock and a little cream.

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Braised Cucumbers with Dill

Fresh cucumbers are excellent when gently braised in butter and served warm. This dish is best with thin-skinned cucumbers, like English, Japanese and Persian varieties.

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Summer Farro Salad

Marco Canora says you can swap in any starch—like bread or pasta—for the farro (a nutty Italian grain) in this recipe.

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Summer Vegetable and Potato Salad with Anchovy Dressing

This colorful salad of green and yellow beans and waxy potatoes reminds Jonathan Benno of his brief stint in the kitchen at Al Di Là, a wildly popular Italian restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. His friend Anna Klinger, the chef and co-owner, taught him how to make this deliciously tangy dressing, a mix of anchovies, poached garlic and olive oil.

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Mexican Grilled-Corn Salad with Citrus Aioli

This sweet, salty corn salad is the perfect picnic side. Bonus: You can make the aioli the night before and fold in right before serving.

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Masala Grilled Vegetables with Spicy Mint Chutney

Greg DuPree

Grilled summer produce meets a chile-spiked herb dressing in Masala Grilled Vegetables with Spicy Mint Chutney. Heat and oxygen are no friends to fresh herbs; both break down the chlorophyll that gives leaves their green color, transforming bright emerald to muted brown almost instantly. Using a blender or food processor to prepare this sauce safeguards the color by instantly cutting and coating the herbs with oil, locking in the green.

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Ember-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Coconut Caramel

Victor Protasio

Pulled from the coals, these super-tender, puddinglike charred sweet potatoes from chef Sheldon Simeon make an unforgettable side dish thanks to the rich and creamy ginger-spiked coconut caramel.

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Kwame’s Waffle Fries

Kyle Schmitz

These waffle fries with berbere salt are a crowd favorite from Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s pop-up days. The Ethiopian spice blend brings a citrusy sweet heat to the fried spuds.

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Grilled Greens with Popped Mustard Seeds and Ginger

Jennifer Causey

It’s worth firing up the grill just to make this vegetable side from chef Biju Thomas. Mustard greens blister and char over the hot grates until intensely smoky. He tops the greens with aromatics fried in coconut oil, followed by a squeeze of grilled lemon.

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Lemon-Pickled Carrots and Beets

Jennifer Causey

This golden salad from chef Biju Thomas marinates beets and carrots in fresh lemon and Korean red pepper flakes. The lemon perks up the sweet, earthy vegetables with acidity, while the gochugaru adds just the right amount of sweet heat and color.

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25 Flavorful Side Dishes to Make This Summer

1 of 26

Grilled Strawberry-Avocado Toasts with Burrata

2 of 26

Grill-Roasted Bacon-and-Scallion Corn Muffins

3 of 26

Baked Beans with Maple-Glazed Bacon

4 of 26

Grilled Corn with Mango-Habanero Butter

5 of 26

Grilled Peach, Onion and Bacon Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

6 of 26

Napa Cabbage Salad

7 of 26

Smoky Glazed Asparagus

8 of 26

Grilled Tomato-and-Scallion Salad

9 of 26

Potato Salad with Green Beans and Salsa Verde

10 of 26

Grilled Eggplant and Tomatoes with Parmesan-Basil Crumbs

11 of 26

Green Bean Slaw

12 of 26

Sweet Corn Succotash

13 of 26

Nutty Brown-Rice Tabbouleh

14 of 26

Charred Fava Bean Salad with Lemon and Tarragon

15 of 26

Potato Salad with Bacon and Barbecue Sauce

16 of 26

Zucchini-Tomato Strata

17 of 26

Braised Cucumbers with Dill

18 of 26

Summer Farro Salad

19 of 26

Summer Vegetable and Potato Salad with Anchovy Dressing

20 of 26

Mexican Grilled-Corn Salad with Citrus Aioli

21 of 26

Masala Grilled Vegetables with Spicy Mint Chutney

22 of 26

Ember-Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Coconut Caramel

23 of 26

Kwame’s Waffle Fries

24 of 26

Grilled Greens with Popped Mustard Seeds and Ginger

25 of 26

Lemon-Pickled Carrots and Beets

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