Picnic Food Ideas
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The happiest picnics are often those organised at the last minute. However, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. Store a few food ideas for a picnic in your freezer and your spontaneous outdoor meal will be a little easier to throw together!
Most types of sandwich freeze well and these make easy picnic food ideas, which can be frozen days, weeks, sometime even months before eating. Use soft butter and apply generously to help the sandwiches hold together.
Cream cheese mixtures freeze well – try mixing cream cheese with liver pate, chopped ham and chutney, walnuts and chopped dates, or smoked salmon and dill.
For a gourmet picnic you could make and freeze tiny crustless sandwiches to use as a starter. Use thin bread and a filling that is not too squishy and try rolling them up to make them look more attractive.
Here are some more finger sandwich recipes, which can be frozen:
- cream cheese, chopped walnuts or peanuts and raisins.
- chopped cooked chicken and ham with cream cheese or butter
- cream cheese and cooked, chopped prawns or shrimps, a squeeze of lemon juice and a twist of black pepper or cayenne
- smoked salmon pieces with a little anchovy paste mixed in with butter spread
Cooked meats, salmon and prawns can also be kept frozen in readiness for a picnic and then allowed to defrost completely in a fridge/cooler before eating with freshly prepared salads.
However you do need to remember that some things do not freeze well and these include: hard boiled eggs, salad leaves, cucumber, tomatoes and mayo. If you want to freeze egg sandwiches, then use creamy scrambled egg and mix with smoked salmon, ham or bacon bits.
Other picnic food ideas to have ready in the freezer include soups, fish pates such as kipper or smoked mackerel, savoury flans and tartlets, sausage rolls or turnover, pies, terrines and meat loaves. Picnic cakes can also be frozen successfully, as well as biscuits/cookies, cheesecakes and mousses.
Of course you can keep meat and fish in the freezer ready for barbecues but ensure you take it out, or defrost in a microwave, in good time. If you intend to cook at your picnic on a small grill or barbecue then make sure the meat or fish for your barbecue recipes is defrosted all the way through before you start grilling.
Picnics should be light-hearted and fun-packed affairs – and as interesting to prepare as they are to eat. So aim for something a bit more imaginative than a cheese sandwich and have fun planning your picnic menu.
If you know that a picnic or two is likely in the next few weeks, get to work now with your picnic food ideas. With the aid of your freezer, the
picnic food
will turn out to be as memorable as the occasion.
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