Creative (and rare) yet quick and easy - ideas?

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

myagentcam

Fire Starter
Original poster
Dec 28, 2015
46
21
I have a brisket going now, amd want to do more. What is your easiest and most creative recipe for a side dish? When I say easy, I mean it needs to be a quick prep and made from every day items most people have. I love my typical sides I make, but I'd like to add some easy ones to the repitore, and hopefully through on for this evening.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JLeonard
I have a brisket going now, amd want to do more. What is your easiest and most creative recipe for a side dish? When I say easy, I mean it needs to be a quick prep and made from every day items most people have. I love my typical sides I make, but I'd like to add some easy ones to the repitore, and hopefully through on for this evening.
Canned baked beans like Bush's.Add your own fixins like bacon,onions etc. and throw in a foil pan and toss it in the smoker.Easy and minimal to no clean up.
 
Yup , Beans or foil packets of sliced potatoes . I have a brisket getting ready to go on myself .
 
French onion bombs - For each onion first peel then cut off a portion of one end. Core some with a spoon or melon baller to make room. Add 1t beef base or 1-2 cubes beef bullion, mozzarella cheese and top with 2T butter. Wrap very tightly in foil and throw in the smoker. Cook until onion is nice and soft
 
Bean vote here. Can be baked beans or regular canned beans. I doll them up with diced onion, tomato, jalapeños and garlic. If regular beans I add brown sugar, chicken bouillon and beer to thin. Mix in a foil pan and put on the smoker uncovered to warm through and cook just enough to soften the veggies.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JLinza
Corn Salad

Ingredients:
3 can Sweet Corn
1 ea Med Onion chopped ( go more or bigger if you’re an onion lover)
2 ea Green Bell Peppers, chopped
1 or 1.5 cups Your favorite mayo up to you
2 TBSP Taco Seasoning, once again, up to you and your flavor preferences

Directions:
Stir it all up, serve over some Fritos!
Some people mix the Fritos.
Can also use chili Fritos for a different hit.
 
The hitch for me is the everyday items. We dont always have cucumbers on hand, but I plan meals and smokes well ahead and cucumber salads are a go to for me, especially in the summer when I want lighter sides. I alternate between a creamy cucumber salad and a vinegar and oil based cucumber, onion and tomato salad.

I'm making one for dinner tonight. The recipes I use require an all day or several hour marinating AFTER some salting and rinsing of the cucumbers. There are plenty of recipes out there if you dont already have one

You mentioned creative, have you ever made a panzanella salad? I just added that to my summer sides on my meals list (if I dont keep records I forget entire meal concepts). I had removed it because the wife and I went low carb, but we are eating bread again here and there (and the waistline shows it). It's kind of like a salad with croutons but the croutons are chewier.

I have gone to the baked canned baked beans too. So much easier and Bush's has the zero sugar version now. We try to avoid sugar still when we can, a remnant of the low carbing, but we actually dont feel well now if we eat much sugar.

Also, not for everyone but we love gazpacho. I first started making it when I grew a garden to use up tomatoes. Now I have developed a recipe using canned tomatoes that is really good. I can share it but my recipe calls for resting overnight and has a couple ingredients you may not already have. No time for back and forth, you are trying to eat today!

Another one I forget about is lettuce slaw. We DO usually keep a head of iceberg on hand along with a few jalapenos and usually some celery in varying stages of freshness. We always have sweet onion on hand. I almost shave the lettuce and very thinly slice other vegetables. I use the same slaw dressing as for cabbage slaw (homemade). Either lettuce, or cabbage slaw, I found it best to toss right before serving.

A warm spinach or lettuce salad is something not everyone thinks of but is in my cookbook for something different. Same with a warm German potato salad.

What people usually have around the house can vary a lot. To me, everyone's house I have been in looks at things very differently. They store things differently, some things they dont refrigerate that we do...so, what edibles individual households have at any given time can also vary wildly. Also, cooking for two vs. a crowd makes a huge difference. Not all recipes are easily scaled to extremes either way.

For me, "prepare ahead" is what I have to do. I hate surprises. I actually keep a running meals list Sun-Sat and update it as the weeks move along. I dont think I ever wake up without a meal plan for dinner that day already planned and laid out...in some cases prep done the day before.

Best of Luck!
 
Oh- coleslaw is fast, easy and goes great with BBQ....
Yeah know ,, something I forgot about is a wedge of iceberg . Cut the head in sections and dress how you like . I use a mustard or blue cheese dressing . Add some chopped bacon ,
Black pepper , and whatever else . That's good on a hot day for sure .
 
Baked potatoes. Not flashy, but couldn't be easier. Just put a couple of spuds on the smoker for a few hours...they pick up just enough smoke to set them apart from everyday bakers. We'll cook a couple whenever we have unused room on a smoker rack.
 
If ya like onions, take a yellow onion, peel it, wrap in foil and throw in the smoker. Or grill, or campfire... they all work. Feel for tenderness from time to time... we like them best with a bit of crunch. When you think they are ready unwrap, cut in half and pull all of the layers apart. A little butter in each, we usually sprinkle lawrys season salt on them. Disapear in a heartbeat.

Ryan
 
Besides canned beans, slaw is probably the next easiest/fastest. I also vote for sliced potatoes in foil packs.

- Jason
 
  • Like
Reactions: chopsaw
Cabbage. Choose your size big, small,green, or purple. (Purple has a lil extra texture to me) Cut the core out and add some wash yo sister sauce, soy, seasoning of choice the pack the hole with butter. Wrap in heavy foil and toss on grill.
 
Little late but pasta salad.

Cook pasta
add 1/2 ranch and 1/2 mayo to your liking (or just straight ranch, I make my own out of the Hidden Valley powder and just go heavy on mayo)
chopped cooked bacon
parmesan to your liking
black pepper
maybe a few red pepper flakes

I keep a bag of frozen peas on hand and I toss a handful in the last minute or so the pasta is cooking, but they are optional.
 
  • Like
Reactions: forktender
I can't believe Mac n' Cheese hasn't been brought up yet.
You can go as simple as a box or two of Kraft cooked then tossed into a foil pan with bacon crumbles, toasted bread crumbs and of course more cheese on top. Or you can make it from scratch, I do both depending on how I feel. I like the scratch better, toss some diced brisket and a squirt of BBQ sauce on top and plow down.

Always a green garden salad, although I do love a wedge salad like Mr Chop suggested. I love the wedge salad at Outback, pretty much all I eat there, that and a few jumbo ice cold beers and I'm set, and don't have to cook on those 100+ degree night.
 
If ya like onions, take a yellow onion, peel it, wrap in foil and throw in the smoker. Or grill, or campfire... they all work. Feel for tenderness from time to time... we like them best with a bit of crunch. When you think they are ready unwrap, cut in half and pull all of the layers apart. A little butter in each, we usually sprinkle lawrys season salt on them. Disapear in a heartbeat.

Ryan

Ryan have a look at indaswamp indaswamp thread or what I posted above. Mines a variations with some cheese to be like French Onion soup like. If you love onions these are game changers.
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky