The Perfect Summer Garden Party

What better way to enjoy the summer than with a summer garden party or BBQ with your nearest and dearest?

Parties and family gatherings can be pretty stressful – planning food, ensuring the house and garden look perfect, making sure food and drink plentiful and you’re not too busy to have some fun yourself. So here are a few top tips so your summer garden party without a hitch.

As daylight falls the simplest and most effective way to create a beautiful atmosphere at your garden party is to dot some jam jar lanterns around the garden.

Take a clean jar and drop a bit of sand or soil in the bottom of the jar, then carefully place your tealight in the jar securing it in the sand or soil so it doesn’t slide about.

You can then leave these dotted around on the ground. Or, using some garden wire, you can create a handle for your jars and dangle them in some nearby trees.

If you have little people around and you’re super organised, you can plan in advance and get the children to decorate the glass first using permanent marker pens – an easy, no fuss craft activity too!

So Pimms is the obvious choice for any garden party – but here are some more imaginative ideas that will hopefully impress your guests!

Berry and coconut smoothie

This is a really refreshing smoothie that will cool down your guests and satisfy your drivers.

Take a couple of handfuls of blueberries; a handful of rasberries; a handful of strawberries and place in a blender. Add ½ tin of coconut milk and a teaspoon of coconut oil and blitz.

If it’s too thick just add more coconut milk. Refreshing and delicious!

If you’re after something more sophisticated – ie alcoholic you could try something like the suitably named English Garden Gin Cocktail. For this you need: -

A good quality gin (50ml)

Pressed Apple Juice (75ml)

Elderflower cordial (25ml)

Lime juice, freshly squeezed (25ml)

Cucumber slices for garnish

Top tip: instead of cutting round slices of cucumber, use a peeler to take a long strip and fold for a more fancy finish!

Start off with the ice, then pour over the gin, then add the apple, elderflower and lime juices and gently stir. Then decorate using the cucumber.

So apart from the usual BBQ party food, how else can you impress your guests. Good food is all about colour. So, here are a couple of healthy options that will brighten up your table.

Rainbow fruit kebabs

Choose your fruit, try and vary the colour and pick fruit that will tolerate being skewered. For example, bananas, strawberries, pineapple and kiwi.

Chop all the fruit up into bitesize chunks and then push each piece onto a wooden skewer.

Show Stopper Platter

This is a great addition to any party table and can be adapted for your audience, it’s gluten free and vegan friendly (replace the tempeh with chicken if you prefer a meaty version)

3 handfuls of spinach

200g puy lentils (dried)

Red wine vinegar

Cherry tomatoes

200g Tempeh

Fresh lemon

Couple of garlic cloves

Harrisa paste

Olive Oil

Plus other raw veg that you want to throw in – yellow peppers, courgette, broccoli or mushroom

Gently boil the tempeh for 20 mins in slightly salted water to remove any bitterness in the flavour. Then chop into bitesize chunks and marinade in lemon and garlic for at least 30 mins (the longer the better).

Simmer the puy lentils in slightly salted water for 20 minutes until cooked through. Then add to a frying pan and gently fry. Add a generous dollop of red wine vinegar and some halved cherry tomatoes, heat through and pour over the spinach.

Add any other veg that you want to include to add a bit of taste and colour – raw broccoli or yellow peppers would be great here.

In another frying pan, heat a dollop of olive oil and add the tempeh. Gently fry until cooked through and throw on top of the lentils and spinach.

In another frying pan, heat a dollop of olive oil and add the tempeh. Gently fry until cooked through and throw on top of the lentils and spinach.

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With bold prints and comfortable styles you will find your perfect party dress.