--- Barbecue season is firing up on SBS Food! From 7.30pm every Friday, 9 October to 14 November, you'll find great stories and recipes in Food Safari Fire and a brand new season of Watts on the Grill ---
Looking for some new grill greats? We're here to fire up (sorry, couldn't resist!) your imagination with some different ideas, from haloumi pastries to a 'name the ingredient' slow-cooked beef.
Yes, you can barbecue avocado! In this recipe from Ben O'Donoghue, the slight sharpness of labneh is a great match for creamy-smoky grilled avo.
Barbecued avocado with herb labneh salad Source: Hardie Grant Books
This is so full of flavour but so easy - fingers of haloumi, with a little mint and olive oil, are wrapped in filo alongside strips of preserved lemon, then quickly cooked for 4-5 minutes. Squeaky haloumi, lemon and golden pastry... a winning trio. (Haloumi lovers might also like to try honey and thyme haloumi with pickled fennel, where slabs of this golden, caramelised cheese are paired with quick-pickled fennel).
Tornado potatoes
Haloumi, mint and preserved lemon cigars Source: Murdoch Books
Spencer Watts is firing up season two of Watts on the Grill with all sorts of inventive ideas, including these spiral spuds. Coated in spice mix before cooking on the 'cue, his tornado potatoes are great just as they are, but even better with one of his topping options.
Tornado potatoes with three toppings Source: Watts on the Grill
Touched with the flavours of south-east Asia, red and green cabbage wedges are transformed on the grill into this vibrant salad.
Grilled cabbage salad Source: Smith Street Books
Spencer Watts has doubled down on the cheese here: his grilled hasselback chicken is stuffed with spinach, cheese and sun-dried tomato and his barbecue-cooked potatoes are smothered with melted cheddar. "When you think about the barbeque, cheese might not be the first thing that comes to your mind, but I’m telling you, cheese and all its cheesiness could turn your barbeque repertoire from great to grated," Watts says in Watts on the Grill (the man does like a pun!). His stuffed chicken looks so good drizzled with pesto. And those potatoes - they're cooked in a tray, so you get melty cheese on top and melty cheese bits on the bottom.
Grilled hasselback chicken and cheesy potatoes Source: Watts on the Grill
A game of 'name the secret ingredient' never goes astray when you're changing things up on the barbecue. Bring a bit of American pitmaster to your 'cue with this meltingly tender slow-cooked beef chuck in rich red sauce and then play a guessing game when you serve it up. See who can pick that there's tequila, masa harina and Tabasco in the mix.
Bowl of Texas Red Source: Ken Goodman
Those wonderful green beans take on a totally new identity in these vego burgers: the patties are made with cashews, carrot, parsley, edamame and chickpeas, and served with a slather of a rich red onion jam.
Edamame burgers with red onion jam Source: Smith Street Books
This barbecue recipe is a short-cut take on the filled Turkish flatbread, made using large pita bread (if you'd like to make your own dough, try this lamb, silverbeet and feta version, and cook on the grill instead of in a pan).
Silverbeet & feta gözleme Source: Supplied
Grilled flatbreads
How about homemade bread to wrap around your snag or skewer, or to swipe through a dip? Two options here: a soft and fluffy yeasted flatbread or a speedier option, unleavened bread that get a little something extra from cumin and coriander in the dough.
Unleavened grilled flatbread Source: Smith Street Books
"Cinnamon buns baked on the barbeque in an orange peel. What? Yep!" says Spencer Watts of his creative take on this much-loved bun. The orange peels help create a well-risen, fluffy and chewy bun and add some great citrus flavour too.
Find hundreds of other ideas in SBS Food's barbecue recipe collection.
Orange cinnamon buns Source: Watts on the Grill
