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summer fun with the waitrose bbq range.


how lovely is the weather lately? it just makes me want to buy lots of summer dresses and have a bbq every weekend! so when the people of john lewis asked if i would like to host a party and try out their waitrose bbq food and a pizza stone it couldn't have come at a more perfect time. i got up super early last saturday morning and excitedly whizzed over to my local to see what treats they had... couldn't believe it was near on 20 degrees that early in the morning.


i went for the 3 for £10 offer of chorizo style sausage whorls, honey and mustard pork kebabs and lamb shish kebabs, 2 for £5 packs of veal and parmesan burgers, tasty dips, mixed salad and some veggie options for my friend alice :) there are a few other bits and bobs that appear in this post (sneaky pimms in the corner there) that i added to myself or rustled up from bits in the cupboard.


so in the day i began by making pesto pasta... in my opinion a bbq staple :) this pesto is ah-maz-ing.


my housemate had some king prawns, i had some tandoori marinade and an endless supply of skewers. and so tandoori prawn skewers were born. i marinated them for around 4 hours and they took just a few minutes on the barbecue to heat though.


my last prep of the day was a treacle tart for pud. you can find the treacle tart recipe here on my blog. 


but let's not spoil our dinner. savoury first!


whilst my friends arrived i laid out some popchips on the table to go with the waitrose dips. i was sent these to try a while back but i'm not much of a crisp person so this was the perfect opportunity to test them out on my willing guinea pigs. it seems the faves were salt and vinegar and sour cream and onion. as crisps go, they are super healthy as they are popped like popcorn rather than fried or even baked. 


whilst on my little trolley dash in waitrose, i must have spent more time deliberating over dips than making my treacle tart. honestly so many interesting flavours to choose from and i felt like i wanted to go with two really different ones. my love of japanese food swayed me towards the edamame and wasabi dip whilst i was instantly wooed by the description "rich and creamy" of the pecorino cheese and basil dip. 


as you might imagine the wasabi one had a little kick whilst the pecorino was sort of like a posh pesto dip. anyway sorry enough about dips already! after munching on the moreish chips and dips i went into the kitchen to prepare the all important pimms and lemonade. my housemate made a rather tasty gin, cherry and tonic concoction.


out came the squeaky but delicious haloumi. i actually just grilled this inside as i was afraid it might fall into the barbecue if i put it there. any haloumi bbq tips send them my way!


on went a few of the whorls (is that a word?), lamb koftas, a token pork skewer that i couldn't wait for and some spicy prawn skewers...


so the verdict? what was my fave? gotta be the lamb and the pork for me! really flavoursome and just perfect for cooking on a barbecue. the lamb was really juicy with fresh minty flavours and the pork had a crispy outer with tender and tasty meat. the marinade really worked with the pork and i was lucky enough to get two of these. mmm.

i did very much like the other stuff mind - the chorizo was a popular choice (except for with alice) and a real novelty as hadn't seen these before. quite funny to eat aswell!


so now you might be thinking, what about the pizza stone eh? well we had so so much food and also such a tiny bbq that we saved this for the sunday. yippee another excuse to get the coals fired up again! :) 

i watched murray smashing it at wimbledon whilst my boyfriend patiently lit our little friend back up and put the pizza stone on to heat. this one is a pretty snazzy weber one which you can get from the john lewis barbecue section. i actually didn't know you could bbq pizzas, did you?


the stone took around 10-15 minutes to heat up and then the pizza around 10 minutes to cook. it came with a metal baking sheet style thing which you can use but we fancied it direct to the stone. the metal tray did come in handy later as a giant fish slice for getting it back off the bbq though! 


the flavour we went for was a waitrose chestnut mushroom, bacon and mascarpone pizza. this pizza topping combination is a fave of mine which other supermarkets often do too in their finest or extra special ranges - sometimes with ham rather than bacon. i just don't understand why you would pay £10 ish at a greasy takeaway when you can pick these up at supermarkets in the posh section for around £4. funny isn't it? as you can see from the picture we still had a little dip left - the pecorini one went really well. 


mmmm totally worth it for the stone baked taste. perfect with a glass of pimms for a mini post andy murray winning celebration. what a lovely weekend.

how are you making the most of the sun? have you tried any of this barbecue food before or have any other supermarket bbq range recommendations?



note: thanks to john lewis for providing a £30 waitrose voucher to review their food and sending a pizza stone for me to try. i paid for the alcohol and accompaniments myself and was not paid for this post. 

3 comments:

  1. Great idea for the pizza!

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  2. Just stumbled upon this - the food looks lovely and now I want to bbq!! It just needs to stop raining.

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