It's Time To Fire Up The Barbecue

The sun has finally made an appearance in the UK, so when my family came to stay recently we were able to enjoy a barbecue in the garden - and we all loved it.

Perhaps it was the novelty (it was our first barbecue of the year), but it made quite simple food feel like much more of a treat and it was a really relaxed, sociable afternoon.

A Dogged Determination To Barbecue Whatever The Weather

Even if the weather hadn’t played ball, I think we would have ploughed on with our barbecue plans. We Brits are used to somewhat unreliable weather and have a reputation for displaying dogged determination to fire up the barbie in the most inclement conditions!

In a force eight gale with the rain lashing down, surely there is no other nation that wouldn’t decamp to the kitchen to continue cooking and socialising in the dry? But not us. We stick it out under dripping umbrellas with the garden parasol as a makeshift canopy over the smoking barbecue.

Shift In Our Barbecue Habits

Aside from our increasing tolerance of a soggy barbecue (just as well, with our summers seemingly becoming wetter and wetter), in recent years, there has been a noticeable shift in British barbecue habits.

We still flip the burgers and sausages in the drizzle, but we are also embracing more vegetables and meat alternatives.

Check Out The Internet for Great Veggie Recipes

If you’d like to try something a bit different, the internet is brimming with great veggie recipes for the barbecue. Look for peppers, mushrooms, aubergines, courgettes and corn on the cob: they all benefit flavour-wise from a grilling!

For protein I like halloumi, paneer and tofu for a change - all three marinate well and really soak up bold flavours.

Seek Out Higher Welfare

It’s also becoming easy to find meat and fish for the barbecue that’s been reared to higher animal welfare standards.

I bought all of the sausages, chicken and salmon we enjoyed at our barbecue from my local supermarket - and every packet had the RSPCA Assured label on it.

This means the animals used to produce them were cared for to the RSPCA’s strict higher welfare standards.

It definitely felt good to know my family and I were doing the right thing and supporting farmers who are committed to providing higher welfare standards for farmed animals - and it made our barbecue even more enjoyable.

So, I recommend that if you choose to cook meat, poultry and fish on the barbecue this summer, make a choice to be proud of and look for the RSPCA Assured label.

If you can’t find what you are looking for in your supermarket, don’t forget to use RSPCA Assured’s lobby your supermarket tool, to ask them to provide more higher welfare produce.

Eat Less Eat Better

If you’d like to know more, you can read about the RSPCA Assured Eat Less Eat Better campaign which encourages people to cut down on meat, fish, eggs and dairy from lower-welfare farming systems and choose higher-welfare or animal-free alternatives instead.

I hope you enjoy your barbecues this summer and the sun comes out for you. Mind you, we all know it’s (nearly) just as much fun in the rain!