Easy Picnic Food Ideas for Summer
Picnic season is here. The best picnic food ideas travel well, taste good at room temperature, and can be eaten with your hands or a fork. Here are our favorites for a spread that impresses.
Mini Sandwiches and Wraps
Sandwiches do most of the work at a picnic. Cut them small so people can try a few different kinds.
Cucumber — thinly sliced cucumber and herby cream cheese on crustless white bread.
Smoked salmon — smoked salmon, cream cheese, and dill on seeded bread.
Caprese — sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella, and pesto on ciabatta.
Pan con tomate — crusty baguette rubbed with garlic, fresh tomato spread, and olive oil, topped with sliced manchego.
Italian pinwheels — a large flour tortilla layered with salami, ham, and capocollo, shredded lettuce, thinly sliced tomato and red onion, and a homemade spread of mayo, cream cheese, red wine vinegar, olive oil, and dried Italian herbs. Roll it up, chill, and slice into spirals.
Puff pastry tarts are another easy one. Start with frozen puff pastry and make a batch of mini hand tarts:
Shaved asparagus and goat cheese
Cherry tomato and whipped feta
Caramelized onion and Gruyère
Snacks and Skewers
This is what everyone picks at for an hour. Small, colorful, and made for grazing.
Mini quiches travel well and taste great at room temperature. Use pie dough and a muffin pan and fill them however you like:
Ham and Gruyère
Goat cheese and herb
Mediterranean with roasted red peppers, spinach, and feta
BLT with bacon, spinach, tomato, and Swiss
Caramelized onion, mushroom, and Gruyère
Spring with prosciutto, asparagus tips, ricotta, and herbs
Deviled eggs are a picnic staple and easy to dress up — try everything bagel, curry, kimchi, jalapeño popper, or buffalo.
Skewers are the prettiest thing on the blanket and need zero utensils:
Antipasti — any mix of cherry tomatoes, mozzarella balls, marinated artichokes, olives, prosciutto, salami, tortellini, basil, and roasted red peppers with a drizzle of Italian vinaigrette.
Caprese — tomatoes, mozzarella balls, and basil.
Melon and prosciutto — cantaloupe and honeydew balls, prosciutto, basil, mozzarella balls, and a balsamic glaze.
Watermelon, feta, and mint — watermelon cubes, crumbled feta, mint, and a squeeze of lime.
Rainbow fruit kabobs — grapes, blueberries, kiwi, pineapple, cantaloupe, and strawberries or raspberries. The kids will go for these first.
Make-Ahead Picnic Salads
Picnic salads get better as they sit, which makes them your most forgiving option. Pack them ahead and let everything mingle on the drive.
Pasta salads are the workhorse:
Greek — olives, feta, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and dill
Cold sesame noodles — with cucumbers and carrots
Lemon ricotta — with asparagus and peas
Pesto — with cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls
Panzanella is made for this — heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, basil, mozzarella, and toasted bread in a red wine vinaigrette. The bread soaking up the dressing is the whole point.
For something crunchy, go with a slaw: cucumber and Napa cabbage, papaya and pineapple, apple and fennel, or jicama and radish.
Dips for Crackers, Chips, or Crudité
Dips are a lot of payoff for very little effort. Make one or two ahead, pack some crackers and cut vegetables, and you've covered a whole corner of the spread.
White bean with rosemary
Red lentil hummus
Greek goddess yogurt dip
Feta dip with roasted jalapeño
Tuscan artichoke and sun-dried tomato cream cheese dip
Easy Picnic Desserts
No plates, no forks, nothing that melts in the cooler.
Blueberry or raspberry lemon bars
Cream cheese swirl or peanut butter brownies
Brown butter Rice Krispie treats
Fruit hand pies
Chocolate chip cookie bars
A Picnic Without the Prep
The best part of a picnic is being there - barefoot on the blanket, watching the kids run around, not thinking about who's doing the dishes. The food should make that easier, not harder.
That's the idea behind Easyfeast. Our chefs cook three family-style meals in your kitchen every week, so dinner's already handled when the weather pulls you outside. When dinner is handled, the rest of summer opens up.