Spring Entertaining Made Easy: The Best Light and Refreshing Meals

This lovely warm weather brings with it the desire to socialise: an evening BBQ, a picnic in the garden, a dinner party - food makes everything better!

The key to successful entertaining is to keep it simple; here are our top tips for making you the host/ess with the most-est:

Charcuterie board.

They give the impression of being fancy and complex, but all you need to do is pile cheese, hummus, crackers, carrot, celery and cucumber sticks onto a nice wooden board and away you go!

If you have the time, making your own hummus is surprisingly easy and tastes delicious.

Plenty of salads.

Tearing up lettuce and drizzling with a simple vinaigrette is easy, but go one step further and have a variety of salads - grated carrot and beetroot with a sesame dressing is always a lip-smacker of note.

A roast veggie salad is fairly hands-off and will have guests running back for more. 

A coleslaw is an absolute BBQ classic, and tastes SO much better when it's home-made! To add texture and flavour, whip up some croutons by frying stale bread in butter, rosemary and thyme - they're bound to impress!

Homemade Bread.

if you're out of time and/ or inspiration, buying bread from a bakery or supermarket is great… but making your own focaccia or sourdough (as long as you have the starter) will fill you with much more pride.

Plus, bread fresh out of the oven is simply unbeatable! Stuff your focaccia dough with butter and garlic for a homemade twist on garlic bread.

Keep it simple.

Serving a meal that doesn't require a knife, fork and a table to sit at is a safe way to feed lots of people.

Finger foods - think burgers or pizza, along with edible vessels to enjoy your fancy-looking-but-shockingly-easy charcuterie board condiments.

If you're feeding a crowd, going for recyclable paper plates is a great way to save on dishes!