Celebrate Memorial Day with Fresh, From-the-Garden Food

This simple crowd-pleasing menu puts the focus on in-season produce.

By: Meagan Francis

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Break out the grill and hang those red, white, and blue streamers! Memorial Day is just around the corner. My favorite thing about this holiday is that it puts the focus on easy outdoor entertaining, including simple dishes that highlight the bounty of late spring. This menu, made up of dishes created by Food Network personalities, will be easy to pull together and keep things fresh and tasty.

Kabobs

Simple, easy-to-grill kabobs allow guests to create their own from-the-garden masterpieces. This Food Network Magazine article offers several recipes, some with meat and others that let the produce shine.

Make This: Build-Your-Own Shish Kabobs

Grilled Chicken + Fingerling Potatoes

Basil-Beer marinated chicken.

Bobby Flay takes simple grilled chicken and makes it sing with a garlic-oregano vinaigrette and crispy-golden fingerling potatoes.

Make This: Grilled Chicken with Fingerling Potatoes

Fresh Tomato Salad

Tomato 'Indigo Cherry Drops'

You can't beat the taste of homegrown tomatoes, and they're high in antioxidants, too. Unlike some fruits and vegetables, cooking tomatoes tends to concentrate the antioxidants, rather than leaching them out. ‘Indigo Cherry Drops’ tomatoes have a purplish-black cast on their red skins. The plants are indeterminate, growing 36-60” tall, and bear heavy yields of small cherry tomatoes. Give them plenty of sun and expect to start harvesting in about 65 days.

Photo by: AP Whaley Seed Co/National Garden Bureau

AP Whaley Seed Co/National Garden Bureau

Put fresh, garden-ripe tomatoes front and center with Jamie Oliver's fabulously simple salad. To give the salad plenty of flavor and interest, include tomatoes of different sizes and varieties and consider including fresh mozzarella cheese.

Make This: The Mothership Tomato Salad

Cheesecake Tart

Lemon Curd Tart With Berries

Tangy and creamy, this fruit-topped tart is the just-right, not-too-sweet finish to your Thanksgiving dinner. Get the recipe: http://www.hgtv.com/entertaining/lemon-curd-tart-recipe/index.html

Don't forget dessert! Make it patriotic with this rich treat laden with red and blue berries.

Make This: Cheesecake Tart