It’s BBQ season. For once, the weather is on our side and so far we’ve been able to get grilling without standing under an umbrella.

It takes time for your BBQ to get to the right cooking temperature and it can be a huge waste if you go to all that effort and use a load of fuel just to cook a few burgers. So, how can you make the most of your BBQ once lit?

If you’re planning a BBQ, be thinking also about the meals you’re going to have the rest of the week or what might be good to have in the freezer.

Why not cook some extra meat or fish for another night – chicken could be shredded and used for fajitas or fried rice, sausages turned into a pasta sauce or fish into fishcakes.

Or how about cooking a larger piece of meat than you need so that you can freeze some – leftover ribs can be wrapped in foil with a bit of apple juice and re-heated in the oven, lamb can be chopped up for a shepherd’s pie or biryani, beef could turn a tin of bins into hearty Cowboy beans or become a hash with potatoes and veg, topped with a fried egg, leftover pork could be pulled and used for burritos.

Cook some flatbreads for your kebabs, bake some potatoes in the embers or steam some rice in a pan on the grill.

As the BBQ starts to cool, grill some extra vegetables for a grilled veg salad with halloumi or feta, grilled tomatoes could be turned into a salsa or even blitzed to make an incredible tomato sauce for pasta or pizza and leftover corn on the cobs can be stripped down and turned into chowder (see my website for a recipe).

You can even cook your pud on the grill. Think grilled pineapple with chilli and lime (if you’re feeling brave, flambee with some vodka or rum), chocolate pizza topped with berries and, of course, there’s always bananas!