Red, white and blue dishes for cheap

Save on July 4 by using in-season red, white and blue foods!

While BBQs have always been a classic for July 4, you can still incorporate red, white and blue vegetable and fruit side dishes to celebrate the flag’s holiday and keep the summer cook-out cool. Even better, with the right ingredients, you can celebrate on the cheap!

For our readers, we’ve aggregated by color some vegetables and fruits that are in season and so are sold in great prices during the summer. We also clip in some easy recipes for these vegetables that you can quickly put together before heading out to your backyard – or your neighbor’s – for the July 4^th BBQ:

Reds – cherries, strawberries, watermelon, peppers, raspberries, tomatoes, beets, radishes

Whites – lima beans, endives, Asian pears, garlic, lychee, radishes (peeled)

Blues – blueberries, blackberries

With these vegetables and fruits, here are some quick, easy keep-cool inspirations to accompany your BBQ:

Appetizers:

• Cherry-tomato salad with chives and lemon
• Endive with ricotta, almonds and raisins
• Watermelon gazpacho

Sides:

• Pickled beets
• Strawberry salsa

Desserts:

• No-bake blueberries cream pie
• Red, white & blue parfait

And of course you can always create your own recipes from the ingredients above for a cheap July 4^th celebration! What are some other cheap red, white and blue dishes have you made?