If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere that is enjoying summer at the moment, you’ve probably been tempted to enjoy a barbecue or two in order to make the most of the warm weather. While barbecue foods are always delicious, they can become unhealthy fairly quickly due to additions like cheese, high-fat sauces and red meat.

This doesn’t mean you have to skip out on the fun though, as there are a lot of different options that are much healthier. This means you can enjoy a barbecue – whether you go small or invite everyone over – without all the guilt that comes with breaking your diet.

Here are some delicious barbecue food ideas that will fill you up without you feeling like you’re missing out on all the fun:

Skewers

Not only are skewers really tasty, they are also a brilliant way to combine flavours and sneak some vegetables into your barbecue offerings. You can use a range of different ingredients – from sweet to savoury – in kebabs, just so long as the items you put on your skewers will all cook at the same rate.

A good healthy option is fish or seafood – such as king prawns – which are high in protein but low in fat. Team them with vegetables like onions, peppers and cherry tomatoes, season and grill until cooked. For a vegetarian option, simply combine as many vegetables as possible to create colourful and flavourful skewers.

You can add a sauce or marinade to your skewers too, but be sure not to choose one that is high in fat or sugar as this will undermine the rest of your healthy ingredients.

Grilled fish

Fish is fantastic for cooking on the barbecue as it teams well with the smoky flavour the grill produces. It also cooks fairly quickly, although you do need to watch it to ensure it doesn’t burn or overcook as this can make it dry and ruin the flavour.

Salmon, mackerel and monkfish are all fantastic options for your barbecue and can be grilled as fillets, cut up on kebabs or even made in burger form, giving you a lot of options. If you want to avoid the fish coming into contact with open flames in order to keep the charring to a minimum, wrap it in foil with a lemon slice and cook on the barbecue that way.

Sweet potato

For a low-carb alternative to barbecue jacket potatoes, you can grill sweet potatoes instead. These will provide a great side dish that is easy and incredibly tasty. Either wrap your sweet potatoes in foil – you can leave them whole or cut them up – and place on the coals or slice them and pop them on your grill after lightly brushing them with olive oil.

While they’ll go softer than white potatoes, they’ll still be a big hit and are a much healthier option.

Vegetable burgers

You don’t need to have meat in your burgers for them to be delicious, there are plenty of vegetarian options that are tasty and incredibly healthy. They are also fairly easy to make from scratch, so you’ll know that there are no hidden unhealthy ingredients thrown in.

Burgers like beetroot and feta, sweet potato and black bean, and chickpea can offer great alternatives to meat and are all suitable for cooking on a barbecue. If you’re worried about them sticking to or falling apart on the grill, you can also cook them in foil.

Grilled peaches

If you want to serve up something sweet, try grilling peaches for a tasty dessert. Cut your peaches in half and wait until your grill is starting to cool so they don’t burn. You’ll end up with lovely soft fruit that is perfect for teaming with frozen yoghurt.

This is the perfect light end to a barbecue and you don’t need to feel guilty about enjoying puffing even after all the rest of the tasty food.