Recipe: Three ways with barbecued sausages

Toulouse sausage and snail salad with roasted shallots and dijon viniagrette. Photo / Babiche Martens, NZH

Sausie salad

Barbecue, sausage, salad. But when you can't face one more snarler in white bread and a toss of lettuce salad, ring the changes. Cook sausages (preferably good spicy butcher-made ones), chop them and toss back on the hot plate with sliced onions and cherry tomatoes. Add a dash of mustard, and spoon the mix over lettuce, cucumber and avocado, dressed with vinegar. You can add other grilled vegetables too (carrots, mushrooms, peppers). Then, as they come into season, grill with chopped apples, toss over mixed greens and rocket, and top with blue cheese, pecans or walnuts, and a lemony dressing.

Taco time

It may not be authentic Mexicano, but sausages, especially spicy thin ones, make easy taco fillings. Pile cooked sausage into a tortilla, top with salsa (or cooked corn sliced off the cob), avocado, grated cheese, chopped lettuce and tomatoes.

Burgerama

Slide sausage meat out of the skins (this only works with proper sausages, not the pre-cooked sort), form into patties and grill, then pile on burger buns with a good ketchup, mustard, pickles, beetroot, grated carrots. A great way to add vegetables to a barbecue fry-up. Or grill peppers, eggplant, tomato slices and pile on sliced ciabatta (this is messy, so you'll need a plate and plenty of napkins).