The Best Vegetables for Grilling
One of the many joys of summer is that in order to make a meal all you
truly need to do is pull out the grill, rub some meat and throw a few
vegetables in the mix. Everyone knows what meat goes best on the grill;
ribs, steaks, chicken, burgers, fish, pork. But what’s a meal without
some veggies? Grilling is an easy and delicious way to cook your veggies
if you know the basics.
We’ve put together a handy guide to give you the some tips to make the
most of your veggies on the grill. There are three ways to grill any
vegetable – directly on the grill, on top of tin foil or in a veggie
basket. Some of these work much better than others depending on the
vegetable you are grilling. Grilling vegetables directly on the grill
will give you those highly sought after grill marks (more on that
later), grilling your vegetables on top of tin foil will cook your
vegetables but they won’t be as crispy and using a vegetable basket will
make your veggies crispy but they won’t have grill marks (use this for
small pieces that would otherwise fall through the grate). Some people
will argue that one way or another is better but in my opinion there’s
no wrong way to grill some vegetables!
Grilled Eggplant
Eggplant is one of those vegetables that most people aren’t quite sure
what to do with. Of course you can add it to a dish like our Grilled Vegetable Pasta,
but you can also enjoy it by itself. Grilled eggplant is one of my
favorite vegetables to prepare for friends because they would not do it
on their own. More often than not they can’t believe that what they’ve
just eaten could be so healthy.
The key to cooking eggplant is to get the outside crispy, while keeping
the inside creamy and sweet. To do this we recommend cutting your
eggplant however you would like to grill it and then soaking it in salt
water for 30 minutes. This tightens and firms up the flesh, making it
less likely to absorb oil. It also draws out juices which will make
older eggplants taste less bitter. Brush oil onto your eggplant and then
sprinkle seasonings to flavor before placing it on the grill. Our Pennsylvania Pepper, which is a good all around pepper, and Smoky Citrus Salt
bring out the flavor wonderfully. Cook your eggplant for about 5
minutes on a medium high grill and then flip and repeat. When grilling,
try not to flip your vegetables more than once.
Grilled Asparagus
Grilled asparagus is one of my favorite summertime vegetables. One
reason is because the flavor is so unique and can be added to enhance
the flavor of almost any dish. I also love asparagus by itself as a side
dish like our Marinated Asparagus with Red Pepper.
There are a few ways to grill asparagus, but because of its tougher
texture we recommend marinating it for a few hours before placing it on
the grill. This way the asparagus has time to absorb the flavors and
will give you the perfect texture when finished. Sprinkle some Pennsylvania Pepper or Smoky Citrus Salt
on your asparagus and heat your grill to medium high then place the
asparagus on it. Cook for about 10 minutes checking and flipping every 3
– 4 minutes to make sure that one side does not get too much direct
heat.
Grilled Zucchini
Grilled Zucchini is another vegetable that is delicious by itself or can be incorporated in a meal or sandwich such as our Grilled Vegetable Sandwich. If you’re looking to make zucchini as a side dish try our Cumin Seasoned Grilled Zucchini as a delicious addition to a meat or vegetation dish.
Similar to eggplant, zucchini follows the same rules when it comes to
grilling. Cut your zucchini into disks or lengthwise depending on your
taste. For best results soak your zucchini in salt water before oiling
and seasoning it with our Pennsylvania Pepper or Smoky Citrus Salt.
Place your cut zucchini on a medium high heat grill and cook for about 5
minutes before flipping. Once again try to only flip your veggies once
to get nice distinct grill marks.
Grilled Corn
You can find grilled corn at almost any BBQ or cookout during the summer
months and there are a few reasons why. When corn is in season you can
find it almost anywhere – the grocery store, farmers market or even a
roadside stand. You can’t really go wrong when cooking corn, but for an
idea on how to grill it check out our Grilled Corn Recipe. Also, corn is the only vegetable that I’ve heard of being cooked in a cooler. This method is extremely effective for cooking corn for large crowds when you don’t have more than one grill on hand.
When it comes to grilling corn, peel back the husks and remove the corn
silk. Coat your corn in butter and whatever seasonings you would like to
use for flavor and recover the corn with its husk. Some of our favorite
seasonings for corn are Chili Lime Seasoning and Manzanillo Mexican Seasoning.
Now place your corn on a medium high grill turning every 4 or so
minutes. You will be able to tell when a side of your corn is cooked
when you see grill marks on the husk.
Grilled Potatoes
The possibilities are endless when it comes to cooking potatoes. They
can be mashed, smashed, baked, fried, grilled or any other way you can
possibly think to cook them. So many different seasonings go well with
potatoes and our favorite way to prepare them is by making Grilled Camping Potatoes with Chimichurri.
There are two main ways to cook potatoes on a grill. Whole potatoes can
be cooked on a grill for 30 – 40 minutes or microwaved for 3 minutes on
each side and then placed on the grill for 10 minutes. Make sure to cut a
small slit in each potato so that steam is able to escape. It is also
helpful to brush melted butter on the outside of each potato and flavor
with seasoned salt to get a nice crispy potato skin.
Another way that potatoes can be prepared on a grill is in chunks, like in our Grilled Chicken, Potato and Asparagus Salad.
For this to be successful you need either a vegetable basket for your
grill or a piece of tin foil large enough for all of the potato chunks
to lay flat on the grill (not in a pile). If you are using tin foil make
sure to spray it with oil so your potatoes don’t stick and drizzle
either butter or oil on your potatoes and top with seasoning, like our Manzanillo Mexican Seasoning.
If using a vegetable basket, drizzle your potatoes with butter or oil
and top with seasonings before placing them in the basket to avoid
dripping oil into the flame. If using tin foil, flip your potatoes every
3 – 4 minutes until the inside turns a golden brown.
Now that you know how, go add some veggies to your favorite summertime meals!