Veggies and the Grill

If vegetables aren’t routinely the star of the show at your cookouts, let me share a little secret: grilling does more for veggies than it does for meat. Whether your flavor weapons of choice are marinades, the smoke of quality wood, or the char on the food itself, vegetables shine on the grill. Brilliantly.

Ginger-Marinated Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Ginger-Marinated Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Two Guiding Stars iconTwo Guiding Stars indicate better nutritional value. Portobellos are king when it comes to vegetarian burger patties. Perfectly marinated, these gingery beauties make for a cookout that’s nutritious and lean.

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Killer Kebabs

If you can stab it, you can skewer it. Cherry tomatoes, pearl onions, snack peppers, baby carrots, radishes, mushrooms, fingerling potatoes, and snap peas come sized to thread. Throw your favorite little veggies in your favorite marinade overnight, soak your skewers for an hour, and load them up with similarly dense vegetables. A good rule of thumb is to put root veggies on the same skewers and other veggies on their own skewer, since potatoes take longer than tomatoes to cook.

Caramelized Fruit

Yes, I know, I promised you veggie tips. But have you considered fruit on the grill? Grilling brings out the sugars in fruit and caramelize them, turning a crisp summer snack into a luscious dessert topping for yogurt. Stone fruits like peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, and pluots are wonderful halved and laid face-down on the grill for a few minutes.

Naked Goodness

We’ve this month about cooking veggies up with cast iron, foil packets, and skewers, but let’s not forget the lowest hassle method for bigger veggies: straight on the rack. You can grill almost any good-sized vegetable straight on a clean, well-oiled rack, but corn and sweet potatoes are classic and delicious choices that are especially worth trying.

Last week’s tip: Meat and the Grill