Grilling Vegetables
You can cook other things on a grill besides meat. I’ll wait for you to pick yourself up. Yes, it’s true! My wife and I love grilled vegetables. Marinated and charred asparagus, cauliflower, zucchini, and bell peppers just to name a few. Grilled veggies make a perfect compliment to some grilled proteins. Grilled vegetables go great in sauces too, check out my salsa verde in my BBQ Chili Verde recipe for instance.
My simple veggie grill consists of 3 things:
Vegetables
Olive oil
Seasoning (Salt & Pepper or your favorite Rubs)
First thing is to cut the veggies in such a way so that they will not fall through the grill while they are cooking. If you’re careful you don’t need a fancy grill basket. It’s also important to cut them in such a way that they are all about the same size, like zucchini spears for example. I’ll take a couple servings of veggies and put them into a ziplock back, follow this with about 1-2 tablespoons of Olive oil (I just eyeball it until I have enough to coat all the veggies). Shake in your favorite seasonings and seal up the bag. I work the bag around with my hands until all the veggies are coated and seasoned. Leave that bag for about 10-20 minutes.
Next I prepare the grill for both direct and indirect grilling. I will create a hot zone on one side and an indirect zone on the other. Make sure the hot zone will accommodate all of your grilled veggies at the same time (or at least half if you can’t). I like a hot and fast approach to grilling vegetables.
Once the grill is heated up, I will give it a good brush to make sure it’s clean and then start placing my veggies over the direct zone. Place them in a pattern so that you can flip them easily when the time comes. After you’ve set them on you'll hear them sizzling away, if you get any excessive flare ups just close the lid for a moment to extinguish the fire.
Set a timer for 2 minutes and flip them over, add 2 more minutes and hang out.
Check for some nice char on both sides. If they are still rigid and clean of char marks they are still undercooked. then repeat the 2 minute timers over the coals again. Once you see the desired level of char, move them to the indirect side to finish them off. Close the lid and set another timer for 2 minutes. Your veggies will be done in less than 10 min.
Doneness depends on the thickness and type of the veggies. When they are done, the veggies will wilt or flex slightly when you pick them up with tongs. If you still aren’t sure if they are done, try to cut it with the edge of a fork. A chef’s cut before they are brought in can be helpful (i.e. sneak a taste!). Cooking great veggies might take a couple of tries to get it right but you’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
These don’t need to rest, just serve and enjoy!
Here’s one of my favorites:
Grilled Asparagus
Cooker used:
Ingredients:
2-3 servings of Asparagus (about 1lb)
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tsp Kosher Salt
1 Tsp Black Pepper
Fuel Used:
Charcoal Briquettes, medium fire
Total time:
20 Minutes
Prepping Asparagus is important, I start by taking one stalk and holding it at the middle and then hold the base of it. I flex it until it naturally breaks, that breakpoint is where you want to cut the rest of them, this will ensure you don’t get any of the hard, fiber-ey unpleasant pieces. Wash them under running water and shake off the excess water.
Marinate the asparagus in a bag with the olive oil, balsamic, salt and black pepper for approximately 10-15 min while you heat up your grill. Once the grill’s heated and veggies marinated, place the spears perpendicular to the grill bars over direct heat until charred on both sides (remember, 2 min per side direct heat), finish off on indirect heat if necessary. Asparagus will “wilt” or “flex” a bit like I mentioned earlier, it will be a bit subtle though and have a narrow window for completion. Overcooked asparagus is good too, don’t worry. Pull it off when done, plate eat immediately.
Now get out there and grill!