Expert Tips for Grilling Vegetables Perfectly—Plus 7 Recipes to Try
There are only so many things you can do with burgers or chicken breasts but, once you learn about how to grill vegetables, the options for summer’s bounty of produce are endless. “People often go to meat when they think about grilling, but I think vegetables are actually the most transformed by the grill,” says Julia Taylor-Brown, former head of culinary at Spark Grills.
“By using a dry heat method like grilling,” Taylor-Brown continued, “you intensify and concentrate the flavors of the vegetables by drawing out the water and caramelizing the outsides.” Learn how to grill vegetables to make the most out of them, and then pick one of our grilled veggie recipes to try.
The Best Vegetables to Grill
“All vegetables can be amazing,” insists Taylor-Brown, because charcoal helps vegetables get smoky and build even more flavor. “For me, the most transformed by the grill—either because the smoke pairs with the natural flavors so well or the sugars caramelize beautifully on the grill—are eggplant, asparagus, portobello mushrooms, carrots, broccolini, and thin-sliced potatoes—aka grilled French fries.”
Honorable Mentions That Are a Bit Tricky
While pretty much any vegetable can be grilled, not all vegetables are created equally grill-worthy. Lettuce isn’t that popular on the summer BBQ scene, but consider tossing halved romaine over a hot grill for a fun summer salad, or char halved tomatoes for a nice smoky flavor.
Denser vegetables, such as whole potatoes or winter squash (like pumpkins), are a bit trickier to grill. They take longer to cook, and risk burnt outsides and/or underdone insides. To avoid this, precook these hearty veggies—microwave or boil them—to halfway done.
If you’re cooking with small mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, or other adorable but potentially burnable produce, consider using skewers so your vegetables can get that direct grill flavor without falling into the fiery pit. For even smaller vegetables like chickpeas, or hard ones like baby carrots, use a mesh grill basket.
Delicate broccoli and cauliflower florets tend to fall apart when set straight on the grates. Give them—as well as Brussels sprouts—the skewer or basket treatment, and keep in mind that they’ll cook twice as fast on a grill than they do in an oven.
Cabbage doesn’t usually come to mind when it comes to grilling, but perhaps it should. It works beautifully when sliced into steaks (as does cauliflower) or wedges.
Vegetables to Avoid
There are only a few vegetables that illicit a firm “no” on the grill. Cucumbers and celery are in that category. Their high fiber content and most of their nutrients dissipate when cooked—whether you’re inside or outside. Beans and spinach are also problematic on a grill grate but can still be cooked outside on a cast-iron skillet.
Details on how to grill veggies, and recipes to try at link:
https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/how-to-grill-vegetables
Good morning and thank you for this garden thread!
Good Morning! ;-)
I haven’t been gardening this year, but yesterday when cutting lambsquarters to feed the chickens, I found a volunteer tomato plant that is doing surprisingly well. It was pretty much smothered by the weeds around it, and yet it still managed to flower at some point. It has a little green tomato hanging from it.
Hopefully now that it has more sunlight it’ll put out some more of them. Judging from the stripes it’s a Black Vernissage. They can be pretty aggressive about volunteering.