Healthy Choices: Grilling Vegetables On Outdoor BBQ Islands
Posted by: admin / Category: Healthy FoodsGrilled vegetables are so delicious and easy to make. It’s a wonder that more people don’t grill them. Grilled vegetables are also a great healthy choice for summer eating. As we head rapidly into grilling season, think about grilling vegetables on your outdoor BBQ Islands or outdoor grills. If you are a vegetarian or if you have vegetarian friends then learning to grill up a few vegetables is a must, and we’ve got a few tips to help you get started.
When grilling vegetables it is important to remember to try to cook them evenly. Accomplishing this is easy. Just make sure that you cut your vegetables into consistently sized pieces. They should probably be no more than an inch to an inch and a half thick. Also, make sure that you clean your vegetables and then soak them for a good half hour in cold water. Soaking them before hand ensures that they will not dry out when grilling. It is also important to brush your vegetables with a marinade or olive oil for flavor and to prevent them from sticking to your grill. On that note, BBQ Islands and other outdoor grills should have their grates cleaned and greased before you cook on them.
You can grill just about any vegetable. A few of the most common vegetables that people grill are bell peppers, mushrooms, eggplants, and corn on the cob. Here are a few tips for grilling these vegetables on your outdoor kitchen grills.
Grilling bell peppers is super simple. Just cut them right in half from top to bottom. Remove the ribs, stem, and all of the seeds and then brush with olive oil. These should only take about 2-3 minutes to cook per side.
Corn on the cob comes with its own handy wrapper: the husks. To start, pull the husks back. You will then cut off the end tip and remove any silk. Brush the kernels with butter and then fold the husks back in place and tie the ends. Corn takes about 6-8 minutes to cook. Make sure to turn it often.
Mushrooms are an extremely popular vegetable to grill and are great for vegetarians. With mushrooms you must ensure that you wash off all the dirt before grilling. Brush them with olive oil as well. For smaller mushrooms you can use a grill basket to cook them. Smaller mushrooms take about 5 minutes to cook while larger mushrooms take up to 8 minutes to cook.
Eggplants are one of my favorites. They are also incredibly easy to grill over an open flame. Depending on the size of your eggplant you can cut it length wise or width wise in disk shapes. Brush them with oil and let the pieces cook for about 2-3 minutes.
BBQ Islands make it is easy to heat up any sauces or marinades you would like to use on your vegetables for an added kick of yummy flavor. If you are using a regular stand alone grill, make sure that you heat up your marinades or sauces on your indoor stove before grilling so that you won’t be caught short handed–veges are more time sensitive than meat so you don’t want to leave them to run inside and grab anything you forgot. Now that you are prepared for vegetable grilling it’s time to put on an apron, heat up your outdoor BBQ Islands and grills, and get ready for some tasty eats.
May 19th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
I love grilling especially during the summer next to the pool, but my wife turned me on to grilling everything not just meat on the grill. But I never thought about grilling up an eggplant probably because like most people the word eggplant scares me. But I’m going to grill one up this weekend thanks for the crazy idea!