Grillin' Veg

Best part of summer is grilling and grilled vegetables are very simple and really brings out their flavors. Most of the time, all you need to do is toss them in some good olive oil and salt and pepper, spread them on the grill, cook until desired doneness and enjoy them hot off the grill. I do recommend investing in an outdoor grill basket and sheet, it certainly makes grilling many things much easier. A good pair of stainless steel tongs are the only other tool you will likely need.

Below are some of the veg I've been grilling.

I. Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted cauliflower is one of my favorite things to eat and I can pretty much eat an entire head by myself. And one of the best spices that complement cauliflower is Madras curry powder. Although there are countless curry powders if you go to an Indian grocery store, Madras curry powder is one that is most commonly found in regular grocery stores and may just go by a generic term of "curry powder". And it pairs really well with coconut oil, my new favorite item for great many reasons. It has a beautiful fragrant scent, a very slight sweetness and can be used for many purposes including baking cookies, cakes and even pie crust. It got a bad rap years ago because of artificial hydrogenation. But nothing wrong with the pure, natural product, be sure to buy a good extra virgin cooking version.

I separated the cauliflower florets and washed them. Next, I melted a couple tablespoons of coconut oil and then added salt and a couple teaspoons of the Madras curry powder (you can adjust to your taste). Then I placed the cauliflower in foil-lined grill basket with holes on the bottom and tossed with curry oil and placed on the grill. I tossed them around with tongs every now and then until browned and tender. In the mean time I made a dipping sauce with plain greek yogurt, salt, pepper and toasted crushed cumin seeds.

 

 

II. Grilled asparagus and garlic scapes

This one is right out of my friend Andy's playbook. He had passed along leftover asparagus and garlic scapes to me which he had made a week or so earlier so I just copied him. I tossed them with olive oil and salt and pepper an threw them on a grill sheet. They were done in about 5-8 minutes. Really, they needed nothing else.

 

 A perfect summer meal:

III. Grilled ratatouille:

Ratatouille is one of the best ways to use lots of different vegetables at one time, you can make a big pot of it and use it in several meals. You can also freeze some of it so in the middle of a cold and frosty winter evening, be reminded of sunnier climes. 

In a foil-lined grill basket, I placed the following sliced and diced veg: onions, thinly sliced garlic, eggplant, a couple bulbs of fennel, yellow squash, zucchinis, and red, yellow and orange bell peppers tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper. I placed the basket of veg on the grill and tossed them every once in a while. When the veg were almost done, I cut 3 fat tomatoes in half, drizzled them with olive oil and placed them on the top to roast slightly.

 

To finish the ratatouille, I heated up some olive oil in a pan, added chopped roasted tomatoes, some chopped kalmata olives, a little tomato paste (concentrated in a tube), some red wine, a few splashes of balsamic vinegar, a little sugar to balance flavors, salt and pepper until it became a nice sauce. Then I added the remaining grilled vegetables and finished with chopped fresh basil.

 

 

There are a million things to do with the finished ratatouille: fold it into pasta, use it in a lasagna, and my favorite, over soft polenta (optional: with Italian sausages). Here are a couple things I made:

Spoon over grilled french bread, top with fresh mozzarella and bake until the cheese is all melty:

  

Or rustic mini calzones- divide pizza dough, roll out and stuff with ratatouille (optional: mixed with some chopped, sautéed italian sausage) and fontina cheese, seal up and bake on grill.

 

Happy Summer and happy grilling!