How To Grill Vegetables

If you think only chicken, pork and fishes can be grilled, you could not be more wrong. The green treats of your kitchen garden can be grilled to have as delicious a taste as grilled chicken. If you haven’t realized it yet, now is the time to do so. Summer time is perfect for grilling vegetables, for many reasons, the most prominent amongst them being the ample availability of different vegetables. Grilled vegetables are very easy to prepare, for both the main courses and the side dishes. You can also decorate them as centerpieces for your vegetable feast. When grilled, vegetables take much lesser time to get prepared, as compared to their non-vegetarian counterparts. At the same time, they are healthy and can be served with pride. Read on to explore tips on how to grill vegetables.

Grilling Vegetables

The most common as well as most popular vegetable choices for grilling are zucchini, squash, tomatoes, onions, eggplants, and mushrooms. Potatoes can also be baked on the grillers. However, you need to avoid grilling leafy green vegetables, like lettuce.
You can grill the vegetables by either placing them directly on the griller or wrapping them in an aluminum foil, before placing them on the grill. You can also use grill skewer or grilling basket for that purpose.
Before you start the grilling procedure, wash the vegetables thoroughly with limejuice or baking soda. If the vegetables are fresh from your kitchen garden and you haven’t used any pesticides on them, you can just wash them with plain water. Now, soak them in water for half an hour, as it will help them from burning.
Dry the vegetables, by keeping them on the vegetable rack or wiping them with a clean towel. Cut the dried vegetables in the shape you want. Square-shaped pieces are the most common. Make sure the pieces are neither very large, nor too small and are more or less of same size, so that they cook evenly.
Now marinate the cut vegetables in a good grilling mix or coat them with olive oil or canola oil, before you start the grilling process. It will help them from sticking to the griller and also enhance their flavor.
If you want to marinate your vegetables before grilling them, use lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar, soy sauce, salt, and pepper. For Italian seasoning, you could check out herbs, such as rosemary, marjoram, or oregano.
You can add any amount and kind of spices to the vegetables, keeping in mind their taste and amount. However, salt and pepper are the most essential seasonings, which are necessary for grilling vegetables.
Generally, a vegetable takes three to four minutes for getting ready. However, mushroom and potatoes may take thirty minutes to even one hour to get ready. Grill the vegetables on a medium-hot grill.
To know whether your vegetables have been grilled or not, poke a fork into one of the cut pieces. If the fork gets inside the vegetables smoothly, they have been grilled properly. Otherwise, they need some more grilling.
You can also add herbs to the vegetables, to increase the flavor and nutritional value. However, you need to toss the herbs on the vegetables, after you have taken them off the griller.

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