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Grilled Vegetables
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Grilling vegetables on your grill is a healthy and delicious way of cooking them, and the results can be enjoyed as a colorful side dish,
or even as the main course. From eggplant to sweet peppers to tomatoes, and everything along the way, vegetables can be perfectly accentuated
by open flame if the proper procedures are followed. Sometimes referred to as fire roasting, grilling vegetables is a popular method in fine
cuisine the world over, and is coming soon to your back yard.
A variety of sweet peppers, commonly found in shades of green, red, orange, and yellow, take an absolutely wonderful cue from the open flame method. The proper fire temperature, about medium, and timing kick up the natural sweetness of the fruit without breaking down the crisp texture of the inner meat. Green being the most robust and yellow being the sweetest in this family, the seeds in the fruit have a bitter, spicy aroma that is perfectly released by the steam within the whole pepper. Grilling vegetables whole is a great method, and these peppers will do best if cooked for about 1 1/2 minutes per side, creating five sides to the surface.
Eggplant is a popular grilled item, but you may need to make a few preparations to your grill grates before you proceed. This is a porous fruit, almost between a potato and a cucumber in texture, and tends to stick to bare surfaces. Make sure that your grates are scoured or scraped clean. Before you apply any heat to the grates, spray them lightly with a high heat, nonstick cooking spay. Never spray this coating around open flames. Once the spray has settled for a few minutes, it is safe to apply flames. Eggplant steaks should be about 3/4 inch thick, and are best grilled over a medium flame for 2 to 3 minutes per side.
Grilling vegetables is often a misleading term, as some of the most tasty grilled items are actually fruits. To fire roast tomatoes, you will want a medium flame at the grill. Timing will depend on the size of the tomato, but you will want to make four or five grilled surfaces to this round fruit. Roma tomatoes will take maybe 2 minutes total, turning four times, whereas a beefsteak tomato will need about 6 minutes total, turning five times.
Other vegetables, such as corn and potatoes, do best when protected from the direct flames. Corn should be soaked in its husk for at least twenty minutes, and cooked in its husk for the same amount of time. Direct firing to the kernels can be accomplished after theses steps for a dramatic look. Potatoes should be double wrapped in tin foil if being grilled whole, and will need to be turned often for up to an hour. Sliced or diced potatoes should pouched in air tight tin foil, and will need about 30 to 40 minutes to tenderize.
As you can see, cooking vegetables on your grill is really easy.
