Grilling Vegetables

One of my favorite things to do is to stand over a grill and cook food.  Any food really. From something simple like hot dogs to something a bit more complex to a beer can chicken, it is all the same to me, when I am standing over the grill.  My wife is a huge vegetable person, so I will often grill vegetables over the grill as well.  The flavors that are brought out when you grill adds so much to the meal.

More from Cooking Techniques

• This holiday dinner hack takes the pressure off the party host
• Seared to perfection: Better cheeseburger tips from top chefs
• Give that steak rub a sweet, savory, spicy flavor upgrade
• Natasha Gandhi-Rue shares tips on perfecting the TikTok taco burger recipe
• Are spiral hot dogs the best way to enjoy a grilled hot dog?

Here are a couple tips when grilling vegetables so they come out perfect.

First, as we talked about when deep frying foods, you want to make sure that you are grilling at a constant temperature and the correct temperature.  You want a medium hot grill, so about 400 degrees when grilling vegetables.  Now, if you don’t have a thermometer on your grill and need to know how hot 400 is, hold your hand over the grill about 4-5 inches above the surface of the grill and count the seconds that you can keep your hand their.  You should get to about 4-5 seconds for 400 degree.  Anything less, let the grill cool down a bit, if your using coals, or turn down the gas a bit.  Anything more, then stoke it and get it a bit higher.

If you are doing individual cut up vegetables, then skewers might be the way to go.  I have a grill pan that I use for vegetables that has holes in the bottom so I usually tend not to worry about skewers.  But the stainless steel skewers are great as they are easy to flip and don’t roll.  If you only have the bamboo skewers that works too but make sure that they are soaked in water for 30 minutes to prevent too much charring and possible catching of fire while cooking.

For just about all vegetables, I like to drizzle some basting oil on it, your favorite will do, my wife has her oil that she prefers which is an Italian Herb basting oil.  After the oil is even coated, I will place the vegetables on the grill and cook until there are some caramelized marks on them to bring out the sweetness and natural flavors of the vegetables.  This works well with asparagus, any type of bell pepper, egg plant, onions, cucumber and zucchini, tomatoes and cauliflower.  Not a complete list but gives you an idea.

Corn is another vegetable that I like to grill.  I will sometimes soak the husks in water and then grill, but this is more steaming than anything.  I will keep them on longer to get a little bit of a char on them because it adds to the flavor.  You can de-husk the corn and cook directly on the grill but it will cook quickly, 4-5 minutes and you will need to turn them frequently.