Plant-Based Grilling

So we grill everything. Any vegetable or fruit, it can be grilled: on the grill directly, in a grill pan, or wrapped in foil, and with delicious results.

We came to this realization by accident, when some friends went on vacation and left us with two weeks of their local farm CSA bounty. Like, What are we going to do with four different types of peppers, two types of onions, piles of Tuscan kale, sweet potatoes, eggplant, and tomatoes? ALOT of tomatoes?

Everything went on the grill (actually not everything, many many of the tomatoes ended up in another recipe post, Balsamic Roasted Tomatoes.)

So did anyone read last weeks New York Times article Our Food Is Killing Too Many of Us: Improving American Nutrition Would Make the Biggest Impact on our Health Care? The authors, a nutrition and an agriculture expert, call for an immediate focus on the plant-based diet as an obvious and powerful solution to our chronic disease problem. I am, of course, totally in agreement,  and our bona fide plant-based dinner would make the expert authors proud.

Here is how we grilled and enjoyed it all:

Peppers, onion and eggplant in the grill pan with a drizzle of olive oil.
Grilled goodness. I served this with a simple vinaigrette of olive oil, lemon juice, chopped basil, sea salt and black pepper.
The kale we wrapped in foil and grilled until nice and soft and charred a bit.
The sweet potatoes we wrapped in foil and let grill the longest, to be the base for the charred cherry tomato salsa. I wrapped little tomatoes and chopped scallions with some olive oil and sea salt in foil and grilled it. Instant salsa!
This was our real dinner, folks. Hubby threw some soy sausages on the grill as well for protein, and a very satisfying plant-based dinner was had by all.


2 thoughts on “Plant-Based Grilling”

  • These are great ideas, thanks! We just grilled whole peppers last night, and my kids loved them. (Plus, my 12-year old is the grill master now, so the kids even cooked the veggies!) I like using the grill, but I don’t like focusing so much on meat, so I’m definitely going to use these ideas.

    • YES grilled peppers are so versatile, can be grilled then stuffed, stuffed then grilled, sliced then grilled, it’s all good. We love peppers and onions in the grill pan and then served as a side with tacos or burgers (usually veggie versions). Nice job getting the kids to man the grill!

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