grilled vegetables Archives - Proud Italian Cook

Grilled Vegetable Salad

Here’s a fresh and healthy side dish to serve along anything you’re about to throw on your grill this weekend. It’s a combination of grilled veggies and a salad all in one! I actually recreated this from a salad I had at a restaurant recently.

It couldn’t be easier to make, just grill up your favorite veggies, go for a variety of colors, the more color the better, it adds to a pretty presentation. I even used some mini eggplant I found called Indian eggplant, which I thought gave it a nice visual and something different.

All the vegetables can be grilled ahead of time and set aside until you’re ready to plate everything together.

Crisp romaine lettuce is dressed with a rich, slightly sweet aged balsamic vinaigrette. I also added sundried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and creamy avocado into the mix.

Feel free to crumble some creamy goat cheese or feta on top with a sprinkling of pine nuts for more bling!

This is great for entertaining with ease and the presentation is gorgeous sitting on your platter!

Grilled Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

red, yellow and orange bell peppers
eggplant
zucchini
yellow squash
asparagus
artichoke hearts, grilled or canned, drained of any liquid
sun dried tomatoes ( soft and tender)
sliced avocado
crumbled feta or goat cheese and pine nuts, (optional)
FOR BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE
¼ cup of a good aged balsamic vinegar
1 cup, extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced finely
¾ teaspoon Dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Instructions

Prepare and slice all your veggies, place in a large bowl and drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Grill them all ahead of time until tender with nice grill marks, set aside.
Whisk all your balsamic vinaigrette ingredients together until well incorporated.
Right before you're ready to eat place chopped romaine, sun dried tomatoes into a bowl and dress with the vinaigrette, place onto your platter.
Take the same bowl, toss in all your grilled veggies and carefully drizzle balsamic vinaigrette all over them, not too much, a little goes a long way, taste to your liking.
Carefully arrange the veggies on top of the lettuce mixture with slices of avocado all around the perimeter.
Add cheese and nuts if so desired.

Cedar Planked Grilled Portobellos Stuffed with Summer Veggies

I normally use grilling planks for salmon or scallops but this time I thought I would try using vegetables, in particular big “meaty” portobellos!

Make sure you buy natural untreated wood that is free of chemicals, strictly sold for cooking, You wouldn’t want to use just any old type of wood from a hardware store, it could be very toxic!

There are various cooking woods on the market, some of my favorites as well as the cedar are maple, cherry, alder, apple and mesquite just to name a few.

Just make sure you soak them submerged and weighted down in water for at least 2 hours before placing them on your grill, otherwise they will just burn up and you don’t want that.

While your wood is soaking you can be grilling up your veggies. I used yellow squash, zucchini, corn, and red, yellow and orange peppers. They were tossed with a little olive oil, salt and pepper then placed on the grill.

For the mushrooms, the gills and stems were removed, this will give you a nice flat surface for stuffing.

Brush your mushrooms on the bottom with olive oil and only place them on the grill for 2 to 3 minutes just to get grill marks, caps up. Remove and let them cool completely. If moisture appears just pat with a paper towel.
Remember, only grill them for a couple of minutes, they will continue to cook on the plank.

I filled my caps with shredded asiago cheese but you could use just about any cheese you want. Now it’s time to layer your veggies making sure you can see all the different colors. Sprinkle a tiny bit of cheese on top then stick them on the plank!

Try to keep your grill temperature around 350, as their cooking you’ll hear the wood cracking a bit and the sweet smell of the cedar will fill the air.

The cheese will melt underneath and the veggies will become a little more golden, mine took a good 15 minutes.