/ Our magazine / Grilled vegetables: how to prepare and enjoy them best.
/ Our magazine / Grilled vegetables: how to prepare and enjoy them best.
Summer is the ideal time to try a thousand recipes with grilled vegetables. Between peppers, zucchinis, eggplants, tomatoes, and onions… there is just a wealth of choices! Grilled vegetables are delicious, colorful, and healthy, perfect as a simple and wholesome side dish. The vegetables are washed, cleaned, sliced, and then cooked on a grill, either ridged or smooth. In just a few minutes, you'll have incredibly tasty vegetables, perfect to enjoy both plain and seasoned. Let’s discover how to season and prepare our vegetables right away!
But how are grilled vegetables prepared? It's not a silly question at all. Getting the cooking of vegetables wrong is a very common mistake, to the point that they are often even burned. Let’s start with the vegetables to grill. Essentially, you can grill the vegetables you prefer, but those that hold up best during cooking are definitely eggplants, zucchinis, and peppers—the great triad of grilling, although onions, cherry tomatoes, and radicchio also do well.
Grilling vegetables is quite simple: you just need to have a non-stick pan or a griddle handy, the kind with "ridges." Cut the vegetables into thin slices, even lengthwise if you prefer. If you have a slicer, that’s even better, as you’ll get slices of the same thickness (the ideal would be about 0.5cm). This way, you will reduce the cooking time of the vegetables, achieving uniform consistency for all the slices! Grill them, remembering to turn the slices and cook them on each side. They should turn brown and soft, meaning that the grill marks should be visible, but the vegetables should not be burned, i.e., black. Therefore, don’t make the mistake of walking away from the kitchen: just a moment of distraction can burn the vegetables! Moreover, according to some schools of thought, salt should only be added at the end to avoid excessive dehydration. As always, the ideal is to try to find out what the right technique is.
If you really don’t feel like being in the kitchen, you can opt for oven-grilled vegetables. Just a few simple steps are enough to prepare vegetables that are absolutely delicious, perfect for any occasion. You will just need a mix of vegetables (or even just one type), EVO oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and aromatic herbs.
Wash the vegetables thoroughly, then clean and slice them. Soak them in water and salt for about half an hour, then drain and rinse, and dry the slices.
Place them on a tray lined with parchment paper, then brush with oil and season with a bit of salt.
Cook in a static oven at 180° for about 20 minutes, until you see them slightly browned.
Arrange the vegetables on a serving plate and season with another drizzle of olive oil, parsley, and garlic. This method is good for almost any type of vegetable, but be mindful of the cooking times. Peppers take a bit longer to cook, so it’s better to cook them separately. With peppers, there is also no need to soak in water and salt. Anyway, let’s see how to season our vegetables.
There are various seasonings for grilled vegetables and they are not at all complex, considering that if the vegetables are in season and of good quality, they will already be particularly flavorful. The classic seasoning for vegetables is very simple: ideally, a light dipping sauce made from oil and garlic, to which you can add chopped aromatic herbs, such as parsley, mint, or basil, and some chili. If you want, you can prepare a yogurt sauce by seasoning plain unsweetened Greek yogurt with salt, oil, pepper, and chopped herbs (in this case, chives work great). It will be absolutely delicious! In any case, regarding the seasoning of your vegetables, remember the rule "less is more": if the vegetables are already tasty, why cover their aroma?
Have you ever tried pasta with grilled vegetables? After all, who said you have to limit yourself to using these delicious veggies as a side dish? Moreover, pasta with grilled vegetables allows you to clear out the fridge, perhaps using leftovers from the night before. In this case, pasta comes to our rescue. Ideal to eat hot or cold, this dish will become the king of your summer lunches. For four people, you will need:
360g of fusilli
300g of already grilled vegetables (let your imagination run wild: Tropea onions, peppers, eggplants, zucchinis…)
1 clove of garlic
40g of EVO oil
80g of Leccino olives
Pepper to taste.
Oregano to taste.
Grana Padano cheese, grated to taste.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cut the vegetables into thin strips (be careful: before slicing the peppers, remove the skin, which is the most indigestible part. If you grilled them well, the skin will come off easily by rinsing under cold running water). Cook the fusilli. While the pasta is cooking, pour a drizzle of oil into a large pan and sauté the garlic until it turns slightly golden. Crush the garlic if you like, otherwise remove it. Add the pasta to the pan and let it flavor on low heat, then add the vegetables and the pitted olives, allowing to mix on high heat.
Turn off the heat, adjust with salt and pepper, and add a pinch of oregano. Mix and plate with a nice sprinkle of Grana. You can also enjoy the pasta cold (in this case, the Grana should be added before serving) and indeed, it will be even tastier because it will have plenty of time to soak up the flavors!
Savory pie with grilled vegetables is another excellent alternative to enjoy these delicious vegetables. Once again, this is a fridge-emptying and time-saving recipe. You will need:
• 1 roll of Puff Pastry
• A couple of Zucchinis
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• 1 Eggplant
150g of mozzarella (or provola)
• Parmesan
• 120g of cooked ham
• Salt to taste
• EVO oil to taste
Wash and slice the eggplants and zucchinis, then grill and set aside. Unroll the puff pastry and place it on a baking tray lined with baking paper, poke it with a fork, and layer with a strata of vegetables and a layer of ham. Add the cherry tomatoes cut into wedges, the cubed mozzarella, a drizzle of oil, and grated Parmesan. Place in a static oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes. Delicious!
Another great recipe is the millefeuille of vegetables, a dish that is really super light and so delicious. You will need:
4 medium zucchinis
2 peppers
1 eggplant
garlic
1 teaspoon of vinegar
EVO oil
salt
pepper
Clean the vegetables, then grill them until they are soft. Place in a bowl with a bit of EVO oil, salt, and pepper, then mix and add the teaspoon of vinegar. Take a loaf pan and line it with plastic wrap, then layer the vegetables. Let it rest for five hours in the fridge with a weight on top (maybe a full bottle of water will work). At this point, flip it onto a plate and there you go! Scenic, right?
Why not try a sandwich or a pizza with grilled vegetables? You just need to make some excellent homemade dough to create a delicious unique dish. Don’t worry, if you don’t want to knead, you can still use ready-made pizza or bread dough. In any case, for the pizza you will need:
•500g of flour
•500g of tomatoes
•125g of mozzarella
•one tablespoon of capers
•basil
25g of yeast
Salt to taste.
Pepper to taste.
First, prepare the pizza dough by kneading flour, salt, yeast dissolved in lukewarm water, and EVO oil. Let the dough rise for at least two hours, then clean the vegetables and grill them on the griddle. Season them with basil, EVO oil, garlic, and salt. Divide the dough into 4 and roll out each ball. Then top with tomatoes and bake at 220°C for 15 minutes. Then take out the trays and add the chopped mozzarella, vegetables, and capers. Bake for another 10 minutes, then serve!
As you can see, the ideas for using grilled vegetables are truly numerous. So, what do you think about trying?
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