Perhaps your refrigerator’s crisper drawers are bulging like an over-stuffed piñata with all of the CSA vegetables you’ve been neglecting for weeks. Perhaps you were ambitious and got to the farmer’s market by 8 AM last Saturday morning like the early bird you never are during the week and stocked up on the abundance of summer produce that wasn’t picked over yet—but now, you have no idea what to do with it all. Relax. Take a deep breath. The answer is sitting on your fire escape—or if you’re lucky, in your patio or backyard. It’s your grill!
Summer is the best time of year for a fully vegetable-based meal that satisfies even the pickiest carnivores (and makes vegetarians and vegans feel rightfully smug). And its also the time of year where grilling outdoors is as much a national pastime as it is a means to prepare dinner, so fire up your little flying-saucer-esque Coleman and assemble your ideal veggie line up. We collected some of our best grilled vegetables dishes to help you plan the perfect vegetarian grilling menu.
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Grilled Carrots with Sunflower Seeds and Carrot Tops Recipe
There’s no reason to toss your carrot tops when you can turn them into a fresh, herby sauce to pair with grilled carrots—kinda like nose-to-tail dining, except entirely veg.
Grilled Artichokes Recipe
Step up your skills in the kitchen by trimming your artichokes yourself. The tender hearts inside get even better when they’re grilled and finished with a simple mustard and shallot vinaigrette.
Grilled Vegetable Sandwich with Tapenade and Goat Cheese Recipe
We can’t decide what we love more in this vegetable sandwich: the intensely briny (in a good way!) homemade olive tapenade, or the natural sweetness that comes out when you grill summer vegetables just right.
Easy Whole Grilled Eggplant Recipe
When it comes to large heirloom eggplant varieties like the prosperosa, chef Diego Moya likes to grill the whole vegetable as-is, which gives a char to the outside while leaving the interior tender and sweet.
Grilled Green Beans and Summer Squash Recipe
A simple vinaigrette of Dijon, honey, and red wine vinegar takes simple grilled beans and squash to the next level for an easy vegetable dish that doesn’t feel like an afterthought.
Charred Carrots with Herb Ricotta and Pickled Shallot Recipe
Pickled shallots serve two uses in this summery grilled carrot dish: the pickling liquid makes the base for a vinaigrette, while the shallots themselves add a hit of sharpness and crunch.
Grilled Green Salad with Tahini Dressing Recipe
A uniquely summery (and often overlooked) flavor is fresh, crisp salad greens given a nice char over an open flame, then dressed simply with a savory vinaigrette. If you’ve never charred up your salad greens, give this recipe a go.
Grilled Eggplant and Cherry Tomatoes Recipe
Please heed MUNCHIES Culinary Director Farideh Sadeghin’s suggestion to get the “really fucking good feta cheese” for this grilled eggplant dish. It’s a very simple recipe, so the quality of each ingredient is important.
Grilled Fingerling Potatoes with Mustard Recipe
If you’re looking for a way to improve upon your basic summer potato salad recipe, may we recommend you consider the addition of 1) a little char by way of grilling, and 2) a significant kick from both whole grain mustard and horseradish. Mayo who?
Grilled Sweet Corn Recipe
Leave it to LA chef Kris Yenbamroong to take something as simple as grilled corn on the cob and make it extra delicious, with a touch of coconut sugar and milk plus a sprinkling of turmeric.
Grilled Zucchini and White Bean Salad Recipe
A quick and easy way to bulk up a grilled veggie salad is to add a can of your preferred beans—as we do here with toothsome white cannellini beans, which gives this salad the extra dimension of texture it needs.
Grilled Avocado with Ponzu Sauce Recipe
Want a quick and visually appealing first course for your next outdoor dinner party? Try perfecting your cross-hatched grill marks on perfectly ripe avocado—then drizzle it with a bit of ponzu sauce and some freshly grated wasabi.
Grilled Cucumber Salad Recipe
Considering the crunchy hazelnut dukkah, the grilled halloumi cheese, and the chile-and-herb zhoug tossed together with lightly smoky cucumbers, this salad is doing way more work than it immediately appears.
Grilled Corn Summer Salad Recipe
We’ll admit, there’s no delicate way to eat corn on the cob, so you might enjoy trying slicing those sweet kernels off the cob just after you give them a bit of a char on the grill. Then, toss them up like a salad with a sweet-tart cumin dressing and candied pepitas for extra crunch.
Grilled Apricot Crostini Recipe
We used apricots for these perfect party appetizers, but you could use any stone fruit that’s in season, like peaches or plums.
Grilled Cabbage Wedges Recipe
Chef Elise Kornack proves that cabbage can be far more interesting as the base for a grilled wedge salad than as a slaw component. We’ll never think of the leafy brassica the same way again.
Classic Grilled Elote Recipe
Slather your corn up with mayo, butter, and cotija cheese, and dive face first into these classic grilled elotes with no shame.
Grilled Sweet Potatoes with Brie and Honey Recipe
Grilled sweet potatoes with honey and Brie sound a liiiiittle like fall, but hey, if you’ve got the grill going now, you might as well go for it.
Grilled Watermelon Steaks Recipe
Lest we forget that we can also grill fruits to our heart’s content, here is an out-of-the-box recipe from Puerto Rican chef Ricky Arias González that treats watermelon like a big, juicy steak.
Grilled Piña Colada Recipe
Want to improve even your cocktail game with the help of your trusty grill? Try charring up some pineapple for a big batch of piña coladas like you’ve never had before.
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