Grilling Veggies

The other night I fired up the grill for three of my favorite vegetable dishes.

On the left, we have a recipe that I improvised from a piece I saw on the Food Network by Giada. She sliced sweet potatoes lengthwise, drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled with salt, and baked in the oven until they were crispy. I figured the same thing would work on the grill. Since drizzling olive oil over a hot flame is a recipe for a flare up, I put the strips into a plastic bag, drizzled olive oil, put in a liberal sprinkle of kosher salt, and shook the bag well. This leaves them with a nice even coat of salt and oil. Cooking them over a hot grill produces a wonderful crispy outside as well as the grilled flavor. Much better than in the oven, and given the hot weather, far preferable to running the oven inside.

On the bottom right is grill roasted garlic. Slice several garlic bulbs, place them cut side up in a small aluminum tray, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt, and cover with tinfoil. Cook until the garlic becomes soft, then remove the tinfoil and continue until they get a nice light brown color. You can squeeze the garlic out onto bread or crackers -- they make a wonderful paste. They're also great for cooking other dishes when you need roasted garlic.

On the top right is the old standard onions and peppers. Slice up onions and peppers, throw in whatever seasonings strike your fancy, and grill until they're soft. Serve that on a plate next to some sausage and you're in heaven. What? You don't have a grill wok? You'd better fix that right away!