Summer Grilled Vegetables Recipe

My hubby cooked up veggies on the grill using this recipe one hot summer day and they were very satisfying, both the night we ate them (next to burgers) and the next day on sandwiches with mayo and a dash of garlic salt. What with the oppressive heat of late summer and the abundance of summer vegetables like zucchini, summer squash and eggplant, cooking those little babies outside on the grill is a great way to avoid heating up the house!

Zucchini is also a great choice for healthful diets, for more information, see my post on zucchini nutrition information.

I absolutely adore the flavor of fennel, similar to licorice, and fennel seeds are great to have on hand for ethic dishes such as Indian food. This grilled veggies recipe adds fennel and basil, but according to the hubs was still extremely easy to prepare with just a bit more time for chopping and combining on the marinade. If you can’t find the fennel, you can easily leave it out and increase the garlic for added flavor!

Marinade Recipe

2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 c olive oil
2 teaspoons fennel seeds, ground in a blender or spice grinder, or crushed with a mortar & pestle
2 cloves minced garlic
1/4 c chopped green onions
1/4 c chopped fresh basil or 1 Tbsp. dry basil
1 tsp. salt
fresh ground black pepper

Start by mixing the lemon juice and oil, then add the remaining ingredients and whip up smooth.

Grilled Vegetables Recipe

4-5 pounds japanese eggplants, zucchini, and/or yellow squash, cut into thirds lengthwise
Marinade (above)

Marinade the veggies in a large bowl, coating them well. While marinading, get that grill ready!

Cook the vegetables over medium heat on the grill, about 12 minutes per side for the squash or zucchini, and 15-20 minutes per side for the eggplant. Cook in batches if necessary.

This recipe is adapted from Julie Rosso and Sheila Lukins The New Basics Cookbook (aff). With this cookbook, the authors of the Silver Palate Cookbook (aff) created a great guide to building up a pantry and cooking just about everything. The recipes vary from the quick and simple to the complex, but I’ve always found them tasty and often creative and outside the box. Each chapter includes charts and tables describing the ingredients and the various food families, for example a herb and spice chart explaining their various uses, how they’re available and whether you can grow them in your garden. Or a summer berries chart listing their season, storage and best use!

You’ll also more healthy zuccini recipes and uses for zucchini here on hippie dippie bébé.

Happy summer vegetable showdown!

Mama Hope