6 vegetarian recipe ideas for a barbecue!

Article originally published on August 6, 2020

That’s it, summer has officially arrived, with its temperatures on the rise (#TeamHiver staff), but also its aperitifs-barbecues that are organized faster than the distribution of the Delta variant in France.

And if you are a vegetarian or just want to cut down on meat consumptionyou may be wondering what you can eat on your future summer evenings.

Not eating meat doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy barbecues – quite the opposite! The idea to remember is that globally, everything is grilled. From there, life is beautiful, what do you want.

I’ll give you some recipe ideas and techniques that have been tested and approved by both vegetarians and carnos alike.

Meat substitutes for a vegetarian barbecue

Grilled animals do not have a monopoly on barbecue and food in general. For the more knowledgeable, there are these popular substitutes that you can find more and more frequently in supermarkets and that making imitations of animal meat which are quite impressive depending on the brandsusing soy, mushroom, wheat, beet or seitan …

If you insist, you can then grill a steak or some sausages, unless they come from a piece of critter.

A vegetarian barbecue, with vegetable skewers

As with the meat skewers, except (spoiler alert): there is no meat. Yes I know, it’s crazy as information.

More seriously, if for you skewers are life (and I understand you), you can have fun putting large chunks of vegetables on a skewer and grilling everything cheerfully.

You can also marinate the vegetables a few hours in advance, with some olive oil (or nuts if that’s your thing), herbs, spices and poof, on the grill.

Bruschetta with vegetables and grilled mozzarella

So here I tell you about my favorite recipe all over the world, and that you can systematically find at each of my friends’ barbecues.

So yeah, it changes a bit from what’s traditionally grilled, but as I told you above, overall everything, and I mean EVERYTHING burns, in one way or another.

So this is the case with this bruschetta of-death-that-kills ! Just cut a large and not too thin slice into a good country bread, spread it generously with olive oil and rub a clove of garlic over it (or sprinkle small pieces of garlic if you prefer when it’s crunchy). Pre-grill a little, on each side of the slice.

Once done, you have your slices of tomato, courgette, or whatever you want, add pieces of mozzarella, a little Provence herbs and soon, on the grill a little more, and not too close to the flame, otherwise you will burn.

When you see that the mozzarella is melting slightly, you can eat it all at once, without sharing, because you can’t mess with bruschetta, it’s personal.

Grilled vegetables, for meatless barbecues!

Of course, there is also the simplest solution, which is to grill all the vegetables you have on hand. Zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, corn cobs, mushrooms, potatoes, sweet potatoes … Everything is fine!

And do you know what you can do too? Put a good camembert in a piece of aluminum and put it next to the embers so that it melts. Once that’s done, you can dip your grilled veggies in melted cheese, and it’s pretty much the closest thing to my idea of ​​heaven, nothing more or less.

And if you are vegan, you can do the same with plant-based cheeses too, because the kiff doesn’t wait!

Giant mushrooms stuffed with cheese

I conclude with this last savory idea, but no less important: that of mushrooms stuffed with cheese. Did you think the filling was supposed to contain meat? On the contrary! You can stuff what you want, with what you want and with whoever you want! And you can also stuff whoever you want, but that’s another topic.

So, to go back to the filling, you just have to choose large enough mushrooms, because there will be more meat to eat and it will be less boring to stuff. You clean them, cut their tails (not a misandre recipe, I promise) and brush the outside of the mushroom with olive oil.

And there, you just have to put strips of cheese, or grated cheese or whatever, inside the mushroom. Pepper, salt, Provençal herbs (I put them everywhere, it’s terrible), and soon, on the grill, until the cheese melts.

Fruits to caramelize and grill for a barbecue

So yes ok, we talked about salty, vegetables and everything, but what happens to the dessert?

Note that the fruit can also rub shoulders with a hot grill, for your greatest pleasure. And if you want to add some pepper (or sugar for once), you You can also caramelize them. Yes I know, it sells dreams.

To do this, it is not very complicated: you put your fruit quarters on skewers (melon, peach, apple, whatever you want), dip them in a small mixture of honey or sugar and butter (or margarine if you are vegan), glaze a little so that they hold up better the shock during cooking and away, on the grill, like everything else before.

So yes, if you don’t want your fruit to taste too much like the eggplant you grilled before clean the grill without burning your fingers or take another grill. Clever, the rabbit.

Little trick to not be bitten by beetles if you don’t want all your pieces of vegetables or fruit to stick to the grill when you take them off, like a mussel attached to its rock, you just have to grease your grill well before putting food on it.

Okay, I’m hungry!

Title image photo credit: Rimmabondarenko