BBQ

This year, after years of enjoying barbecues at our son and daughter-in-laws house, we finally made the decision to buy our own small gas grill. We've had charcoal grills in the past but hardly ever used them, but now that we have our handy gas grill, we've been barbecuing left and right. We love our grill, by the way, and use it quite often. We tend to be a little repetitive in what we grill but since we only have ourselves to please, why not grill what we like best? We especially love to grill tempeh, zucchini, potatoes, peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, eggplant and corn.

I made an impromptu barbecue sauce by blending jarred, crushed tomatoes (more about the tomatoes in a future post) with a bunch of other ingredients, and brushing it on the tempeh as it grilled. It was great. My husband, who prefers to use recipes, found a recipe for barbecue sauce in "Complete Vegetarian Kitchen," by Lorna Sass, and has been marinating and grilling tempeh with the excellent sauce rather frequently. A Vitamix blends a fast, thick, smooth sauce in seconds with whatever ingredients you care to throw in.



We find that most fresh vegetables look and taste so good right off the grill that they don't really need enhancement, unless you'd like a sprinkle of herb salt or grind of pepper. I usually enjoy my corn plain, but have you ever tried rubbing a small amount of umeboshi plum paste on freshly cooked corn? It's a good substitute for butter and salt.



Here's a simple dinner of tempeh, zucchini, potato and curried cauliflower kimchi. (The potatoes don't looked cooked, do they? They were, though.) Tonight we're having tempeh (duh), potatoes, coleslaw, kale salad, quinoa with roasted veggies and parfaits! (Company coming!)

The vegan grillers ...

A couple of weeks ago we got our very first gas grill. After much Internet research into brands and sizes, we found a hardware store with the grill I was interested in, and went to see it in person. I quickly realized it was a lot smaller than I thought, and decided the next size up would work better for grilling copious amounts of veggies rather than skinny hot dogs and a few burgers. We bought one.

Oh, I know. Big deal you're thinking, so they got a grill. Everyone has a grill. Yes, but now WE have a grill, too, and we've been grilling just about every night. We've gone a little grill-crazy — maybe to make up for lost time. We purchased a Weber Q Series portable grill and a stand. We got the Q 220. The Q 220 is has an electronic starter (powered by a small battery) so you just turn it on and it lights — so far, anyway. Although the Q is considered a small grill, that doesn't mean it comes with a small price. I was kind of waiting for an end of summer sale before we bought the grill, but if I waited any longer, the summer really would end and I didn't think we'd want to be grilling in the rain and cold. But you never know — this grilling thing is very cool, and we're enjoying ourselves immensely, so maybe a little rain won't stop us.

First of all, I'm amazed at how quickly we can get a grilled meal on the table. I'm not talking about fancy marinated this and that, but a fabulous, basic grilled veggies and protein affair. For example, we grilled zucchini, eggplant, hatch chile pepper, portabella mushroom slices, sweet potato and tofu in 40 minutes start to plate.

We cooked the sweet potato in slim slices (about 1/2" thick), then sliced the slabs to look like fries, after they were cooked. The eggplant and summer squash were sliced lengthwise into steaks. (Other times I've cut the squash into chunks and skewered them with onions and mushrooms.) I gave the veggies a very light coating of olive oil before grilling. While my husband attended the veggies on the grill, I made chipotle coleslaw using a very thinly sliced small cabbage, shredded carrot and chopped scallion. I made a dressing with a small amount of vegan mayo, chipotle in adobo, cider vinegar and a little sweetener, and a dash of herb salt. I don't like my coleslaw oozing dressing so I used a pretty small amount — about a tablespoon of mayo and a teaspoon of chipotle in adobo.

We bought the mushrooms already sliced because the cost was almost the same as the whole ones, and they were grill-ready. The tofu was fried tofu from a tofu shop that we were basically just heating on the grill, not cooking.

The veggies taste so amazing right off the grill, we almost never even add salt — though sometimes I remember to add a little herb salt.

In addition to what I've already mentioned, we've grilled onions, yellow potato slices and tempeh. The tempeh was blanched and marinated because my husband made it, and he was following a recipe, but I probably would have just tossed it onto the grill. I've got some super-firm Wildwood tofu in the refrigerator waiting for me to decide how to grill it. Any suggestions? After the thrill of our new toy wears off, I may opt for some fancier preparations, but for now, we're really enjoying our fast and easy grilled suppers. One thing I do want to try, though, is grilling a whole eggplant to make a traditional, smoky version of baba ghannouj. It's got to be easier than grilling it on the stovetop.