Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Vegetables in a Grill Wok - Healthy and Yummy

Potatoes and Carrots Marinading to Go in a Barbecue Grill Wok

Tonight I decided to grill wok red skinned potatoes and carrots to go with some rib eye steaks that are always a favorite around here.

The potatoes were kind of big, so I quartered them so they would not take FOREVER to grill. The carrots were the lazy girl's baby carrots in the bag and ready to serve. I really should have gone to the IGA to get full sized carrots, but it's raining out and cold, so I decided to use what I had on hand.

While you don't have to marinate vegetables before grilling, that does give them a nice flavor and helps prevent sticking. You want an oil based marinade, and I used one of my favorites - Garlic Gold (organic infused products that have a really lovely flavor). You can also use Kraft Zesty Italian dressing (oily - not creamy).

Grill Wok on the Char Broil Urban Grill with Vegetables

I sprayed the grill wok with non-stick spray. Just the inside. Then I put it on the grill to heat for around 10 minutes. The non stick spray and the pre-heating again prevent problems with foods sticking.

When I poured the vegetables in the grill wok, I cut the heat down to medium or around 350 to 375 degrees F. You don't want the grill too hot for hard vegetables, or the outside will burn, and the inside will still be hard and crunchy.

I also sprinkled on some Parmesan cheese. Yeah. The cheap sprinkle kind. My son loves that stuff and it holds up to the heat just fine. If you use the expensive cheese shredded by hand, then add that right before the grilled vegetables are done, or you will have a heap big burned mess.

Once I had everything ready, I put the lid down on the grill. It would take a really long time to do vegetables with the lid open on the grill, because the heat would be low.

Grilled Potatoes and Carrots - Good Grilled Side Dish

I grilled my veggies for around a half hour. Since I had company drop by, I'm not totally sure on the time, but that would be ballpark. It does depend on the size of the vegetables, type of vegetables (root veggies take longer to grill), the heat of the grill, and the outside temperature. So, be sure to check now and then. You can use a fork to check done-ness. The fork will slide in easily when the vegetables are ready.

Those baby carrots did come back and bite me. I should have added those about 15 minutes in, since they were cut much smaller than the potatoes. Most of them were okay, and I hid the icky looking ones in the bottom of the bowl. I don't touch up my photos, but I'm not sticking burned carrots on top either. A grill girl has to have some pride (-:

The vegetables did taste great. That Garlic Gold gave them a really nice flavor. The cheese was nice on there too even though I'm not a huge sprinkle cheese fan. The cheese did, however, add some nice crusting which gave some crunch to the potatoes which I did like a lot.

1 comment:

Gary House said...

Cyndi,
Those look fantastic!

Gary