Dear Up in Smoke Subscriber,

Nancy Loseke
Assistant Editor

There was a time when the notion of a meal—particularly a barbecue—without meat sounded more like punishment than pleasure. Even cookbooks targeted to vegetarians had penitential-sounding titles like “Meatless Days” or “Diet for a Small Planet.” Meatless grilling would have seemed the epitome of sacrifice and self-denial.

Well, to quote one of my favorite musicians, “The times, they are a’ changin’.” Proof positive—the most requested recipe ever from my BBQ University show on PBS was for Mac and Cheese with Grilled Onions, Chiles, and Corn. We could barely keep up with the volume of e-mail. We eventually threw up our hands in a cyberspace version of “Uncle!” and posted the recipe.

We also had lots of requests for the recipes for two other meatless dishes: Portobello Mushroom “Burgers” and Ginger-Studded Tofu “Steaks”. People even asked for vegetarian recipes from past seasons such as Barbecued Bean and Cheese Chili Rellenos and Grilled Gazpacho.

Call it the carnivore’s capitulation or the vegetarian’s revenge, but interest in meatless grilling is growing. Below, you’ll find some terrific dishes for the vegetarian in your family or on your guest list. Use it to fill those “I feel like something light tonight” menu gaps, or in a supporting role to a more traditional meat-centric main course.

You probably know that I’m a carnivore and an enthusiastic and unrepentant one at that. What you may not know is that I also have some vegetarian street cred: wife Barbara and daughter Betsy were vegetarians when I was writing The Barbecue Bible. (Thank goodness they saw the light.) I even wrote a vegetarian cookbook (High-Flavor, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cookbook), which won a James Beard Award in 1996.

The fact is, most vegetables and many soy foods, like tofu and tempeh, respond spectacularly well to smoke and fire. (Remember my mantra: if something tastes good baked, boiled, fried, or sautéed, it probably tastes even better grilled.) The high dry heat caramelizes the natural plant sugars in vegetables, making onions, peppers, and their brethren taste even sweeter and smokier than normal. There’s even a health advantage: grilling preserves the vitamins and minerals that can be leached out by other cooking methods.

As a rule, vegetables with a high water content are good candidates for direct, high-heat grilling: the short list includes asparagus, endive, mushrooms, okra, scallions, tomatoes, and zucchini. All of these vegetables benefit from a light brushing of oil—extra virgin olive if you’re working in a Mediterranean mode, sesame oil if you’re feeling Asian—in either case, robustly seasoned with coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Even dry, dense, or relatively low moisture vegetables—like potatoes or artichokes—do well on the grill. The secret is to grill them using the indirect method—adding soaked wood chips to the coals if a smoke flavor is desired—basting them with sweet butter or garlic butter or that elixir of life, extra virgin olive oil.

Below are 9 great tips for honing your vegetarian grilling skills this summer:

1. When grilling moist vegetables, like quartered tomatoes or onions, skewer them on two prong skewers or flat metal skewers. This keeps them from slipping or spinning.
2. When making vegetable kebabs, grill each type of vegetable on a separate skewer. Peppers and onions take longer to grill than zucchini or tomatoes—the separate skewers let you cook each the amount of time needed for perfect doneness.
3. When indirect grilling round vegetables, like onions or artichokes, stand them upright in a grill ring. (The spike conducts heat to the center, speeding up the cooking time.) Don’t have a grill ring? Make one from a twisted ring of aluminum foil. Note: I’m normally not a big fan of grilling vegetables—or anything—wrapped in foil.
4. One cool way to grill long slender vegetables, like asparagus, scallions, and green beans, that might otherwise fall through the bars of the grill grate, is to cut into uniform lengths, laid side by side, and pinned crosswise top and bottom with toothpicks or bamboo skewers to make a sort of raft. (It’s a lot quicker and easier to turn one asparagus raft than 5 individual stalks.)
5. While we’re on the subject of toothpicks, the Japanese and Koreans make grilled garlic kebabs by impaling whole cloves on toothpicks.
6. Smoke-roast large baking potatoes (use indirect medium-high heat and cover the grill) until squeezably soft, about 1 hour. Serve with your favorite toppings, like gorgonzola cheese and caramelized onions. Check out the very cool stainless potato grill rack to make this task even easier.
7. A large platter of grilled vegetables is an easy way to make your life easy. It’s colorful and tasty, even at room temperature, so you can grill it ahead, which is always useful when entertaining. Select vegetables that are in season with good color and textural contrast. Brush with olive oil, season generously with coarse salt and freshly ground pepper. Grill over a hot fire. Dried basil or oregano optional.
8. You know my enthusiasm for grilled corn, but remember to grill it naked. (The corn, not you.) Remove the husk and silk, brush the corn with melted butter or olive oil, then grill it over high heat until browned on all sides. Exception to the rule is what I call extreme grilled corn: Build a bed of glowing charcoal or wood embers and lay the corn in the husk on top. Grill until the husk burns completely off and the kernels are darkly browned. The resulting smoke flavor is absolutely incredible. (Don’t forget to brush with melted butter before serving.)



9. Speaking of “extreme grilling,” sweet potatoes and beets are fantastic grilled in the embers. Lay them in the coals and grill until charred on all sides. (This is a good dish for you grillers out there who have a tendency to burn things.) Cooking time is about 30 to 40 minutes—turn often for even cooking. For complete instructions, see page 390 in How to Grill.