Grilling is an example of how you can take one food item (vegetables) and turn it into a spectacular dish, within a few minutes. You don’t have to heat up your house on a hot day, and when you make those grilled vegetables into a cool salad, you have a refreshing lunch or dinner. It works for me! These are the vegetables I used and it was wonderful, but play around with it. There are so many options! Add the optional chicken for a full meal deal.
Grilled Vegetable Salad-serves 4
The Vegetables
3 Zucchini
3 Corn on the cobs
1 Red pepper
Oil and Seasonings:
3/4 cup of olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fresh herbs (basil, oregano, thyme, etc)
2 teaspoon salt
Dressing:
Leftover flavored olive oil from grilled veggies
More olive oil to bring back amount to 1/2 cup
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
Salad:
One small head of lettuce or mixed greens
Cooked Chicken cubed or shredded (I used leftover roasted chicken, around two cups worth), opt.
The Steps
Prepare the vegetables and oil
Slice the zucchinis lengthwise (see picture below to see an example), into strips about 1/8-1/4 inch. Shuck the corn, and wash. Quarter the red pepper, and deseed.
Combine the oil with the garlic, salt and herbs. Coat all of the vegetables lightly with the mixture. The oil helps hold in the moisture while the vegetables cook. Save the leftover oil for later.
Grill
Grill over medium high heat (I use a gas grill). Put corn, zucks and red pepper on the grill (if you have a large grill they will all fit, if too small, do in batches). Turn the corn, periodically, and do the zucks and red pepper for about 5-8 minutes on each side. The zucchinis should have nice grill marks and be soft all the way through. The red pepper’s skin may become a little black, but that’s okay, because you can peel it off. The corn should have nice browned sections all the way around. Take off the vegetables as they get done.
Slice and Dice
Cube the zucchinis. If desired, peel the skin off of the red pepper’s using a small sharp knife, and cube as well. Stand your corn up on a plate, and run your knife down all of the sides to remove the corn kernels.
Now take the leftover oil, we will be using it to make the dressing.
Dressing:
If needed, up the olive oil to 1/2 cup and combine the rest of ingredients. Taste and adjust with salt, if needed.
On a plate, lay your salad green, heap the grill vegetables on top and the optional chicken, and drizzle the dressing over top and serve.