Grilled Vegetables With Herb Vinaigrette

Do you love grilled vegetables as much as I do? You can make this recipe year round, playing to the seasons and enjoying the diversity of flavors each one brings! This is a laid back, do your own thing dish that will make you feel good inside and out! Plus? It’s gorgeous!

One of my very favorite summertime dinners is grilled vegetables drizzled with a delicious, herby, garlicky vinaigrette. I usually serve them with some kind of grilled protein and good bread, but I don’t consider them the “side dish”.

These vegetables deserve main course status!

Grilled vegetables are fabulous hot off the grill, but they can also be made ahead and served at room temperature. That kind of adaptability makes them a fantastic choice for stress free entertaining!

Experience has taught me to always make more than I think we’ll eat. That’s partly because they go fast! But also because I’m hopeful there will be leftovers that I can enjoy over the next few days in sandwiches and salads, or warmed up and topped with an over easy egg 🙂

What Do You Need For The Vinaigrette?

I love this vinaigrette for grilled veggies, but it also makes a great salad dressing. You’ve got flexibility with the ingredients, but this is what I usually go with:

• Fresh herbs (basil, thyme, rosemary and parsley are my go-to)
• garlic
• dijon mustard
• honey
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

I say “usually” because cooking should be fun and relaxed and a creative endeavor…

You have different herbs? Use what you have but DO use FRESH herbs, that part is important! Feel like adding some diced shallots or maybe you have some garlic scapes? Do it! No dijon but you have an interesting grainy mustard, go for it! Use champagne vinegar, white wine vinegar, sherry vinegar, white balsamic or even fresh lemon juice instead of balsamic vinegar if that’s what you have. You do you, taste as you go and make this yours!

And if you come up with a really good combination? Let me know! I love to try new things, too 🙂

How To Make Grilled Vegetables with Herb Vinaigrette

This is a very flexible, casual recipe. One of those things where you use whatever produce is fresh and available and don’t worry too much about measuring.

• Prep the vegetables by cutting into evenly sized pieces in shapes that won’t slip between the grates (you can also buy grill baskets or special grill pans that make grilling smaller veggies even more convenient)
• Make the vinaigrette and toss the veggies with just enough to coat them lightly, reserving additional vinaigrette for drizzling. Let veggies sit for 10-15 minutes (you can also coat them a couple hours ahead and keep covered in the fridge until ready to grill)

• Preheat the grill to medium heat and make sure the grates are clean (you don’t want your veggies to stick)
• Grill veggies, turning once as they get grill marks. Hard vegetables can take up to 15-20 minutes minutes and softer veggies as little as 3-4. The Farmer’s Almanac has a great chart here that you can use as reference.
• I prefer to place the vegetables on the grill starting with the ones that will take the longest and ending with the ones that cook the fastest. From there I use a sharp knife to check for the amount of doneness I prefer and remove them to a large baking sheet as they’re ready. I like some veggies (like summer squash and asparagus) on the crisp side and others (like colorful bell peppers) soft and almost melty. In my opinion there is no right or wrong here- only your preference.
• Once all the vegetables are cooked arrange them on a platter, drizzle with a little more vinaigrette, top with a few twists from the pepper mill and maybe (definitely) some flakey salt

Playing To The Seasons

We live in a world where we can get our hands on almost any vegetable we want at any time of the year. But there are a lot of good reasons to pay attention to what’s in season and to move towards eating more seasonally. When it comes to flavor there is no question that a tomato picked ripe in the summertime tastes completely different from a tomato picked before it’s ready (so that it can survive the long trek to a grocery store shelf near you). Or that lifeless green beans in the winter bare little resemblance to the crisp, bright beans you can find in July and August. And once you taste truly fresh asparagus in the spring? You’ll forever be disappointed by it any other time of the year.

There’s also a higher nutrient content in veggies that are picked at their peak and eaten soon after. As soon as a vegetable is picked it begins to lose nutrients, so it makes sense that if it had to travel far it’s not as healthy as something grown close by.

And eating locally and seasonally is better for the environment. The closer we eat to the source of our food, the smaller the footprint we leave.

Better flavor, more nutrients and a healthier planet…it’s a win-win for all of us!

It’s Also a Journey

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t adhere to eating only foods that are in season 100% of the time. I live in the midwest and seasonal produce is pretty limited for a few months in the winter. I love variety and color and buy bell peppers and cherry tomatoes year round. But I do make an effort to focus on things that are growing now- close to where I live- most of the time.

It would be easy to become dogmatic about this, but I subscribe to the philosophy that we all should do the best we can for where we are now. Start paying attention to what’s locally and seasonally available and make an effort to eat more of that. You’ll taste and feel the difference and over time you’ll naturally gravitate towards those items.

Here Are Some Of My Favorites by Season

Spring

small sweet onions, asparagus, carrots, endive, radishes

Summer

sweet corn, bell peppers, hot peppers, cherry tomatoes, zucchini and yellow summer squash, eggplant, baby broccoli

Fall

broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, fennel, sweet potatoes(leave the peels on so they hold together)

Winter

winter squash like butternut and acorn, beets, celery root

What are your favorite seasonal veggies? Let me know in the comments…maybe you’ll inspire some new favorites to add to my list 🙂

What Else To Serve?

Your meal may well just be grilled veggies with some good bread and that sounds absolutely delicious to me, too! But, here are some more ideas…

• My go to is an assortment of REALLY GOOD sausages, sliced on the diagonal so everyone can try a couple different kinds
• Any grilled protein- steak, chicken, shrimp, etc
• I also love small bowls of hummus
• Whipped feta or whipped goat cheese
• Good bread or grilled pitas

I hope you love these grilled vegetables with herb vinaigrette as much as we do!

And, as always, I love to hear how my recipes turn out for you and I especially love to see your food photos! So tag me at @breathingandcooking on facebook and Instagram with your creations!

And don’t forget to breath, trust yourself and enjoy the process ❤️

Cheers!