Grilled Vegetable Recipe
A tasty addition to your BBQ that will leave both meat and non-meat lovers satisfied.
Servings: 5 servings
Ingredients
- 1 medium cauliflower
- 2 small aubergine/eggplant
- 3 small zucchini
- 1 handful long beans
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 ears sweet corn
- 1 medium purple onion
- 2 medium yellow bell peppers
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- a handful pistachio nuts
- 4 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
- fresh basil see note 1
- cooked bambara beans optional
Instructions
- Cut the aubergines, zucchinis, and onion into thick slices.
- Cut the bell peppers into half and along with the sweet corn and the unpeeled garlic cloves.
- Sprinkle lightly with oil and salt. Place the vegetables on an oiled grill or an oven safe tray or pan. See note 2.
- Separate the cauliflower into florets and place in an oven proof tray along with the garlic and the long beans.
- Place the tray into the oven along with the grill with vegetables and grill over medium heat (about 220℃/428℉) until the vegetables are soft. The veggies should not be mushy and the cauliflower should still have a bite to it. See note 3.
- Grill until the vegetables are soft but not mushy. The cauliflower and the long beans should still have a bite to them.
- Leave the vegetables to cool.
- Toast the pistachios in a pan and leave to cool. Then using a coffee grinder or processor, blitz the nuts.
- In a mortar or a processor grind the basil with the pistachios and the roasted garlic (remove the peel), adding salt and oil in bits until a somewhat uniform but not completely smooth paste is formed.
- Remove the kernels from the sweet corn by running a knife close to the cob through from top to bottom.
- Chop the rest of the vegetables, add the pesto dressing, and mix well making sure to adjust for salt and black pepper.
- Serve at room temperature.
Notes
- Start with a fistful of fresh basil and if necessary add some more. Different types of basil have different potencies and as such I recommend eyeballing the amount for this dressing. To make it easier, pack some fresh herbs into a deep set tablespoons and use two of those to begin with.
- The contact area for a pan is larger than that of a grill and therefore you will need to watch out for that. A grill will leave beautiful grill marks and a pan will give a quicker char.
- The vegetables will all have different cook times, the bell peppers will be done first, followed by the zucchinis and the aubergines and then the onions. The cauliflower will take the longest. Make sure to check them as you go and then remove from heat accordingly.