Grilled Vegetables

Since I do a lot of grilling in the summer and eat a lot of red meat, I do not forget about cooking veggies on the grill. I have an easy recipe that I came up with and have being using to several years now. It always comes our great. I start out with fresh herbs. I have lots of oregano in my garden and in the summer, I always have fresh parsley in my fridge and I usually buy grown plant of basil at Trader Joe's. These are the main ingredient for a vegetable marinade. Garlic and extra virgin olive oil  other ingredients together with salt and pepper for seasoning.



Many vegetables can be used here. This particular time I had zucchinis, onions and celery, but in the past I also used green beans, asparagus, carrots and green onions. In a small handheld blender 
4-5 garlic cloves,
12-15 sprigs of parsley (stems and all),
5-6 basil leafs, oregano leaves from 3-4 stems,
3/4-1 c of oil, 1
 tsp of salt and
1/2 tsp pepper.
 Parsley leafs ground up well in the blender but basil if too tough and oregano is to woody.

Everything gets pureed into soup like mix and added to a large plastic Ziploc bag with the vegetables. Since there is salt in the mix, it helps to draw the water out the veggies and marinate them, almost cooking them half way. The bag is placed in the refrigerator for a few hours and can even stay there overnight.

The veggies are sliced and cut in a manner that will be easiest to handle them when cooking. Long strips, that will not fall through in between the cooking grates is best. However, that is not always possible and in that case vegetable grilling tray or a pan is your best fiend. Cooking times vary between the vegetables so use your discretion on how long your veggies stay on the grill.

The left over juice - marinade is excellent for bread garnish. Dip one side of the bread in the marinade and add to the grill and cook until golden brown and crunchy. It is like garlic bread but even better.
 Do not use the left over marinade without cooking it.!!!