Grilled Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat grill to 400° F. Scrub grates clean and oil them well. Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Cut green olives and cheese, set aside. Finely chop pepperoncini peppers, set aside. Wash, prep and cut veggies, place them onto baking sheet. Drizzle avocado oil over all veggies, with your hands ensure each side is evenly coated, sprinkle veggies with a generous amount of salt, pepper and 1 tbsp garlic powder.
- Place corn, zucchini and bell pepper directly on grill. Grill squash, onions and bell pepper for 3-4 minutes on each side, grill corn for 6-8 minutes on each side. Turn halfway through. We want our veggies still slightly crunchy, so there is texture to the salad.
- While the veggies are grilling, get out a baking sheet. Onto the baking sheet add your chickpeas and tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with 1 tsp garlic powder, salt, pepper and 1 tbsp Italian seasoning. Roast your chickpeas and tomatoes in the oven for 20 minutes or until tomatoes have just begun to blister. If not all tomatoes have popped open- that's okay! We want them warmed, but do not want our chickpeas turning crunchy.
- Once all veggies are grilled, let cool for a few minutes and roughly chop into bite size pieces, add to a medium sized bowl. Once tomatoes have blistered, take tomatoes and chickpeas out of oven and add to the same bowl.
- Drizzle roughly 1 tbsp olive oil over the top of everything, sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Add pepperoncini pepper juice from the jar and remaining seasoning- if you don’t have what is listed, use a garlic/herby/Italian blend. Add lemon zest and juice, finely chop and add fresh parsley. Add your green olives and cheese- I made this with cheddar cheese as that's all I had at the time, but I believe parmesan or feta would be even better! To make this dairy-free, swap cheese for avocado- which I do quite often!
- Serve and enjoy! This recipe makes about 8-10 servings and is perfect for meal prep as the flavors meld together the longer they sit.
This Grilled Vegetable Salad is one of my favorites, and a perfect ode to the end of summer. It incorporates all the August seasonal produce, highlighting green zucchini, gorgeous tomatoes (both cherry and Sungold), and scallions (also called green onions) from my Winterspring Farm CSA Box. I also used sweet corn (which your girl is going to miss!) and some beautiful multicolored bell peppers I found at Whole Foods.
This recipe is an easy one to substitute with whatever you have in the fridge or whatever type of produce you enjoy. In the past, I have done this with eggplant, asparagus, and broccoli. You really can’t go wrong with fresh flavors, the grilled char notes, mixed with bright lemon juice, fresh parsley, and a little quality cheese. I know in the past a lot of my recipes have been lactose free and that is because for a very long time I have been lactose intolerant. Recently, I’ve discovered that you can for the most part reverse lactose intolerance and so I have been on a journey to do that- which is why you’ll see a little more dairy, added to my dishes. This recipe can also easily be made into a dairy free dish by swapping cheese for avocado, which I also do a good chunk of the time.
This dish is also a sneaky fiber maxing powerhouse because it adds chickpeas and corn together- making this high in fiber and helping us prevent colorectal cancer by eating them! I love pairing my favorite flavors with functional nutrition because, why not have both? I hope you enjoy and let me know if you give this a try!
Love,
Lexi