Grilling vegetables: Salading tips by Chef Orielo

Grilling vegetables on the BBQ or griddle pan is well-known as one of the healthiest ways of cooking. The use of low fat and quick cooking means retaining much of the vitality and nutrition. (as opposed to boiling or frying) The vegetables that more associated with grilling are eggplants, zucchini, asparagus, mushrooms, capsicums, potatoes, artichokes ...

To cook, the vegetables are placed directly on a grill or hot plate that goes directly over the fire. The heat source is usually gas (in the commercial kitchens and most BBQ’s) or electricity (with small plates for the griddle pan.) This technique requires only a little fat (olive oil please), so very suitable for low-calorie and low-fat diets because the use of oil in this case is to prevent food from sticking to the metal but in reality this method is achieved simply through the transfer of heat from the cast iron rods or the griddle pan. The important message is to cook grilled vegetables you need a hot grill or griddle pan!

Key Issues:

Cleaning: keep your hot plates clean after every use.
Intensity of heat: the thicker vegetables like eggplant or carrot, take longer to cook so they require a lower heat and the finer vegetables like zucchini require stronger fire, but cook quickly.
Do not overcut your vegetables to retain the flavours and the juices.
Add salt at the last moment to avoid drawing out the juices.

The advantages of using a griddle pan is that it is simple and fast - an ideal method for our low fat diet because just a drizzle of olive oil adds a perfect touch and makes the vegetables a little more crispier and tastier. I encourage you to prepare my recipe for grilled vegetables, which you can watch here. So what are you waiting for?