Get to Grilling!

I am done with grilling for the summer, y'all. It's getting too hot out there. I'll pick it back up in the fall. But I know for a lot of you, grilling season is just getting under way. I thought it would be useful and fun to do a round up of grilling posts here. Also, I am always looking for more grilling inspiration. If you've grilled something vegan recently or make something later this summer, leave me a comment with a link. I'd love to see it!

One of the first things to come to mind when people think of outdoor grilling is burgers. These Black Bean Burgers can go right on the grill grate, as they use vital wheat gluten to bind the ingredients. I like this one served with guacamole, pickled jalapeño slices and red onion.

Black Bean-Portobello Burgers are also awesome. They nee to be baked first, but then they just takes a few minutes to warm and crisp up on the grill. I've been topping mine recently with chipotle mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato.

These Sliders, made from lentils, mushrooms, and quinoa, are something different for a party. I like these Texas style:  with lettuce, tomato, red onion, and mustard. 

Sandwich fillings are also great prepped on the grill. I haven't been able to get enough of these Grilled Eggplant Muffulettas lately. For ease, I take all of the sandwich fixings out to the patio with me and make the sandwich outside.

Sometimes the sandwiches are unconstructed, and we can put together our own at the table, or eat everything as components.That's when the Versatile Vegetable Grill comes in handy. 

You can make soup from grilled veggies, such as this Grilled Vegetable and Lentil Soup, made from the vegetables above.

Tex-Mex is my go-to cuisine, and a big pile of grilled, cumin-spiked vegetables becomes Tortilla Soup. 

Probably our favorite grilled Tex-Mex dish is Portobello Fajitas. I like to grill extra vegetables and use them as an enchilada filling the next day.

When corn is in abundance, this Grilled Corn Salsa hits the spot.

Grills are terrific for preparing stir fries, like Grilled Seitan and Vegetables with Peanut Sauce and Sweet and Spicy Tofu and Broccoli. 

Indian recipes that are typically prepared in a tandoor are naturals for the grill.  Tandoori Seitan comes off the grill flavorful and chewy.

Tofu Tikka is smoky and delicious.

Both of the above recipes are terrific with a side of Dry Okra.

You can even grill fruit, like Pineapple, for a sweet side or dessert.

Finally, if this has inspired you to cook some vegetarian food on the grill and you need some information on equipment and techniques, do read The Great Grilling Post to get you started.

All-Purpose Masala Paste

Anyone who has prepared more than one or two Indian dishes has surely noticed that a lot of them start out with the same or similar ingredients. Long ago, I came up with a routine for handling these ingredients in my kitchen to ease preparation. First, I'd mince the onion and cook it for ten minutes in a bit of oil while I prepped the rest. Then I'd add minced, fresh aromatics - garlic, ginger, and peppers - and cook for two minutes. Seeds were stirred in next and cooked a minute. Finally, ground spices were cooked in the mixture for a minute.

It's a testimony to the well-balanced flavors of Indian cuisine that dishes made with these same ingredients taste completely different from one another, depending on the main ingredients and sauce. A spinach dish will never taste like a potato dish, and a curry made with coconut milk will seem completely different from one made with tomato puree.

The last time I made an Indian dish, I put together a big quantity of ingredients, ran them all through the food processor, and froze the spicy paste in batches for later. I threw some cilantro into the mix, too, since I often forget to buy it. Later I was able to pull out a batch of my masala paste, which smelled amazingly delicious, and make some soup in a hurry.

I'm sending this to Weekend Herb Blogging. WHB was originally created by Kalyn, is now organized by Haalo, and is hosted this week by Elena of Zibaldone Culinario. 

 All-Purpose Masala Paste

3 tablespoons canola oil

1 large yellow onion, diced fine, about 2 cups

2 tablespoons peeled, minced ginger

8 cloves garlic, minced

6-8 jalapeños, seeded and minced

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon garam masala

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium hot. Saute onion for 10 minutes until tender and golden. Add ginger, garlic, and jalapeños and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in cumin seeds and cook for a minute. Add garam masala, salt, and cayenne pepper and cook for another minute.

Transfer mixture to food processor. Add cilantro. Process to a smooth paste, stopping to scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl once or twice.

Divide mixture into 4 portions of about 1/3 cup each. Use immediately, refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze.

To use the paste, thaw a portion first. Sauté any vegetables your recipe calls for, then stir in the paste just before adding liquid ingredients like tomatoes or broth. 

Creamy Purple Hull Pea and Grape Tomato Salad

Tonight, I'm making the Grilled Eggplant Muffuletta one more time. I have some dried cannellini beans in the pantry which I planned to cook up and use in a salad, but when I went to the grocery store, they had the season's first purple hull peas and I couldn't resist throwing a pound in my basket. To go with the tiny fresh peas, I picked up the smallest tomatoes I could find. My cannellini salad was going to have an Italian-style vinaigrette, but I thought a creamy Southern-style dressing was more appropriate here. I made fresh mayo, similar to the one from this curried potato salad from last summer, but this time seasoned with a generous dollop of Dijon mustard.

From the background picture, you can see I went a little bit overboard buying fruit, too. (That's what summer is for!) I'll probably be making some pineapple salsa early in the week and pineapple sorbet to finish it out. And I'm thinking that I might turn any uneaten watermelon into juice and serve it with some vodka. 

This is another entry for  My Legume Love Affair, hosted this month by Valerie of A Canadian Foodie.

Creamy Purple Hull Pea and Grape Tomato Salad

To cook fresh peas, rinse and transfer to a pot. Add just enough water to cover. Bring to a low boil, reduce to a simmer, and cover. Cook for 10-15 minutes until desired tenderness. I pound will yield3 to 3-1/2 cups.

2 cups cooked purple hull peas (or black-eyed peas)

1 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in half

1/3 cup sliced red onion

Dressing:

For the soy milk I used Better than Milk powder and mixed it double strength.

1/3 cup canola oil

1/4 cup soy milk or creamer, the thicker the better

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Whizz together the oil, soy milk, sugar, salt, pepper, and mustard in the blender. Remove the center piece from the jar lid. With the blender running, drizzle  the lemon juice into the dressing a little at a time. Puree until the mixture thickens slightly.

Serve immediately or refrigerate.

Tofu Tikka

My inspiration for this comes from JL's blog. She posted a recipe for Cashew Cream Tofu on a Facebook group we both belong to - Vegan Cooking from Around the World - and I was smitten. Cashew cream on tofu seemed like such a great idea. Of course I had to do something with it that was spicy, so I used the cashew cream as a base for tikka marinade.

I've had the ingredients to make chaat masala for a while and this was a great reason to make a batch. Chaat masala is an Indian spice blend noted for containing amchoor (green mango) powder and black salt. It is often sprinkled on fruit, as well as used in tandoori dishes. This was also a great excuse to grill something new. Grilling makes everything taste better, I think.

I used a recipe for paneer tikka on Indian Food Forever as a guide. For the chaat masala, I followed the guidelines here. I  really like this version because the recipe writer noted which ingredients were essential and which were optional. The paneer tikka recipe also called for tandoori powder. I was thinking that tandoori powder was just red food coloring and I planned to skip it. However, a couple of hours before marinating the tofu and vegetables, I did a bit more Google research and discovered that tandoori powder also has spices in it. It often includes garam masala as well as many of the spices in curry powder, like turmeric and fenugreek. So I used a combination of homemade garam masala, homemade curry powder (similar to this recipe), a fresh red pepper for heat, and paprika for color. It was a good call, I think - the flavors were quite well balanced. The resulting dish is milder than you'd expect, letting the flavor of the tofu and vegetables shine through. (The vegetable dish you see in the on the side is dry okra. We also had rice.)

I am sending this to Susan's My Legume Love Affair, hosted by Valerie of A Canadian Foodie.

 Tofu Tikka

1 (14-ounce) package firm or extra-firm tofu

1/2 sweet onion

8 cremini mushrooms, about 5-6 ounces

1 smallish red bell pepper

1/4 cup raw cashews

1/3 cup water

1/2 inch piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small fresh chili, minced, optional

2 teaspoons chaat masala (see below)

1-1/2 teaspoons garam masala

1-1/2 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon paprika for color (optional)

Drain tofu and press: fold several layers of paper towels under the tofu and top with another folded paper towel. Put a plate on top and weight the plate with a heavy pot or some cans.

Puree cashews, water, ginger, garlic, and chili in the blender. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in chaat masala, garam masala, curry powder, and paprika, if using.

Slice onion into chunks. Cut mushrooms in half. Cut red bell -pepper into 1-1/2 inch squares. Cut tofu into 1-1/2 inch cubes. Arrange tofu and vegetables on skewers - I like to place onion and bell pepper on the ends to hold the softer tofu and mushrooms firmly in place. Brush the tofu and vegetables with the cashew-spice mixture and set aside in the refrigerator until you're ready to cook.

Prepare charcoal for grilling. Grill skewers until tofu and vegetables are cooked as desired - I like to cook them until a  few pieces just start to blacken. 

Serves 4.

Chaat masala

1-1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

Heaping 1/4 teaspoon whole black pepper

2 teaspoons amchoor powder

1-1/2 teaspoons black salt

1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Toast the cumin, coriander, fennel and pepper in a dry skillet until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Combine with amchoor powder, black salt, garam masala and cayenne pepper in a spice jar. 

Makes about 2 tablespoons.

Hot Asparagus Pickles

Last year at a gift shop far from home, Jim and I bought a jar of "hot asparagus bullets" - spicy pickled asparagus. He's a huge fan of both asparagus and pickles, and while I usually don't like pickles much, the garlicky heat of these drew me in. Before we knew it, we had finished the jar. He and I looked everywhere we went, but we couldn't find more anywhere. Finally, this spring he found some, but they were just plain pickled asparagus, and not nearly as good as the first ones. That's when I decided to make some.

I used the instructions here as a guide, using the maximum amount of garlic and hot peppers. I also subbed sherry vinegar for half of the white vinegar and dried tarragon for a third of the dill.

Jim declared that these were better than the first ones we bought. These are a great way to capture the last asparagus of spring. Be warned, they are very hot, so adjust to your own taste accordingly. 

I'm sending this to Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Terry of Crumpets &Co.

Hot Asparagus Pickles

1 pound asparagus

6 - 10 cloves garlic

1 large jalapeño

1 cup water

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup sherry vinegar (or any other vinegar you like)

2 tablespoons sea salt

2 teaspoons dried dill

1 teaspoon dried tarragon

1 teaspoon whole black pepper

Sterilize enough canning jars to hold a quart of pickles (I used 2 pint jars.) Here is the method I use to sterilize canning jars, although I just use my largest soup pot. Make sure you sterilize the tongs you will use to lift the jars out of the hot water with, also.

Snap the woody ends off the asparagus spears and discard; slice asparagus into 1-inch pieces. Peel the garlic. Slice the jalapeño into rings; discard the stem but keep the seeds. Layer the asparagus pieces, garlic, and jalapeño in the jars.

Bring water, vinegar, salt, dill, tarragon, and pepper to a boil. Pour over the vegetables. Allow the jars to cool to about room temperature before screwing on the lids. Refrigerate. Try to hold off for a few days to a week before you open the first jar!

Makes 1 quart.

[UPDATE 5/29/2013: I realized I left the pepper out of the instructions - that's been fixed.]