Tips for Grilling Vegetables

A diet without vegetables and fruits is not a well balanced diet. The body not only needs energy in the form of carbohydrates and fats, but it also requires necessary vitamins and minerals that are obtained naturally from vegetables and fruits. Not only that vegetables and fruits contain antioxidants that help in protecting the human body from various types of diseases. Those who are overweight can consider a diet rich with vegetables and fruits because they possess lesser calories and are rich in fiber that assists in regular bowel movements.

Vegetables can be either eaten raw, used in different types of salads or can be cooked. There are various methods of cooking vegetables. They can be either boiled, stirred fried or even grilled. It has been noticed that when the vegetables are boiled, they lose some amount of dissolved vitamins. When these are fried, you tend to increase the calories. Therefore, the best way to keep the nutrients intact is to grill them. Also grilling is the fastest way of cooking. Well, the only draw back with grilled vegetables is that sometimes they tend to be cooked unevenly due to faulty way of grilling. Let us, therefore, find out how to grill vegetables perfectly.

Remember, not all vegetables are ideal for grilling. Vegetables that have less content of water are ideal for grilling, such as mushrooms, potatoes, corn, carrots, zucchini, bell peppers, asparagus and even the common onion. Before grilling, wash the vegetables thoroughly and let they dry for ten to fifteen minutes. Now is the time to cut the vegetables. While cutting, do it a manner so that there is enough surface area to be grilled. Cutting in too small pieces will be useless. Now grill these pieces on medium heat first and then reduce the heat once they are tender. Oil the grill properly so that vegetables do not stick to it. Your perfectly grilled vegetables are ready to consume.

In case you do not want to use oil for grilling, lightly cover the vegetables with olive oil and then wrap them in foil. Place the foil into the grill.

Vegetables like potatoes and corn should be grilled first as they take longer to get cooked. In order to check whether the vegetable is done, take a fork and pierce the vegetable. If the fork can easily penetrate, the vegetable is done.