Vegetarian BBQs - meat-free grilling

It's not all about steak and ale

Vegetables too enjoy that extra something that we only get from a barbecue. The smoky caramelisation and seared criss-cross is unique to cooking outdoors.

Whether you are cooking a meat-free main course or a fabulous side dish, the atmosphere of a BBQ adds further flavours and textures without having to try too hard.

Consider the textures though. As with some meat dishes, certain vegetables will benefit by some pre-cooking - aubergine to soften it's meat and peppers to intensify its sweetness and soften its crunch.

When you then thread them onto a skewer with tomatoes and mushrooms for instance, they'll all BBQ together much more in tandem.


Wash them, chop them, grill them

Chilli Halloumi Kebab

Halloumi or 'squeaky cheese' loves the combination of chillis and lime. This is a simple yet tasty BBQ salad kebab with chilli halloumi at its heart.

Here's how:

Cut your halloumi into oblongs each about the size of half a mobile phone. Mix Stokes Chilli Jam and freshly squeezed lime juice with a little olive oil in a shallow dish and soak the halloumi in it for half an hour or so.

In the meantime, thread whatever you want to accompany the cheese in your kebab onto a skewer for grilling on the BBQ.

Try cherry tomatoes, button mushrooms, thinly sliced discs of courgette and perhaps a red pepper.

Pop these onto the BBQ and grill, turning regularly until the tomatoes burst and start weeping. Set the collection aside and keep it warm.

Place your lime and chilli infused halloumi pieces onto the grill for 2 minutes each side - oil the grill first  to avoid them sticking. Assemble your wrap and dress with a dill mayonnaise. You can make this by mixing 4 parts Stokes Real Mayonnaise with 1 part Stokes Mustard & Dill Sauce - it's delicious.

Spicy Tofu Skewers

Tofu can be tricky to grill. It can have a tendency to stick because it's so much lower in fat than meat. Here are some top tofu tips. 

To avoid sticking, rub your grill with oil prior to grilling. Use firm, or extra firm tofu. You can try freezing and then slightly thawing it for grilling. This will allow the tofu to absorb more of the marinade flavours. Keep your pieces of tofu relatively big to avoid delicate, smaller pieces breaking into the ashes. Have a go.

Here's how:

Cut the tofu as illustrated and press each piece gently with kitchen roll to dry it thoroughly, then brush it with Stokes BBQ Sauce - Original (delightfully smoky with sweet molasses); Sweet & Sticky (it is what it says); or Hot & Spicy (ouch ... not for the faint hearted).

Brush a few sticks of asparagus with melted butter infused with lime juice.

Now thread both onto a skewer, grill, turn, grill and enjoy.

Grainy Grilled Potatoes

Here's how:

Whilst a large pan of water is coming to the boil, chop and crush (to release the flavours) some celery and fennel, adding it to the water to infuse. If you have some fennel seeds, crush and add these too with a chicken stock boullion.

Put some baby new potatoes into the boiling water. When they are just done, tip them into ice cold water to stop them cooking.

When cold, put them in another bowl with a good drizzle of British Rapeseed oil and 2 tbsp of Stokes Cider & Horseradish Mustard, coating them evenly in the grainy goodness of mustard seeds.

Now, thread them onto well soaked skewers, oil the grill and cook them turning from time to time for 7 or 8 minutes until the BBQ has worked it's magic.

Special offer

This tasty bundle of Stokes BBQ Sauces tick all the boxes when it comes to making BBQs taste better. Click here (or the image above) and save 5% OFF the bundle - and receive a free gift as well.



More foodie thoughts for the week:








Beer marinades - what could be better here.









The self-catering foodie foray continues here.












Rick and Charlie chatting in your Caption Competition here.

If good food makes you happy
...adding Stokes will make you smile ;)

 FOOD MADE BETTER 

www.stokessauces.co.uk

01394 462150