Grilled Fall Vegetables Topped With A Fresh Herb Gremolata

My regular readers may have noticed that last week I was completely missing from my blog. I had gone to Indiana to visit my daughter who is attending college there. Actually, I had gone to see her performance as Barbarina in the Marriage of Figaro.  Other than the wonderful opera I got to see at the Jacobs School of Music, the other highlight of the trip was the Farmer’s Market we went to on Saturday morning in downtown Bloomington. For me, visiting a local produce market is like being in an amusement park – I get so excited by all the fresh produce and all the possibilities of making new yummy things with those vegetables.  The Bloomington market was huge and filled with local fall produce. There were at least twenty different kinds of peppers, lots of varieties of squash and even really inexpensive wild flowers. Among other things, I bought really tempting looking small yellow Pattypan squash and today I made a warm grilled fall vegetable salad with an herb Gremolata. The warm salad complimented the artisanal Chicken Basil Sausage that I stir-fried with it and they made for an amazingly easy and delicious lunch!

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Ingredients:

1.    5-6 small sweet peppers
2.    5 small Pattypan squash
3.    1 zucchini
4.    1 small red onion
5.    1 lemon
6.    1 large clove of garlic
7.    1.5 tablespoons of capers
8.    2 tablespoons of sun dried tomato in olive oil
9.    2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
10.    Salt and pepper to taste
11.    A few sprigs of fresh thyme
12.    A few sprigs of fresh oregano
13.    10-12 leaves of fresh basil
14.    A little chunk of Parmesan Cheese or a hard Toscana Cheese.

Directions:

1.    Start heating the cast-iron grilling pan and brush it down with some olive oil.

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2.    While the pan is getting heated, chop the sweet peppers into two halves and remove the seeds.

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3.    Place the pepper halves on the grilling pan and grill them on high heat.  When one side looks a little done (you get distinct grill markets on the flesh of the peppers) turn the peppers over to cook the other side.

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4.    While the peppers are cooking, chop the Pattypan squash into quarters and slice the zucchini into 1/2 inch thick slices.

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5.    Take the cooked peppers off the grilling pan and place them in a bowl.

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6.    Place the Pattypan squash quarters on the grilling pan and cook them on high heat as well.

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7.    After 4-5 minutes, turn the squash quarters over and cook the other side. Also grill the zucchini slices on both sides and then add the grilled squash and zucchini to the bowl of vegetables.

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8.    While the squash is getting cooked, peel and cut the red onion and separate the layer of the onion so that the onion gets evenly grilled.

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9.    When the squash pieces look grilled, take them off and place them in the bowl with the peppers.

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10.    Place the onion pieces on the grill pan and start cooking them. After some time, you’ll need to flip these pieces of onion.

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11.    While the onions are getting grilled, you can start making the Gremolata. Take the thyme leaves off the stems and also the oregano leaves. Coarsely chop these herb leaves. Also chop the basil leaves.

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12.    In a medium sized bowl, zest one fresh lemon.
13.    Also peel the clove of garlic and grate it into the medium sized bowl.

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14.    To this medium bowl, add the capers, sun dried tomatoes and the juice of one lemon.

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15.    Also add two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

 

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16.    Add salt and pepper.

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17.    Mix everything in the bowl to make a coarse Gremolata.

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18.    Take the onions off the grilling pan and add them to the bowl of grilled vegetables.
19.    Add the Gremolata on top of the grilled vegetables and gently toss the salad.

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20.    Cut very thin slices of the cheese (Parmesan or Toscana) and add them on top of the vegetables salad.
21.    Serve the salad while the vegetables are still warm. This salad makes a great side dish with any kind of grilled meats or it can be served as a light lunch salad by itself!
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comments

  1. Permalink Submitted by Shilpa Patel on Mon, 23/09/2013 - 23:03

    i love grilled veggies! The topping you suggest sounds just delightful. Some eggplant would be good in this, too.

    • Permalink Submitted by Shabnam on Tue, 24/09/2013 - 13:36

      Oh yes, eggplant would have been a great addition – I make another version of grilled vegetables with a Balsamic glaze on top in which I use eggplants but this time I used whatever I had bought at the farmer’s market in Indiana. It was a great warm salad!

    • Permalink Submitted by Christine Anderson on Mon, 10/03/2014 - 19:05

      Absolutely fantastic!

      • Permalink Submitted by Shabnam on Mon, 10/03/2014 - 23:36

        Thanks Christine – I love this dish…its healthy and still tastes decadent 🙂

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