This grilled vegetable salad is made with fresh summer squash, eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper, shiitake mushrooms, and tomatoes grilled and combined together to make a warm salad with grilled crusty bread fresh spinach and a delicious tomato juice dressing.
David and I are always inspired by one of Bobby Flay. We just hit the local farmers’ market again, when we saw him grill veggies for a recipe for grilled Ratatouille salad. We decided to make a similar salad but we put our spin on it to come up with our own grilled vegetable salad. That I’m about to share with you.
As you can tell by the picture above, the rain held off just until we could get the last of the veggies off the grill. We could see it coming across the valley. We got everything off the grill and in the house. Then it poured for about 5 minutes. We were glad we were able to get our veggies grilled before the rain came. And I was glad it was over so quickly, so I could get my plated camera shot on the deck rail before eating. We managed to pull off this grilled vegetable salad just in time!
Mother Nature is sure intense sometimes…
How To Make Grilled Vegetable Salad
Make the Dressing:
Cut the large tomato into quarters and place them into a sieve. Sprinkle a little bit of salt of the quarters and let sit for about 5 minutes. Squeeze each piece of the tomato and press to extract as much tomato juice as you can (You may use the back of the spoon to press the tomato into the sieve to release more juice). Discard sieve with tomato chunks and pulp.
Dressing: Feel free to use any dressing you would like. David does not like the one I use (he’s cray cray) for this recipe. He made a quick vinaigrette with red wine vinegar and oil.
Fire Up The Grill!
Preheat a charcoal or gas grill to high.
Meanwhile, mix the olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a small bowl with a whisk. Whisk well.
Using a brush, brush the all of the vegetables with oil mixture on all sides. Brush the cut side of the bread with the oil mixture, also.
Place the zucchini, squash, and eggplant on the grill, flesh-side down. Place the onion slices and the pepper on grill. Cover and cook until the cut vegetables are charred, about 4 minutes.
Flip the vegetables and cook, covered, until they are tender, another 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove the vegetables from the grill. Cover the grill and continue cooking the pepper, turning occasionally, until it is charred all over and tender, about 10 more minutes should do it. When the pepper is done, place it in a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let steam for 10 minutes.
Place the mushrooms on the grill and put the tomatoes in a grill basket (if you don’t have a grill basket aluminum foil works great). Grill, covered, shaking the basket occasionally, until charred and softened about 5 minutes. Grill the bread, cut-side down, until golden and toasty, about 3 minutes. At this point, the mushrooms may be ready to take off. Their size will determine if more time is needed.
Flip the bread and grill for one more minute. Transfer to the cutting board with the vegetables.
Seed and chop the bell pepper; de-ring onions, chop zucchini, squash, eggplant
To Serve:
Plate the salad. Shake dressing well and drizzle over salad.
This is a perfect grilled vegetable salad. It can also help use up some of those extra veggies you have on hand before they go bad. Give it a try for Meatless Monday or any day of the week!
Grilled Vegetable Salad
Ingredients
- 1 large tomato
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small handful basil finely chopped
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
The Veggie Salad
- 1 red bell pepper
- 4 small zucchini cut in half lengthwise
- 4 small yellow squash cut in half lengthwise
- 2 “baby” Japanese eggplants halved lengthwise
- 4 large shiitake mushroom caps chopped
- 2 white onions sliced in ¼” or wider slices, rings left together
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes whole
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
- ½ loaf Crusty Italian or Ciabatta Bread split in half horizontally
- 1 fresh Spinach large handful
Instructions
Make The Dressing*
- Cut the large tomato into quarters and place them into a sieve. Sprinkle a little bit of salt of the quarters and let sit for about 5 minutes. Squeeze each piece of the tomato and press to extract as much tomato juice as you can (You may use the back of the spoon to press the tomato into the sieve to release more juice). Discard the sieve with tomato chunks and pulp. Pour the extracted juice into a jar with a lid. Add mustard, vinegar, oil, basil, salt, and pepper. Place the top back onto the jar and shake well. Set aside.
Grill The Salad
- Heat a charcoal or gas grill to high.
- Mix olive oil, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a small bowl with a whisk. Whisk well.
- Using a brush, brush the all of the vegetables with oil mixture on all sides. Brush the cut side of the bread with the oil mixture, also.
- Place the red bell pepper, zucchini, squash, and eggplant on the grill, flesh-side down. Place the onion slices and the pepper on grill. Cover and cook until the cut vegetables are charred, about 4 minutes.
- Flip the vegetables and cook, covered, until they are tender, another 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove the veggies from the grill. Cover the grill and continue cooking the pepper, turning occasionally, until it is charred all over and tender, about 10 more minutes should do it. When the pepper is done, place it in a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let steam for 10 minutes.
- Place the mushrooms on the grill and put the tomatoes in a grill basket (if you don’t have a grill basket stay tuned to tomorrow’s Kitchen Tip to find out what you can use instead). Grill, covered, shaking the basket occasionally, until charred and softened; about 5 minutes. Grill the bread, cut-side down, until golden and toasty, about 3 minutes. At this point, the mushrooms may be ready to take off. Their size will determine if more time is needed.
- Flip the bread and grill for one more minute. Transfer to the cutting board with the vegetables.
- Seed and chop the bell pepper; de-ring onions, chop zucchini, squash, eggplant, and bread into bite-size cubes. Slice mushrooms. Combine vegetables and bread in a large bowl, add in spinach, season with salt and pepper and toss.
- Plate. Shake dressing well and drizzle over salad.
adanelz6 says
I love Bobby Flay! And that salad looks perfectly inspired 🙂
Debbie Spivey says
Thanks for the compliment! You can learn a lot from Bobby on his shows 🙂
Jennifer Reid says
You omitted Bell pepper from the ingredient list but talk about it in the directions. Just FYI 🙂
The Mountain Kitchen says
Oh gosh, Jennifer! This is a very old blog post. Thank you so much for letting me know. I will definitely get this straightened up. I hope you will still try the recipe, with or without the peppers! 😉