BBQ Grill – Vegan Style
Yesterday was Memorial Day, and as is tradition, we grilled. As I mentioned previously, we grilled for some omni friends and family and their children. Everyone knew upfront that they would be consuming a vegan meal, and everyone seemed to be willing to give it a go. We were pretty excited about that, and a little nervous too!
Our buffet was comprised of the following:
- red-cabbage salad
- cucumber salad
- green salad
- grilled eggplant slices
- grilled asparagus spears
- grilled Maui onions
- grilled peppers
- grilled purple potatoes
- grilled marinated tofu
- MorningStar Grillers Vegan (stove-top preparation)
- corn on the cob
- guacamole
Overall, our barbeque was a success. We were pretty excited about the purple potatoes we picked up at the farmers market this past weekend. Unfortunately, they were unremarkable. They tasted like regular potatoes, and the recipe called for them to be parboiled and then placed in foil with a bit of salt, oil, and garlic, and then put on the barbeque. Jane's promised to try something else with the leftover potatoes. I'm hoping for shepard's pie (vegan style, of course).
The marinade we used for the tofu was a little heavy on the curry. It was good, but next time we'll try a different spice blend. The kids absolutely hated it, and I don't think it went over well with most of the adults either, which was too bad because it probably reinforced the stereotype of tofu being a "weird" hippie food. But everyone LOVED the burgers. The rest of the menu was very tasty. The eggplant slices were grilled to perfection. One of my friends said they tasted like parmigiana without the glop.
For dessert, Jane made a lovely fruit salad. We also had sliced strawberries with macadamia nut cream from Vegan with a Vengeance
So, did we win over any converts? Probably not. But we did illustrate that it's easy to eat meatless.
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Well done, looks amazing! You are so brave to invite a bunch of omnivores over for a vegan BBQ and I give you props. I get so nervous about this stuff, but inviting them over for a meal is one of the best things a vegan can do to make a difference. It’s so important.
Wow – a feast! So colorful!
We BBQd tempeh and peppers. No dessert : (
I always par-boil the tempeh before putting it on the grill so it does not dry out.
Don’t feel bad. My marinated tofu didn’t turn out the way I would have like either. My husband loved it, but he loves to just eat plain old cubed tofu too. Next time, I make it thinner and use a marinade injecter.
The best things we had were eggplant (always awesome, try making babaganoush with the leftovers – yum!!), giant stuffed portobellas, some teriyaki marinated seitan, asparagus, and some spicy vegan sausages. I made a big mess of mixed veggies with some smoker chips thrown on the fire so we can throw them on salads and sides.
A big disappointment was the artichokes. I got some jumbo artichokes and prepped them like I ususally do (clean and pre-cook in water ) before broiling, but they dried out on the grill. That was a bummer cause I love artichokes.
Hi Nate, Yes, Jane was rather nervous. I tend to be a bit more relaxed than she is… But that may not be fare as she does most of the food prep. Anyway, for the most part we represented well. It’s just that tofu. Which is really a shame, since it has such a bad rep in the omni world. Oh well. Our friends who stayed at our house, had other samples of tofu that worked. It wasn’t even the tofu that was bad, just the spice blend we chose to use. Argh!
Hi Kara,
No dessert? Not even berries. It is strawberry season after all! Jane meant to make her killer brownies, but ran out of time. So even though no one was disappointed, I knew what was missing and I was!
Hi Jasonpsych, Wow, I never heard of anyone liking plain tofu before! I like your idea of a marinade injector. I’d be afraid to slice the tofu thinner for the bbq though. It might break up and what a mess that would be.
We grilled and “extra” eggplant for babaghanoush! Love the stuff. Your menu sounds great. Re the chokes. So far, I’ve never had any luck grilling them. I’ve had them prepared that way in restaurants and they’ve been fantastic. But I run into the same problem. I guess the flame is probably too high. But with the cost of chokes lately, we just boil them and eat them with a bit of Earth Balance.