Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Grilled Vegetable Salad

Okay, I'm not a big salad guy, but Mrs. Nate Maas made this one the other night and it tasted more like something from the grill than any salad I had ever tasted.  The kids even ate it!



Grilled Vegetable Salad


1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon Mustard
2 Cloves Garlic, coarsely chopped
1 cup Olive Oil
Salt & Fresh Ground Pepper
2 Zucchini, quartered lengthwise
1 Japanese Eggplant (about 1 lb.) cut across, 1/4" rounds
6 Asparagus Spears, trimmed
12 Cherry Tomatoes
1 Small Red Onion, sliced 1/4" thick (or 1/2 a large red onion)
1 Red Bell Pepper, quartered and seeded
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, quartered and seeded
1/2 cup Feta Cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup Fresh Basil Chiffonade (stack leaves, roll in cigar shape and cut crosswise into thin strips)
8 cups Red Leaf Lettuce, washed and torn into bite size pieces
Roasted Pine Nuts

Marinade/Dressing:  In a small bowl, whisk together the vinegar, mustard and garlic, slowly add the olive oil and whisk until combined.  Season with salt and pepper.  Pour marinade over the vegetables and let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.  Preheat the grill.

Remove the vegetables from the marinade (reserve the marinade, it is also the dressing) and grill the vegetables until just cooked through.  Grill the vegetables in batches until both sides are nicely charred and the vegetables are just tender, about 10 minutes for the peppers, about 8 minutes for the eggplant and asparagus and about 6 minutes for the zucchini.  When the vegetables are cool enough to handle, cut into 1/2" pieces or bite size pieces.  Cut the eggplant, asparagus, zucchini and peppers into bite size pieces, cut the tomatoes in half.  Place all the vegetables in a large bowl and toss to combine.

Plate the salad individually or in a wide, flat serving bowl:


Lettuce on the bottom
Grilled Vegetables
Basil
Drizzle dressing over (reserved marinade)
Crumbled Feta Cheese
Sprinkle with Pine Nuts

4 comments:

Chuck Kelly said...

This sounds delicious.

Astrocrabpuff said...

I agree with Chuck Kelly: sounds delicious! I would like to suggest a possible substitution of walnuts, which I find have a light and sweet taste, for pine nuts.

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