5 Alternative Grilled Vegetables Side Dishes
In a world that is more and more inclined to creativity and exploring new boundaries, the object under the spotlights is always the main course. The side dish is experienced instead as a mere consequence, a detail that does not deserve more attention. Vegetables represent a universe as wide as the meat, yet it is commonly accepted that everything is always reduced to the classical eggplant-zucchini-pepperies from the 80’s pizzeria.
I’ve come to mind trying to play with the vegetables and pulling out a 5-spots ranking of the ones that gives me more satisfaction during my cook outs. Potatoes, zucchini, onions, nothing particularly sophisticated but revisited in alternate cooking that finally give them a place in the sun on your plates.
Eggplant Boats
It is a simple preparation, based on the magical encounter between eggplant, tomato and cheese. Take round eggplants, cut them half in the long. Using the tip of the knife, make the incisions in the pulp, taking care not to go too deep and tear the skin. Oil brush and rub with SPG. Cook in direct mode on moderate fire, resting on the pulp until it is golden. Finally move in indirect cooking until the eggplant becomes soft and yielding. Cover with chopped tomatoes and a generous grated ricotta cheese
Grilled Corn
It looks like a banal dish but it’s just in cooking, really simple. 
The taste instead is usually generating great enthusiasm. In season, in the grocery department of some supermarkets you will find fresh sweet corn cobs. In the other seasons, you can use the pre-cooked vacuum sealed corn. Brush slightly with oil and rub it with SPG. Then cook them in direct mode at moderate heat until they are well golden. Now wrap it in a foil sheet with a butter nut inside and place it in indirect cooking. Time is not very important, they’ll be fine 15 minutes like 45. Get them out of the box and serve. You will see that in the foil won’t there be any trace of melted butter: completely absorbed by the cob.
Onion Bloom
More than a side dish in this case we could talk about an aperitif. It is an onion that, during cooking, opens like a water lily and whose petals become crisp but with a soft heart and which are drawn from the onion by simply pulling. 
Peel a blonde onion. With a knife cut it from the top in sixteen clots but stopping at about 1 cm from the bottom, so as not to detach them from the central body. Wrap the onion in a foil sheet and place it in an indirect cooking at 200 ° C. When you feel soft and cautious, open the foil and cover with it the base of the onion. Open the petals, brush them with melted butter and apply some rub of your liking. put back in baking until golden
Italian Jalapeno Poppers
It’s an Italian version of the famous Tex Mex Mexican Jalapeno Poppers, the famous chili stuffed with cheese. 
In this case we use Sicilian sweet chillies, similar to American ones, but absolutely not spicy. You can easily find them in the supermarket, in particular those with the big “S” or the ones with the big “I”. Then we fill them with a 50% mix of Stracchino and sheep’s ricotta and finally a rolled bacon slice to put it on a “cap” of chili. Lightly sprinkled and then bake at 180 ° C for about 20 minutes or however until they are soft, with the golden golden bacon.
Herbs Puree
Definitely the most delicious of the 5, potato-based and very rich in butter, which makes it probably a more autumnal outline than summer. The concept is more like the American Mashed Potatoes, or the coarsely crushed potatoes, compared to our classic mashed potatoes. Take potatoes, peel them, cut into small cubes, season with oil, salt, pepper and aromatic herbs as you like, place them in high temperature indirect cooking in a foil pan and close with an aluminum foil. After about 20 minutes, when the potatoes start to turn over, remove the aluminum foil, add two nuts of butter and a sprinkle of grated Grana Cheese and bake until golden. Before serving, grind the potatoes roughly with a fork, stirring.
But the vegetables are a thousand and can be cooked in as many ways. In case you’re interested in getting some of the recipes presented, they’ll be part of my book Subito Barbecue, which should see the light at the end of this month. So which vegetables do you like to cook on the grill?
