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Picture, if you will, the perfect evening for a back yard barbeque: you are with some of your favorite friends having chilled beverages of your choice-the smoke from the grill is billowing, emitting an intoxicating mixture of aromas that are so delicious you want to take a bite of the air. Then your friend opens the grill cover and to your utter shock and amazement your eyes are greeted with a colorful and tempting arrangement of vegetables. What? "Where's the beef?" My friend knew right away, he would have to enlighten me and teach me the secrets of searing and grilling succulent garden vegetables on the grill.

His first bit of advice: Pick hearty vegetables and use slightly lower grilling temperatures.

My friend selected eggplant, squash, zucchini, and asparagus spears for the grill on this evening. The asparagus is not so hearty, but it made for a delicious side with the other meat substitutes. The larger veggies selected were sliced into thick wedges, much like cuts of beef or pork. I was thrilled with the consistency of the eggplant in particular. Thicker cuts of vegetables are able to retain more flavors, and can also resist a little more heat from the grill. His grill preparation for the veggies was not all that different from grilling the standard fare.

His second veggie grilling trick: Sauce it up!

The vegetables were marinated a couple of hours prior to grilling in a sweet, honey barbeque, olive oil, and spices concoction my friend had created on the fly. First he seared the vegetables lightly on each side and removed them from the grill, and then placed a sheet of aluminum foil that he had sprayed with non-stick cooking oil. He made tiny slits with a knife in the foil to permit more heat to flow through. The foil was critical in his opinion, allowing for longer cooking time on the grill without burning his veggies. The asparagus were added last and doused with a little olive oil and brushed with butter as they grilled.

Last garden grilling tip: Keep the growl in your grilling!

So as not to taking away from the typical manly grilling techniques, he brushed his homemade marinade on as they cooked and he also flipped his eggplant, squash, and zucchini wedges just as you would a steak. This age old grilling ritual kept me interested in the veggies and allowed for more golden persuasion, which always enhances one's grilling efforts. By the time all items were thoroughly cooked, which was less than 20 minutes, my mouth was watering, contemplating this strange meal that lay ahead of me. A nice bottle of white wine and some additional barbeque dipping sauce for the grilled vegetables and we were ready to dine.

As you may have guessed, I am your typical steak and potatoes kind of guy, but this grilling your garden stuff was surprisingly fantastic and just as filling as a big, fat New York strip. Well, maybe that's going a little too far. My friend took all the credit as my wife gushed over this delightfully different grilled vegetable meal. So, do yourself a big favor; experiment with this healthy and most intriguing way to change up your normal back yard barbeque, and you may end up just like me; pleasantly surprised.

Learn more about this author, Greg Monroe.
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