The Reason You Shouldn't Grill Vegetables Entirely Over High Heat

Nothing says summer has arrived like grilled food. Cooking over gas or charcoal is a great way to keep your house cool, plus grilled food just tastes delicious. When it comes time to cook, you don't have to stick to making meat over an open flame. Grilled vegetables are the perfect side or even main dish. While grilled vegetable recipes are plentiful, so are the methods for preparing them.

According to All Recipes, some of the rules for grilling meat also apply to vegetables, such as marinating your vegetables before adding them to the grill, and using direct and indirect heat methods. To be sure you're grilling vegetables in the right way, first use a vegetable that does well on the grill, which means you should probably avoid most types of lettuce (via Eat This, Not That!). Once you've picked the right veggies to make, be sure you're using the heat from the grill in the most effective way.

Speaking of heat, one of the biggest problems you might encounter when cooking vegetables on the grill, stems from using a high temperature the entire time. Grilling at high heat means the outside will become charred, and possibly even burnt, while the inside won't be cooked all the way through, as The Kitchn explains. Instead, give each side of the vegetable a good char on high heat, then reduce the temperature to let them cook all the way through.

Besides reducing the heat, Eating Well notes that knowing the amount of time each vegetable will need to cook before adding them to the grill and adjusting your cooking times, is key. For instance, dense vegetables like potatoes take a lot longer to cook than bell peppers. You can also put a barrier between what you're cooking and the grill grates. Ambitious Kitchen recommends using a foil pack or a grill basket to keep some of the flavor from the grill without having to worry about things burning.