Prepare your grills, I've got a mighty list of awesome vegetarian grilling inspiration headed your way. The temperatures are heating up which means less time in the kitchen and more time on the patio (for which I am super excited.) Don't be fooled either, grilling season is not only for the meat-eaters!
Up first, this salad. I know, I'm on a complete quinoa kick but I've had a big batch of the cooked grain stashed in my refrigerator for a few days now. While any grain would work for the beet salad, I'm a sucker for the extra protein and complimentary earthy flavor quinoa has when paired with beets. And these beets? It was hard not to eat them straight from the grill. The char on the beets adds a bit of sweetness that makes me want to eat all the beets. I've played around with precooking the beets both in the oven and boiling. Normally I'd choose to roast the beets whole before grilling but boiling goes a bit quicker and you gain so much flavor from the grilling that you can't even tell they were boiled. This is a not-to-be-missed salad.
In addition to this salad, I partnered with Frontier Co-op to create three vegetarian and three vegan recipes for their seasonal grilling site. I always love working with their amazing ingredients and it's truly the herbs and spices that step the grilled vegetables up to the next level. You also might see a couple ingredients that you don't get often on this site (tofu! mushrooms!) along with some awesome gluten-free recipes from my friend Ashley (Edible Perspective) and seafood recipes from Brian (A thought for food). Pop over to Frontier's grilling site to see the full recipes or click on the image below to get see the recipe!
*Beets are one vegetable that if it looks healthy, I won't peel. However, if you want to peel the beets. Let cool after parboiling and peeling before cutting into slices.
**This makes a little extra dressing but I find the blender/food processor handles it a bit better. Store extra dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
***I love the light, refreshing taste champagne vinegar adds to vinaigrettes, however, if you can't find it, apple cider or white balsamic works as well.
|Disclaimer: This post is part of my freelance recipe + photography work with Frontier. All thoughts and opinions are my own.|
I crave summer grilling season! This salad is FAB!
One of my favorite simple dishes is roasted beets with quinoa, so I love the looks of this recipe. Grilling beets is such a good idea!
This salad looks delicious! I never had a thing beets, but I tried a dish with beets made by a friends and was impressed. Maybe now is the time to really get into the whole beet thing... 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing, Erin.
That all looks delicious. I am on a huge beet kick at the moment and I have some growing in my garden. Can't wait for when they are ready.
This sounds so good! I love the idea of barbecuing the beets - I love beetroot with smoked paprika so I guess this is the logical step forward. Bring on the barbie!
I'm pretty desperate to crack the grill out and get my summer on. Thank you for all the delicious inspiration!
Totally not related to food, I love your sandals! I totally want some! 🙂
This salad looks amazing, love beets and quinoa in salads! I would have never thought to boil the beets first, but that makes so much sense! Thanks for the great tip!!
i'm so stoked to grill up some veg this weekend, and now even more excited to see that grilling beets is actually possible! i totally would have threw them in some foil and let them cook like that, but i love how you threw them on the grill to get them all the charred. thanks for the inspo, erin!
Grilled beets, yes please!! 🙂
Yes, please! Grain salads are one of my favorite things, especially on hot days. And BEETS. Such an underrated vegetable, and so good. Yay!
We finally dusted off our grill and I feel alive again! These photos are amazing and I'm giddy with all the new veggie grilling ideas!
Awesome salad! We absolutely loved it! Thanks for a great recipe.
★★★★★