One of the requests I get most is for a really good vegetarian showstopper. Something that will please both the plant-based and the carnivores, and one that can be made with things you might already have in the kitchen cupboard. I am a big believer that most veg tastes better with a bit of char especially in the summer. It is HOT here at the moment and I have been cooking on the BBQ as much as I can.
Whatever I am cooking, be it chicken, fish, or sausages I will always throw some veg on the grills first. It could be courgettes and aubergine, it could be carrots or even lettuce. I love a BBQ’d lettuce! There are two very good charred lettuce recipes in Cooking Made Simple (one on Ajo Blanco, the other with whipped feta, pickled chilli and tomatoes. The veg goes on whilst the coals are still hot hot (too hot for meat). Vegetables LOVE a bit of fierce heat and you can either take them off and keep them under foil to steam a little or move them to the edge to finish cooking. If you’ve been here a while you will know that I love a charred spring onion. It has become a bit of a signature move to whip out a charred spring onion salsa when people come over for a BBQ.
If you know me really well, you’ll know that I actually can’t stand onions in their raw form. I pick them out of Greek salads and guard the salad bowl like a protective Lioness hovering over her cubs whenever I am visiting my Dad because he loves an onion and would put raw onions in everything. Perhaps it is a gene thing (one I clearly don’t share with my father) but I find raw onions overpowering and the taste lingers in my mouth like the memory of a bad boyfriend. But cooked onions I enjoy. Chopped into the base of sauces or soupy things - heaven. Braised and slow-cooked hugely (especially if they are shallots) - delicious! And I have a particular fondness for charred spring onions. Not least because they take such little time but because they become SO MUCH BETTER. Almost sweet with salty crispy bits and with a part herbaceous, part toothsome texture that makes them an excellent garnish. Or, as I’ve done here, stirred through with a little olive oil and herbs, as a very good salsa.
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