Vegetarian Feast!!

Ha ha. Just kidding. The burgers and dogs went on right after this photo was taken. It does look a little bit like cornucopia on the grill, though! Although I recently posted about grilling corn and eggplant, I thought I should put in my two cents on grilling tomatoes, onion and garlic as well.

Garlic is the easiest thing to grill, and is guaranteed to make everyone very happy. Simply take off the outermost layer of skin, leaving the stem and inner layer or two. Place on a hot grill (500 degrees) and cover if you can. Turn occasionally, and do not worry if the skin blackens: it will. The garlic is ready when the cloves are soft to the touch: fifteen or more minutes. After cooling, peel off skin to get to the cloves.

Tomatoes should be cut in half width-wise (like you were slicing a tomato normally, but just do it in half). Tomatoes can be lightly oiled, but if your grill grates are clean, this is not necessary. Place face down on the grill. Cover the grill if you can, and leave for at least 10 minutes. When the tomato is softened and the skin nearest the grill starts to burn, turn the tomato with a spatula. Cook on grill this way until the tomatoes are cooked, which often takes another five to 10 minutes. The burned skin can be peeled off when the cool.

Onions are cooked the same way as tomatoes, although it can take even longer. You can also quarter the onions and grill them on skewers. I find making onion rings leads to burned onions.

The important thing to remember is that vegetables take longer to cook than meat, and should be placed on the grill well before its time to cook. This is especially true, as many of them need to cleaned after to cooking and prior to eating.