The Key to Making Vegetable Kebabs Tasty: Add a Vinaigrette

By
Joshua Bousel
a photo of Joshua Bousel, a Contributing Writer at Serious Eats
Joshua Bousel is a Serious Eats old-timer, having started sharing his passion for grilling and barbecue recipes on the site back in 2008. He continues to develop grilling and barbecue recipes on his own site, The Meatwave, out of his home base of Durham, North Carolina.
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Updated August 10, 2018
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A medley of fresh vegetables are paired with a balsamic vinaigrette in these bright and tangy skewers. . Joshua Bousel

I'm a sucker for grilled vegetables. Light char and pumped-up sweetness, coupled with the slightly soft, slightly crisp texture? It's hands-down my preferred way to eat veggies. They're great on their own with just oil, salt, and pepper, but I've found that they can get even better when a tangy vinaigrette is introduced, as in this grilled ratatouille, for instance.

Bringing everything I love about that ratatouille to kebab format wasn't hard: I simply tossed zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, bell peppers, and grape tomatoes (I left off eggplant because it often softens too much to stay on a stick) in a balsamic vinaigrette and skewered away. Then I grilled them until some char developed; you want the vegetables to soften while still retaining a light crunch.

The balsamic flavor right off the grill is minimal, but once you spoon a little extra vinaigrette over the skewers, the flavors liven right up. The vegetables all have the sweetness, freshness, and tang of that original ratatouille—just delivered on an easy-to-eat kebab!

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