Two Healthy Barbecue Recipes To Try This Summer!

With summer season at its peak, everybody seems to be having fun in the sun. Beaches are filled with people; food joints are offering scrumptious food and everybody is having a good time.  Many people plan to make delicious, mouth-watering recipes at home on their barbecues, so if you have planned the same, then let’s just prepare something different this time around, something that is delicious, but not heavy on stomach and heart.

Let’s just grill something that doesn’t clog the arteries and increase blood sugar levels. If you have been grilling steaks and briskets on your pellet smoker, then it’s time that you cook something healthy.

Why don’t you eat healthy in the summer season and stop making empty resolutions on new year’s eve that you are going to get in shape the next year?  Now, I’m going to share two recipes with you that involves a barbecue. Both are finger licking good, and will not cause as much damage to your body as a steak, rib or brisket would have caused.

Recipe #1:

Grilling burgers with pork or beef patties and dozens of sauces is a common thing to see, but how about a burger that consists of mashed avocado, fresh salsa, and cheese. I love the idea of having such a burger on a bright sunny day with my friends around. Let us get into the details of this burger recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 6 Burger buns (buy gluten-free buns if you or one of your friends is gluten intolerant).
2. 6 sweet potatoes.
3. 6 peaches.
4. 6 Portobello mushrooms.
5. 5 spring onions, small and sliced.
6. 5 small roman tomatoes, sliced.
7. 100 gm fresh pea sprouts.
8. Olive oil.
9. Fresh Thyme.
10. Salt and Pepper.

Guacamole Ingredients:

1. 1 garlic clove.
2. 5 small roman tomatoes
3. 4 avocados.
4. ½ lemon.
5. ¼ cup parsley.
6. 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Marinade Ingredients:

1. 2 garlic cloves.
2. 1 tablespoon fresh thyme.
3. 2 fresh rosemary sprigs.
4. 4 tablespoons olive oil.
5. ½ lemon.
6. Salt and Pepper.

Method:

1. Cut peaches in halves and sweet potatoes lengthwise, so as to get long sticks that are 5-inch long and 1-inch thick.
2. Place the sweet potato sticks on the parchment-covered baking sheet on which you will have to drizzle some olive oil along with thyme and salt.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, put sweet potato sticks in the oven and cook for 30 minutes, but make sure to stir the potatoes after 15 minutes.
4. It’s time to make the marinade, so for this, you need to add olive oil, mashed garlic, chopped thyme, rosemary sprig, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Mix all the ingredients well. Make use of another rosemary sprig to brush peaches and mushrooms with the marinade.
5. Turn on the heat on the grill and place peaches and Portobello on the grill for 3-4 minutes on each side. Baste marinade with the rosemary stick in between.
6. Now, it’s time to make guacamole. For this, you need to chop tomatoes, avocados, and parsley. Add these into a small bowl along with mashed garlic, and then, squeeze some fresh lemon juice at the top. Mix all the ingredients.
7. To prepare burgers, slice all six buns in half and place them on the grill. Let them get the color of the grill and once they become crispy, place a big dollop of guacamole on the bottom bun. After adding that dollop, it’s time to add tomatoes, two peach halves, pea sprouts, one Portobello mushroom and spring onion into the bun. Your burger is ready, take a bit and enjoy the freshness and crunchiness of these amazing fruits and veggies.

Recipe #2: Veggie Grilled Pizza

This is another healthy barbecue recipe that you can try making this summer season. Here is what you are going to need for it:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded fontina cheese
• 1 medium zucchini, cut diagonally into 1-inch-thick slices
• 2/3 cup Basic Pizza Sauce
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 red bell pepper, (large) quartered and seeded
• 12 ounces baby eggplant, cut diagonally into 1-inch-thick slices
• Cooking spray
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 10 teaspoon olive oil, divided
• 1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 10-ounces bread flour (about 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons)
• 1 cup warm water (100° to 110°), divided
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
• 1/4 cup small mint leaves

Method:

Perform these steps a day before the actual cooking.

1. Take a bowl and add ¾ cup warm water in it. Add flour into the water and mix. Cover the mixture and leave it for 20 minutes.
2. Add ¼ cup water in another bowl with yeast. Let the mixture become bubbly. Once it does, add that mixture along with ½-teaspoon salt, 4 teaspoons oil to flour mixture.
3. Mix all the ingredients until you get a soft dough.
4. Take a bowl, coat it with cooking spray, and then, place the dough in the bowl. Make sure that the surface of the dough is covered with plastic wrap that is given the light coating of cooking spray. Put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

Things to do on the day of cooking:

1. Light up the grill, take the dough out of the refrigerator. Let it come to the room temperature. Make a 12-inch oval out of the dough and place it on the baking sheet that is sprinkled with cornmeal.
2. Crimp the edges of the dough to form a ½-inch border and then, cover the dough loosely with a plastic wrap.
3. Brush zucchini, bell pepper and eggplant with remaining 2 tablespoons oil.
4. Place eggplant on the grill and cook each side for 4 minutes or until eggplant becomes tender. Then, place it in a bowl.
5. Now, grill each side of zucchini for 3 minutes or until it becomes tender. Then, add to the same bowl as that of eggplant.
6. Now, add pepper quarters on the grill rack, but skin side down. Grill it until it blistered. Take a zip-top bag and place peppers in it. Leave it for 10 minutes and then, peel peppers, add it to the vegetable mixture.
7. Coarsely chop all the vegetables and then, add garlic to enhance the taste.
8. It’s time to place pizza dough on the grill rack but keep cornmeal side up. Grill the pizza for 3-4 minutes or until blistered. Flip the side and again grill for 3-4 minutes. Remove the pizza from the grill.
9. Spread basic pizza sauce all over the pizza, leaving ½ inch border.
10. Then, place vegetable mixture along with salt and black pepper. Add some cheese at the top. Put pizza back on the grill and let it cook for 4-5 minutes or until it is properly cooked.
11. Cut pizzas into as many slices as you want and sprinkle with thyme and mint.

Author Bio

Monica Henin, the author of this amazing healthy barbecue post is a passionate food writer and a great cook. She has written a countless number of blogs and articles on healthy recipes and food tips, which have inspired millions of her readers all around the world.