7 recipes and lots of tips for your next vegan BBQ
When you think of a vegan BBQ, a few prejudices come to mind. “Vegan BBQ only contains of vegetables”, “vegan food doesn’t taste like anything” etc. Sure, you can put simple vegetables on the grill – which we would also love, but if you like it a little heartier and want to convince critics, we can support with our helpful tips. So let’s go and we’ll start with a little overview of what awaits you:
There are 4 major subject areas that we would like to address. On the one hand, it’s about the right seasoning. So how do I get a hearty taste in my grilled food. Secondly, we devote ourselves to the topic of side dishes. The selection here is so colorful and varied that it will be difficult for us to come to the end. But this is not surprising with the almost endless selection of salads. Additionally we want to give you other ideas that you may not have had in mind.
Another important point for successful vegan barbecue evenings are sauces and dips.
Regardless of whether for potatoes, tofu or bread. The right sauce makes everything better and brings a little bit more joy to any meal.
The fourth subject area revolves around the topic of dessert.
Even with vegan grilling, the sweet finish should not be missing. That’s why we’ve put together a few simple ideas that you can use to complete your successful barbecue menu.
1. The right seasoning for vegan grilling
In order to be able to grill heartily vegan, you can of course use substitute products. There are now even very good substitute products for bratwurst, steak and co. And contrary to the widespread opinion that these are just chemical construction kits, we can say that there are definitely substitute products with a really good list of ingredients.
Either way, these meat alternatives can be quite expensive. So it’s definitely good to know a few tricks for the right seasoning in order to be able to season or marinate tofu or vegetables yourself.
We prefer something a little more basic. This means that in addition to a variety of vegetables and bread, we traditionally grill skewers with marinated tofu or tempeh. But, as the title of the section already says, the spices make the decisive difference!
With vegan grilling, marinades are a great way to get delicious flavors for vegetables as well as for tofu, tempeh or seitan. Here you can see how a hearty marinade is prepared with just a few ingredients. You pour this over the food you want to grill. Then give it some time to soak in the spices. If you use tofu, it is advisable to squeeze it out a little beforehand to get the water out. Then the tofu can absorb more flavor from the marinade. When it comes to grilling meat, we didn’t do it any differently in the past. Rub the meat with spices and leave to infuse to get as much flavor as possible. This is no different with vegan grilling.
Simple marinade for tofu, tempeh and so on:
Hearty Marinade
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika powder
- 1/4 tsp sweet paprika powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp oil
Instructions
- Mix all the ingredients together and brush or rub the desired grilled food with it. If the marinade is too thick for you, you can help with a little bit of water.
- Let marinate for at least an hour before grilling. For even more flavor, marinate the day before and refrigerate overnight.
Notes
Even if you want to put vegetables on the grill, a good marinade is the perfect choice to keep you from boring taste on your plate. A really good combination of veggies and high-protein components are these vegan skewers that we love so much:
Tips for the right seasoning:
- Marinades help to create hearty delicate tofu!
- For more flavor, your (firm) tofu should be well drained before marinating
- Pesto and spice pastes such as olive paste or paprika paste are perfect for adding flavor to vegan grilled food with simple means and without much effort.
- You can never use too many herbs. With a little experimentation, you will soon have found your favorite herbal mixture that suits your taste.
- Fresh herbs burn quickly on the grill, so it can make sense to save part of the herb marinade and brush the food lightly with it at the very end.
- Mushrooms are great umami flavor carriers and absorb marinades very well. You can prepare great hearty skewers with these. We have a recipe for you in the next section.
2. Vegan side dishes for grilling
A very important part of vegan grilling or grilling in general are the side dishes.
Everyone likes to eat a salad or two while barbecuing or take a piece of bread?
As a starter, we can recommend our Antipasti platter.
We can already refer to a good selection of vegan salads with the previous recipes on our blog.
For example, there is potato salad with green asparagus, bread salad with rocket also the corn avocado salad or how about the fruity bean salad with mango?
It’s best if you take a look at our blog to see which salad you particularly like. You can easily do that using the search function. You will find something for every taste and every season here.
As an alternative to salad as a side dish for vegan grilling, our Corn Ribs, Tofu like feta or stuffed avocados. Below we tell you how to make them.
How to prepare stuffed avocado:
Stuffed avocado from the grill
Ingredients
- 2 avocados
- 1 tomato
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 5 sprigs of parsley
- salt (to taste)
- pepper (to taste)
- 1/2 lime (juice from it)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Wash the tomato, remove the stalk and finely dice.
- Peel the red onion and garlic and also finely dice.
- Wash and finely chop the parsley.
- Put everything in a small bowl with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and mix.
- Season generously with salt, pepper and lime juice.
- Halve the avocados and brush with some oil.
- First place cut-side down on grill and grill for 2-3 minutes.
- Then turn over and spoon in the tomato filling. Grill for another 2-3 minutes and serve.
For us, another, somewhat more unusual side dish when grilling, is marinated king oyster mushrooms.
The relatively unspectacular looking mushrooms were almost a revelation for us! The wonderful umami taste of the mushrooms comes into perfection when grilled. And if you allow them 1-2 hours to marinate, you will simply be amazed! So vegan grilling is certainly not boring!
This is how the king oyster mushrooms are prepared for the grill:
King oyster mushrooms
Ingredients
- 6 tbsp canola oil
- 6 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp paprika powder
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder
Instructions
- Rub the king oyster mushrooms with a dry cloth if they are dirty. Do not wash in water!
- Halve the mushrooms lengthwise and cut a lattice pattern into the cut surface. This allows the marinade to penetrate better.
- Make the marinade by mixing canola oil, soy sauce, maple syrup together with garlic powder, paprika powder and chilli powder.
- Spread the marinade on the cut surfaces but also all around and leave to marinate for 1-2 hours.
- Then fry on the grill or in a pan.
If you don’t dare to try king oyster mushrooms, or just don’t like them, we have another tip for you that uses mushrooms. For this simple recipe, you will need some mushrooms and some vegan pesto of your choice. You can make it yourself or buy one. We often make this recipe when we have leftovers.
Filled mushrooms
- Rub the mushrooms with a dry cloth to remove dirt
- Cut off the dry ends of the stems a bit
- break off the stalks and chop finely
- mix the chopped stalks with some pesto
- Fill the pesto-mushroom mixture into the stalked mushrooms
- Grill the stuffed mushrooms for a few minutes and enjoy!
When we grill, we usually have good bread as a side dish.
We are particularly happy about the homemade grilled bread. You can put this on the grill and use it for dipping. Or you can fill it with vegan cheese, for example. You can find the recipe for the ingenious bread for the grill here!
Since we’re on the subject of bread, herb butter baguettes are very welcome guests at every barbecue party. And here, too, you don’t have to hide yourself as a vegan. Herb butter for baguettes or to let it melt on a hot corncob is super easy to make yourself in a vegan version.
The following recipe will help you with this. You prepare the butter as in the recipe and then use it as you wish.
Your homemade herb butter baguette works like this:
Vegan herb butter baguette
Ingredients
- 1 baguette (to finish baking yourself)
- 50 g vegan butter
- 2 tsp chopped herbs e.g. parsley (fresh or frozen)
- 1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
- 1 pinch of chili
- clove of garlic
Instructions
- Soften the vegan butter enough to stir with a spoon. You can also use the microwave for this.
- Preheat the oven to 180° top/bottom heat.
- Chop your favorite herbs or use a frozen herb mix.
- Add them to the softened butter along with the salt, chili, and minced garlic.
- Mix everything together. If you use frozen herbs, the butter will firm up a bit again. But it should still mix.
- Then take the baguette to finish baking and cut it diagonally every 3 cm. But only cut up to ⅔ of the depth, so that the slices do not tear apart so easily.
- Now spread some of the herb butter into each slit that has been created.
- Carefully place the baguette on a baking sheet and bake.
- Depending on the baguette, the baking time may vary. When the bread is lightly brown and crusty, it’s done.
3. Vegan sauces and dips
For many, sauces and dips are an important, if not THE, most important part of a successful barbecue. Sure, it’s a pleasure to dip your crunchy baguette or potatoes in a delicious sauce. And you don’t have to do without anything when it comes to vegan grilling!
An all-time favorite when we grill vegan is, for example, the vegan Aioli It gets so creamy and delicious that we can’t get enough of it. It goes well with all types of bread, but also with potatoes and vegetables. If you prefer it less garlic-heavy, maybe our vegan mayo or tartar sauce is something for you! You can find In this post the recipe for both variants. For example, if you want to make a classic pasta salad with mayonnaise, you can use this recipe as a base.
Hummus is also a great dip or is often used as a basis for sandwiches. We posted a paprika variant a while ago. Here is the recipe for the easy paprika hummus !
Here we tell you how vegan tzatziki is made:
Vegan tzatziki
Ingredients
- 1/2 cucumber
- 200 g soy yoghurt
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 lemon (juice from it)
- pepper (to taste)
Instructions
- Wash the cucumber and grate finely with the peel.
- Add the salt to the grated cucumber and stir. The salt will help draw the water out of the cucumber.
- Leave for 10 minutes.
- Then pour off the water that has been released and squeeze the cucumber a little. Some of the salt is also poured off again.
- Now add the soy yoghurt and some lemon juice and mix.
- Season with lemon juice, pepper and, if necessary, a little salt.
Another delicious dip for grilled food, but also for tortilla chips, is salsa. We have created a simple paprika salsa that can be prepared without endless cooking. A blender will help you get everything nice and finely chopped. A classic tomato salsa is of course also perfect for vegan grilling.
If you say “salsa” you basically have to say “guacamole”. The two somehow belong together and also go perfectly with vegan grilling. You can see how we make a creamy avocado paste in our post with our antipasti platter. By the way, here is also a recipe for a delicious white bean paste 😉
Red Pepper salsa
Ingredients
- 1 red onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 to matoes (medium sized)
- 150 g peppers from the jar
- 1 chili pepper
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 1 tsp olive oil
- Salt
Instructions
- Peel onion and garlic. Cut the onion into rough pieces.
- Wash the tomatoes, remove the watery core and the stalk.
- Place everything in a blender together with the drained paprika from the jar.
- Add the chili pepper, vinegar, oil and a little salt and mix until the desired consistency is reached.
- Taste and serve!
The sweet finish: Vegan dessert from the grill
Vegan grilling doesn’t mean missing out on a delicious dessert! You can also fall back on well-known classics here.
Spontaneously we think of chocolate bananas from the grill. They are quite well known by now and you may already know them. In any case, you carve the skin and a bit of the banana lengthwise. Then you take pieces of vegan chocolate (you can usually take the bittersweet variants without having to resort to special vegan chocolate) and put the chocolate pieces in the cut in the banana. Now the bananas are placed on the grill for a few minutes. Make sure that the chocolate cannot run out.
On the grill, the banana will soften a little and get very dark on the outside. This melts the chocolate, making it an easy dessert to spoon.
Other fruits that do very well on the grill are pineapple, watermelon and peaches. The pineapple can be peeled and placed on the grill in large pieces or on a skewer. The pineapple caramelizes beautifully and becomes sweet and tender. This is the same for peaches. You can simply wash them, cut them in half and remove the core. Then place briefly on the grill from both sides and wait for the great aromas to develop.
Idea for dessert peach from the grill
Finally, if you place the peach half on the skin side, you can also put a piece of chocolate inside to melt. If you are not a big chocolate fan, you can fill the grilled peaches with yoghurt while they are still warm.
- For example, take a coconut-based yogurt and give it some flavor by stirring in maple syrup or vanilla sugar.
- Then put a dollop of the yoghurt on the warm peach half.
- Now top it all off with chocolate sprinkles or a few nuts of your choice.
Vegan grilling can also become a bit sweaty. So if you need something sweet to cool down after the hearty part, we can recommend our simple, homemade mango ice cream! It consists of 2 ingredients and can be prepared without an ice cream maker! If you like, you can top the whole thing with chocolate, nuts or other fruits.
Mango ice cream
Equipment
- 1 food processor
Ingredients
- 2 mangoes (or 200g frozen mango)
- 50 g vegan skyr (alternatively soy yoghurt)
- if necessary maple syrup (or other sweetener of your choice)
Instructions
With fresh mango
- Peel the ripe mango and cut the fruit into cubes.
- Freeze the mango pieces.
- Put the frozen mango with the skyr or soy yoghurt in a good blender and mix until you get a homogeneous mass. Taste and sweeten if necessary. Blend again and enjoy!
With frozen mango
- Place the mango chunks in a good blender.
- Add the vegan skyr or soy yoghurt and mix until you get a homogeneous mass. Taste and sweeten if necessary. Then blend again to mix everything well and enjoy!
Notes
Bonus: Vegan grilling practical tips
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve earned a little reward for your perseverance!
So we’ve put together a few vegan grilling bonus tips for you!
- Bring the things you really love for barbecuing yourself and let others try. For example, if you absolutely can’t live without your pasta salad with mayo, make your vegan version and place it with all the others at the buffet. This way you are sure that you don’t miss out and you can maybe even show others how delicious vegan food and vegan grilling can be.
- If you make skewers regularly, it is worth buying stainless steel skewers. You should soak wooden or bamboo skewers in water for about 30 minutes before using them so that they don’t burn on the grill.
- Do you want a grilled vegetable dish? Then the pieces of vegetables are certainly too small to simply place them on the grid. Small grill pans can help here. If you want to grill with vegan feta, you should use the pans. Most vegan feta varieties melt and would just drip down on a skewer.
We hope you were able to take away a few ideas for your next vegan barbecue evening!
Let us know if this post was helpful to you and which tip helped you the most.
