Meat-free barbecue: Ben Allen’s recipes for flame-grilled vegetables

A meat-free barbecue feast: charred leeks with pecorino sauce and pickled oyster mushrooms, grilled hispi cabbage with a classic French sauce, and barbecued chestnut mushrooms with habanero, lemon and rocket pesto

When it comes to barbecuing, subtlety is often overlooked amid the sizzle of sausages and the char of burgers, but it takes only a light extra touch to elevate your alfresco meal into something really special. I love fire cooking, because that lick of flame turns even simple ingredients into something greater than the sum of their parts. You can take something as ordinary as a leek, say, and transform it over hot coals into a dish that is unrecognisably delicious. Of course, it also helps that you’re then covering that leek in a rich pecorino sauce, but I’m telling you, without those flames, it just wouldn’t be the same. Today’s recipes, which are all taken from our restaurant menu at the Parakeet, show there’s magic to be had in the seeming chaos of smoke-infused vegetable cooking. For those who can’t resist the allure of traditional barbecue fare, they’re all also designed to pair with sausages (wild boar, ideally), thick-cut pork chops or flame-grilled fish.

Continue reading… A meat-free barbecue feast: charred leeks with pecorino sauce and pickled oyster mushrooms, grilled hispi cabbage with a classic French sauce, and barbecued chestnut mushrooms with habanero, lemon and rocket pestoWhen it comes to barbecuing, subtlety is often overlooked amid the sizzle of sausages and the char of burgers, but it takes only a light extra touch to elevate your alfresco meal into something really special. I love fire cooking, because that lick of flame turns even simple ingredients into something greater than the sum of their parts. You can take something as ordinary as a leek, say, and transform it over hot coals into a dish that is unrecognisably delicious. Of course, it also helps that you’re then covering that leek in a rich pecorino sauce, but I’m telling you, without those flames, it just wouldn’t be the same. Today’s recipes, which are all taken from our restaurant menu at the Parakeet, show there’s magic to be had in the seeming chaos of smoke-infused vegetable cooking. For those who can’t resist the allure of traditional barbecue fare, they’re all also designed to pair with sausages (wild boar, ideally), thick-cut pork chops or flame-grilled fish. Continue reading… Barbecue, Vegetables, Food, Cheese, Side dishes, Eggs, Sauces and gravies, Meat-free, Starter, Main course 

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