Oh, Snap! Fire Roasted Vegetables or, "Man of La Plancha"

Summer is grilling season for lots of people.  These are the times that tempt some vegetarians (who shall remain nameless) to fall off the wagon.  Stores are filled with colorful paraphernalia ranging from aprons to patio umbrellas to tiki torches.  Neighbors cook hot dogs and steaks outdoors and our four little dogs come inside smelling from charcoal and irritated by the voices of cornhole competitors.  Meanwhile, Food Network television programming is overrun with shows about meat, fire, and various cooking methods for the best carnivorous results.  Michel’s vegetarian cooking is inventive and satisfying, aside from its obvious health and environmental benefits but—once in a while he gets a notion that he’d like to have something meaty.  This is what happened recently when we watched one of those “meat and fire” food shows.  The guys on the program were outdoors cooking a whole animal “a la plancha,” translated, grilled on a metal plate.  

It was this Argentine cowboy-style cooking method that gave Michel the idea to make grilled vegetables with smoked sausage.  We rationalized our decision to eat meat and weighed the consequences in a Mark Bittman “flexitarian” way, noting that we hardly ever break our diet.  So the shopping list was made and everything was fine until we read a New York Times article titled “Virus Plagues the Pork Industry, and Environmentalists.”  Nope.  The end.  No sausage for us. 

Michel, still determined to cook something over a fire, decided to make vegetables a la plancha.  On the menu: sugar snap peas, leeks, asparagus, and carrots.  Our little grill is nothing special. It’s a floor sample we bought at Home Depot a few years ago after our eBay hibachi fell apart. We don’t have a fancy Williams-Sonoma plancha, just an old baking sheet thing that my grandmother used to cook with.  As for my unforgiveable pun, if someone ever makes a “Man of La Plancha” musical, I think Al Franken would have to play Michel’s part—not that the world needs another forgettable musical, or another terrible wordplay.  Imagine two hours of singing and dancing about a man and his grill. No thanks. But Michel and Al Franken do look alike.  Check it out next time you're Googling around. 

Fire Roasted Vegetables with Garlic, Basil, and Rosemary

You will need: (for two servings)

·        1 cup sugar snap peas

·        1 leek, cut into ¼ “ slices

·        12 asparagus spears

·        6 carrots

·        2-3 tablespoons olive oil

·        4 cloves garlic, chopped

·        1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped

·        1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

·        1 teaspoon salt

·        Black pepper to taste

Place baking sheet on hot grill. 

Pour a little olive oil on the pan and let it get hot—but not too hot.

Place vegetables on hot pan all at once.

Add garlic, basil, rosemary, salt and pepper.

Drizzle olive oil over everything. (Yes, Michel orders California olive oil by the gallon.)

Turn vegetables “once in a while” using tongs to make sure everything gets cooked.

Veggies should be done in about ten minutes.

Serve over Michel's quinoa salad (quinoa with chopped baby kale, basil, olive oil, and apple cider vinegar--the organic one with the mother).

The dish can also be made in a skillet indoors if it's raining or you're not in a grilling mood.