Looking for some new healthy BBQ recipes for this Labor Day weekend? Try some new fruit and veggie combos on the grill this holiday. Most fruits and vegetables are at the peak of their season or coming close to the end. Now is the time you will find the freshest, best tasting produce at the best prices. Buy them now before the summer ends and you miss it. Your health, your waistline, and your taste buds will thank you for it! I promise – everything is so scrumptious right now!
Speaking of your health, here’s another tidbit to persuade you… We all know eating more vegetables is good for us, but did you know that the not so healthy carcinogens that build up on grilled meat don’t occur on grilled vegetables? It’s true. So, why not more grill more fruits and veggies then? Here are a few healthy bbq recipes for you to try at your Labor Day BBQ.
I’m attempting to keep this healthy bbq recipes post short and sweet, so I squashed things together in an effort to list more grilling ideas. I hope you can bear with me. I know I’m long winded… I just love grilling so MUCH!
Two musts for all recipes listed below:
- Choose fresh, firm veggies and wash well under running tap water – but you already knew that
- Prep your grill to have a clean surface and set heat for direct medium heat. Pour a few tablespoons of olive oil into a small bowl, and just before placing your raw veggies on the grill, bunch a paper towel up and gently dunk into the bowl of olive oil. Careful not to touch the hot surface with your fingers, use the bunchy paper towel to grease the grill with olive oil. Works like a charm, and I don’t have as many dripping accidents like I do with a brush.
Healthy BBQ Recipes
Grilled Stuffed Bell Peppers:
(Makes 6 stuffed halves)
3 Bell Peppers sliced in half lengthwise with stems and seeds removed. I used 1 of each – red, yellow, and orange.- 1 cup of cooked quinoa cooked according to package directions – you can use chicken stock in place of water when preparing the quinoa for added flavor
- Chop veggies of your liking and mix in a medium bowl with cooked quinoa. I used about a quarter cup of each: green pepper, onion, fresh mushroom, tomato, pineapple, and pickled jalapenos. I do wish I would have added ¼ cup of real bacon bits to this mix of veggies as well.
- Mix in 1/2 teaspoon of smoke paprika to veggie quinoa mix. You could, also, try a little garlic seasoning.
- Stuff mix into pepper halves and grill for 12 – 15 minutes turning, not flipping, now and again for more even browning of bottom half of pepper.
- Sprinkle with sea salt and fresh black pepper.
Salty and Sweet Fig Kabobs:
(Makes as many as you decide)
Soak wooden skewers in water for about 15 minutes to prevent them from burning on the grill.- Chop large onion into large chunky pieces, about 2 inches in length and 1 inch thick.
- Choose large mushrooms and fresh figs for kabobs. You can marinate the onions and mushrooms in orange or pineapple juice, anything sweet, if you like. I was in a hurry and didn’t have time. I’m sure this would be very good though and help to keep them from drying out some on the grill.
- Place onion on skewer first, then a mushroom so onion can help canopy the mushroom, then onion to canopy the fig next, then another onion to canopy the next mushroom and so forth. I placed 1 fig in the middle per skewer.
- Sprinkle with sea salt and fresh black pepper while grilling, turning every few minutes for a total of 10 – 15 minutes.
- When finished grilling, slice fig in half and sprinkle the inside with a little sugar and cinnamon mixed together. The salty onions and mushrooms are complimented by the sweetness of the fig nicely.
Grilled Peach Halves:
(Again, makes as many as you decide)
- This one is so simple it was bound to be sweet. It’s one of the best healthy bbq recipes we made. Choose large, firm peaches. I used Yellow Jersey Peaches. Avoid very ripe or soft ones. Grilling makes them soft, very ripe ones could end up mushy gushy.
- Slice in half and grill for about 5 minutes on bottom, and 3- 5 minutes on open half, quarter turn and grill for 3- 5 minutes more. You get the nice crisscross marks this way. Watch for the fruit to cook to tenderness but not mushiness.
- When done grilling, serve sprinkled with a little sugar and cinnamon. OR, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mix and add 1 tablespoon of granola and top with a dab of light whip cream = healthy grilled peach cobbler = way super good! Also, try a small scoop of frozen vanilla yogurt with your grilled peach halves. This is what I’m going to serve for dessert at our holiday BBQ. I can’t wait!
Don’t stop at trying just these veggies though. Try grilling pineapple slices, hefty red onion slices, apple slices (sprinkled with a little sugar and cinnamon after = so good!); zucchini or squash sliced the long way in half – all grilled for about 15 minutes over medium direct heat. Also, try seasoning your grilled veggies with fresh herbs – my kids eat everything plain, so most of my healthy bbq recipes are kid friendly. Really, almost anything goes, so give something new a try this Labor Day holiday. You may come up with something fantastic!
I know many of you are going to grill some kind of meaty main dish for Labor Day as well, us too, so check out our Spicy Aloha Bacon Burger if you like. They were very simple. We grilled 1/4 pound turkey burgers (Butterball 93/7 Ground Turkey) alongside pineapple wedges. I topped them off with a slice of cheese, pickled jalapenos, and real bacon bits all smushed in-between a multigrain sandwich thin (Arnold’s). I know the burger looks small in the pic, but the sandwich thins are very large, much larger than a typical bun. It’s actually a good thing, because the sandwich thin helps to hold all the good fixings inside when you pick it up!
You may, also, want to check out one of our favorite healthy bbq recipes for Beer in the Butt Chicken. It’s fab-o flavor juicy-licious! PLUS! – There’s beer in the recipe which calls for drinking! I’m still a party girl at heart.
For some more great tips on healthier grilling methods check out:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Outdoor-Grilling-Healthier
