Healthy Indian grilled vegetables

healthy Indian grilled vegetables is a must part of your journey to a healthier you. The word ‘grilled’ gets associated with ‘sandwich’ the most often. Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Grilled Paneer Sandwich, Grilled Rajma Sandwich and so on. But this section is devoid of that main unhealthy ingredient – bread, used to make grilled sandwich. The focus is on the vegetables used instead. The veggies can be grilled in interesting way with flavourful herbs to create fantastic Grilled Recipes.

Grilled Bellpepper, Carrot and Mushrooms, Healthy Accompaniment

This section is a compilation of recipes that are easy to make and most importantly, filled with nutrients and only nutrients that your body needs! Interestingly, these grilled veggies are not only healthy but also super-tasty, so you will not miss the junk food anymore. Try one yourself, and you are sure to like it too. In fact, many of these grilled vegetables can serve the purpose of a healthy meal to be enjoyed over a chat with friends, or to be served with a welcome drink at a party for those health conscious friends and relatives.

Grilled Mushrooms, Healthy Accompaniment

5 Things You Need for Healthy Indian Grilled Vegetables

1. Colorful Vegetables: All the vegetables that come to your mind which taste crunchy after sautéing can be grilled. Right from carrots and brinjal to mushrooms and sweet potato… all of them. These vegetables are a source of an important nutrient – fiber that is a key nutrient to keep your gut healthy and prevent constipation. At the same time veggies offer an array of antioxidants. These antioxidants are compounds, which help reduce inflammation in the body and prevent the onset of various chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, arthritis and diabetes.

You can try single grilled veggies like Grilled Broccoli and Grilled Cauliflower or a combo of veggies like Grilled Zucchini and Carrots too.

Grilled Broccoli Recipe

2. Olive oil : Grilling also calls for a drizzle of oil. The wisest deal is to choose the healthiest oil and use it sparingly…. Just the right quantity you need. By far like salad dressing, olive oil is a good choice for grilling veggies too. Grilling doesn’t demand for cooking for too long, so olive fits this cooking process. Moreover, olive oil is rich in MUFA (mono unsaturated fatty acids), which are known to lower only the ‘bad’ or unhealthy blood cholesterol (LDL) and improve the ‘good’ and healthy blood cholesterol levels (HDL). This helps reduce risk of heart diseases.

Olive Oil

3. Salt: Sea salt is usually used while grilling vegetables, as it is mild and lends just the perfect taste. Table salt sometimes may be over-powering. Use Sea salts a coarser grind of salt with large, irregular crystals. Don’t worry, the size and shape of the crystals can permeate the food as easily as the fine grade table salt. When using sea salt for cooking, be sure it is food-grade. Chefs primarily use sea salt or kosher salt. See our grilled baingan in olive oil and sea salt recipe.

Sea Salt

4. Additional flavorful Herbs and Spices: The most common spice powder that pairs well with any grilled vegetable is black pepper powder. Also known most commonly as ‘kalimirch’ it’s one of the known and easily available sprinklers. Put a few black peppercorns in a ‘pepper-mill’ and twist it to add a touch of fresh black pepper powder once the veggies have been grilled. You can definitely experiment with you own choice of herbs.

Freshly ground black pepper

Fresh herbs, on the other hand, will never fail to leave their touch of taste too. While grilled veggies most often don’t make use of fresh herbs, but if you wish you could always try something unique for yourself. This is also a way to overcome boredom of eating the same food and same taste. We have tried one such recipe too and that is Grilled Sweet Potato in Lemon Dressing. This makes use of fresh coriander, again which is found in most homes regularly.

Grilled Sweet Potato in Lemon Coriander Dressing

5. A Good Griller Pan: A fry pan with a series of parallel ridges used for cooking food is termed as a griller pan. A griller pan with raised ridges is the best to invest into. The ideal material of a griller pan is cast iron as they can retain heat at high temperatures as well. However the most commonly available griller pans are non-stick and made of aluminum. Most grill pans are square in shape as that gives more space to cook the veggies. The size also isn’t very big. They are perfect for stovetop cooking at home. You can turn the veggies at regular intervals of time to cook them on the sides or alternatively buy a lid with similar grill marks and use it. The lid will help trap the heat, get grill marks and also retain the flavor of the food.