Grilling Vegan Style is a) basic, b) more varied than I’d guess, c) mildly inspiring. I own a small charcoal grill (ground-level standard Weber) and I live in a region where grilling season is essentially March through October. I might actually want to pull that little grill out of the garage, clean it, and try out a few things.
The first chapter is actually about grilling equipment, and the various options ranging from gas to charcoal to electric to stove-top to hybrids. You get general what is it and pros/cons, followed by a list of common but usually good to have tools like foil, a chimney starter, brushes, and something called a mountain pie maker. I’d never heard of that last one but it’s basically the inner skeleton of a toaster with long handles designed to make hand-pies/mini pizzas etc over fire/grill (book includes a link to a purveyor). There are detailed instructions for figuring out heat control (always a problem for me) as well. Even if you know most of this, it’s a good review of some key techniques for success with a somewhat less predictable cooking method.
Chapter 2 covers proteins like tofu, seitan, and tempeh. There’s both some general guidelines for procedures (all of these are often kind of wet which doesn’t always make for great grilling), as well as some discussion of plant-based burgers, dogs, and sausages (with some names named) and the vegan “friendly grill pantry”. At firs tit seems like this chapter will have recipes but it does not; there are plenty of references to recipes that follow as examples of a technique or idea, but the actual recipe part doesn’t start until Chapter 3. Even though Chapter 2 is a hair misleading at first, it’s good info and not too preachy or wordy.
The actual recipe sections include appetizers (Backyard Bites), salads, sides, tapas, marinades for proteins, burgers and sandwiches, “tailgating classics”, meals, desserts, and happy hour (beverages both alcoholic and not). I was a little surprised to see a popcorn recipe in the appetizer section, but a couple of seitan skewers, grilled peppers/edamame, bruschetta, and such make sense for the appetizer section, although there are some missed opportunities for grilling the tomatoes in the bruschetta for example; the recipe basically says grill the bread and chop-season the veggies. Standard procedure but it could have been more grill forward (especially since there is a grilled tomato slice recipe later on).
Grilling veggies like lettuce, potato, pepper, corn for salad is again pretty expected but then you run into something like grilled asparagus with “mandarin orange and pimento sauce”. The grilling part here is standard, but the sauce sounds interesting; this is one of those things that’s either weirdly brilliant or the worst idea ever. But pimento (just the pepper part), candied orange bits, green onion (not grilled though), soy sauce, and sesame oil (I’d leave out the ginger personally) might actually work.
The burger sandwich section is also kind of interesting because most of the burgers are scratch-made, not requiring premade plant-based patties. MY concern I that a lot of the time, such burger patties don’t’ stick together well enough to fry let alone grill, but I’d at least try out the grilled portabello; I do like the grilled chesses on principle but these do rely on pre-made cheese, and I have yet to meet a decent non-parmesan vegan cheese. Still a grilled pear-blue cheese actually grilled grilled sandwich sounds pretty interesting, as does the broccoli slawwich, And ok, maybe I’d have to try the grilled PBJ (grill the pbj and banana sandwich) too.
I have to wonder if part of the reason why this isn’t the bestest book ever is that the author, who apparently comes from a major brewing family, seems to have more of an expertise is beverages (based on the bio in the back cover), which could be why the beverages section is better developed than most of the rest of the book.