Grilled Vegetable Skewers with Herb Oil
Summer vegetables charred on the grill with fresh herb oil — a cooking method documented in ancient Greece and Rome, using vegetables whose American origins (bell peppers, zucchini) only reached the Mediterranean after the 16th century Columbian Exchange.
- 2zucchini(cut into 1-inch rounds)
- 2yellow squash(cut into 1-inch rounds)
- 1 pintcherry tomatoes
- 1 largered onion(cut into wedges)
- 2bell peppers(various colors, cut into chunks)
- 8 ozcremini mushrooms(halved if large)
- 0.5 cupolive oil(divided)
- 1 tspkosher salt
- 0.5 tspblack pepper
- 0.25 cupfresh basil(chopped)
- 2 tbspfresh parsley(chopped)
- 1 clovegarlic(minced)
- 1 tbsplemon zest
- 12metal or soaked wooden skewers
Vegetables can be cut and skewered up to 4 hours ahead; refrigerate. Herb oil can be made 1 day ahead. Grill just before serving.
- 1Toss vegetables with 3 tablespoons olive oil, salt, and pepper
- 2Thread vegetables onto skewers, alternating types for color
- 3Make herb oil: combine remaining olive oil with basil, parsley, garlic, and lemon zest
- 4Preheat grill to medium-high
- 5Grill skewers 3-4 minutes per side until vegetables are tender and charred
- 6Arrange on platter
- 7Drizzle generously with herb oil
- 8Serve hot or at room temperature
Cut vegetables to similar sizes for even cooking. Dense vegetables like onion should be par-cooked or cut smaller. Don't crowd vegetables on the grill - they need space for charring. The herb oil should be room temperature for best flavor.
Grilling food on skewers over fire is one of the oldest and most universal cooking methods in human history. Bronze skewers, which the ancient Greeks called obeliskos (from which the word obelisk derives), have been found at archaeological sites across the ancient Mediterranean world. Ancient Greek texts describe grilling meat and vegetables on skewers over charcoal, and the Roman kitchen relied on similar braziers and gridirons. The Arabic word kebab, found across Persian, Ottoman, and Arab culinary traditions, describes the same fundamental technique of skewering and grilling over heat that has been practiced since humans first controlled fire. Herb oil as an accompaniment is equally ancient: Pliny the Elder wrote in his 1st-century AD Natural History about olive oil infused with herbs, a practice so established in Roman kitchens that it required its own vocabulary. Homer had already called olive oil "liquid gold" in the 8th century BCE. The modern Mediterranean grilled vegetable skewer, however, is built from ingredients that most ancient Mediterranean cooks had never seen. Bell peppers (Capsicum annuum) are native to Central and South America and reached southern Europe only through the Columbian Exchange in the 16th century; today they are inseparable from Spanish, Italian, Turkish, and Greek grilling traditions. The zucchini was developed in northern Italy in the 19th century from Cucurbita squash species that had been introduced from the Americas after 1492. Why does grilling make all of these vegetables taste so much better than boiling? The French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard answered that question in his 1912 paper on amino acid chemistry: the high heat triggers a cascade of reactions between amino acids and sugars that creates hundreds of new flavour compounds — the deep, complex taste that every civilisation with fire has always known and the science of which had to wait until the 20th century.