Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

A Meatless BBQ Hearty Enough for Carnivores

Leah Koenig, author of the “Hadassah Everyday Cookbook,” and Forward Ingredients columnist, describes herself as 95% vegetarian, since she only eats ethically sourced kosher meat. So she understands the appeal of meat, but knows a whole lot about veggies. Here’s her meatless (and fake meat-less) barbecue menu:

Main Dish: Grilled Portobello Burgers

Marinate a Portobello mushroom cap in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs. Cook it on the grill for about 5 minutes. Top the Portobello with avocado, roasted red peppers, red onion, pickles, or any of your favorite burger toppings. Serve on a bun.

Side dish: Grilled Vegetables Slice zucchini length-wise. Combine zucchini and large slices of Portobello mushrooms in a bowl and marinate them in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and fresh herbs. Throw them on the grill for a few minutes, turning once.

Side dish: Grilled Polenta

You can buy packages of pre-formed polenta (usually sold in tubes) or make your own. If you choose to make your own, you’ll want to cook the polenta longer than the instructions say, and put it in the fridge to harden so that it’ll hold up to the grill. Brush or spray the polenta with a little canola oil or non-stick cooking spray before placing on the grill. You can serve it as is or skewer it with tomatoes and grill for a few minutes. Once it’s off the grill, add fresh basil and goat cheese.

Side Dish: Grilled Tzimmes

Place quartered pears, ¼-inch rounds of sweet potato, halved fresh apricots and 1-inch pieces of carrot (chopped vertically) into a mixing bowl with olive oil and salt. Grill carrots and sweet potatoes for about eight minutes, pear and apricots for about five. Whisk together 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour on top of grilled vegetables and fruit.

Side Dish: Bean Salad

Combine black beans, pinto beans, fresh corn, basil, lime zest and lime juice for a refreshing salad.

Dessert: Grilled Pineapple

Cut pineapple either into big spears or large circles. Dissolve some brown sugar in water so that it becomes a liquid, mix the sugar water with lime juice and brush it on the pineapple. Throw it on the grill until the pineapple is caramelized, about two to three minutes per side. To top it all off, smash ripe raspberries and mix them with a little bit of sugar and mint. Spoon the raspberry mixture on top of the pineapple pieces.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.