Grilled Salad

"Grilled salad?"  That's is the reaction of most people when I tell them I grill salad.  I used to grill salad as a side dish but it is so good we decided to use grilled salad as a main weeknight meal.  And why not, it so easy to make and quick too, perfect for a weeknight meal when both spouses work.

There really isn't recipe for grilled salad it is whatever you like on your salad.  As you can see the cast of characters in the photo below what I prefer on my salad.

This is pretty typical what I normally like on my salad expect this time I wanted to try the radicchio lettuce (that's the purple and white thing on the right for those of you not familiar with radicchio).  Usually I use romaine lettuce but somewhere, I think it was Bobby Flay, I watched a show about grilling salad and this is what they used.  I never used it before because it can be hard to find in the store.

I start out by cutting up the onions and peppers and tossing them into a bowl with the tomatoes.  I add extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, toss and skewer on wooden bamboo skewers.  I skewer the tomatoes by themselves because they don't take as long to grill as the onions and peppers.

You may be asking yourself "But what exactly does he grill?"  The answer is everything and yes, even the lettuce.  The heat from the grill totally transforms the lettuce into something completely different.  Any bitterness that was present in the lettuce will be gone after it hits the grill.  The heat brings the sugar out of the lettuce, or so that is the way I understand it.

I always grill a few extra onions and peppers.  They are excellent by themselves after they have been on the fire.  They are also good the next day cold, out of the frig.

Our choice of salad dressing was vidalia onion and peppercorn, salad dressing my son, John, picked out the last time he was visiting.  Overall I rate this salad 4.5 out of 5 forks for taste and 5 out of 5 crayons for color (I added the green onion because it lacked green color).  The radicchio lettuce isn't as good as the romaine, in my opinion and the wife's opinion too, but it sure does make up for it in color.

The next time you are trying to figure what to make for that weeknight meal don't forget about that grilled salad.  The recipe is simple, whatever you like, the salad dressing is simple too, again whatever you like.  This is a regular on our summer platters.