Roasted Vegetables

[myself888]

I bought a ton of veggies at the farmer's coop the other day and needed to cook them up - onion, sweet potato, rutabaga, parsnips, beets.

Never having cooked over charcoal, I am a bit intimidated and worried about over smoking stuff. Turns out I got little to no smoke.

I'm pleased with the results, but will try to impart a bit more smoke and heat next time. These are not grilled veggies, but roasted, so not a lot of grill marks but tons of concentrated flavors. The onions came out so sweet and caramelized! Beet tacos here I come!

Process:

1/3 basket of coals with heat deflector

Burned off all smoke for 20 or so mins.

Placed veggies and cooked 1 hour

Dome temp stayed around 350°

[DennisLinkletter]

Re: Roasted Vegetables

Never having cooked over charcoal, I am a bit intimidated and worried about over smoking stuff. Turns out I got little to no smoke.

Process:

1/3 basket of coals with heat deflector

Burned off all smoke for 20 or so mins.

To get more smoke flavor I'd try to not burn off all the smoke from the charcoal first or add a little wood to create more smoke.. (less is more in most cases)

You also need to gently straighten your thermocouple so it will go thru the polder tube.. Bend it slowly over the entire curve... You also want to place it over the deflector not in the area outside it.

[Firemonkey]

Careful with the smoke on the vegetables...they dont handle smoke nearly as well as meats. I grill almost all my vegetables, and the ones I cant grill directly I will make a foil pouch for the grill. It has been my experience that even one chunk of smoke wood will overpower most vegetables. The flavor imparted by the burning lump is just about right. Thats just my opinion, though, YMMV.

The vegetables work out well because I can introduce the smoke to the meat early in the cook, and by the time the vegetables get on the grill, its just lump and maybe some drippings that are flavoring the vegetables.

[mguerra]

method

Another trick to not oversmoke veg is to cook them with the lid open, if possible. I once ruined a batch of asparagus cooking with the lid shut. Tasted like petroleum by-products!