I don’t grill often because it all kind of tastes the same to me. Grilled veggies. More grilled veggies. Blah. As we’ve used the grill over the summer I’ve been trying to find good grilling recipes to adapt to wfpb-eating. I wasn’t enjoying the recipes I’d tried from the wfpb websites I typically look at, so I expanded my search to vegan websites. One of the first I found was the Pineapple Island Vegan Kebab at onegreenplanet.org. If you let it marinate over night (or at least the hour, as the recipe recommends) it, for the most part, does actually keep the flavor. It’s also a simple kebab! Always bonus points for being simple. Take or leave the tofu. I don’t feel like it adds anything spectacular, and it didn’t seem to cook very well on a charcoal grill. I have more luck when I use a grill basket!

Ingredients:

Servings: the original recipe says 12 kebabs, but I think that’s only 6 large skewers. When I made it I had enough for probably 6-7 full-size kebabs

For the marinade:

• ½ cup orange juice
• ¼ cup agave nectar
• 1 tbs. tamari
• 1 tbs. brown rice vinegar (or regular rice vinegar if that’s what you have on hand)
• 3 green onions, using only the white parts, diced small
• 1 tbs. fresh ginger grated, OR 1 tsp. ground
• 3 garlic cloves, minced small, or 1½ tsp. minced garlic from a jar

For the kebabs:

• 1 block extra-firm tofu, drained and cut into about ¾” to 1″ cubes (optional)
• 2 zucchini, sliced in rounds
• 1 large red onion, cut into chunks
• 1 pineapple cut into chunks, OR one 15-oz. can of pineapple chunks, drained
• 1 package grape or cherry tomatoes

Directions:

Soak your skewers for at least 30 minutes in lukewarm water.

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade and dump it in a Ziploc gallon bag, or whatever large container you have for the veggies to marinate in.

In the original directions it says to marinate the tofu separately, but I’m not sure why? Maybe because the cubes would get squished by the veggies if you shake it around? I don’t know. Anyway, I put some tofu in the bag and left some out during my experiment. They seemed fine either way.

Put the marinating veggies/tofu in the fridge at least an hour. I recommend doing it overnight for maximum pineapply-flavor.

Place veggies on the skewers. I used the zucchini slices to hold the ends and tofu in place. 

Grill until veggies are browning. Ideally your tofu would be browning too. Maybe you’ll have more luck grilling the tofu than I did. I used leftover marinade to spread over the veggies as they grilled. Yum yum!

When they are done on the grill, leave them on the kebabs or push the veggies off. I prefer to eat it like a veggie salad.