Well, we’re approaching the peak of the garden season now, and our lovely garden is full and green. Admittedly, some of the green comes from weeds, but their blossoms bring the bees as well as flowers. It’s time to get out the grill and have some fun.

You can barbecue and grill vegetables in any number of ways. Over the weekend, we enjoyed vegetable kabobs. Often, grilled vegetables are overcooked on the outside, and undercooked inside. Marinating them for an hour first, is a way of pre-cooking them so that it doesn’t take so long on the grill.

A simple marinade can be made from any acidic source such as lemon juice or any fruit vinegar, a bit of soy sauce and a the sweetness from a juice, brown sugar or molasses. This marinade can also be transformed later into a barbecue sauce, just by adding tomato ketchup and a bit of Tabasco or cayenne pepper.

The choice for which vegetables to include is just about endless for the kabobs, they all work well. We included marinated tofu, along with the vegetables, and it’s also nice to add in a but of fruit in between the vegetables slices. This time, we used fresh pineapple, but orange slices are delicious too.
If you are using wooden skewers, be sure to soak them in water for awhile so that they won’t catch fire.

Serving Size: 4

Yield: 16 kabobs

Ingredients:

for the marinade:

• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 2 good dashes Tabasco

for the kabobs:

• 1 (8 ounce) package fresh mushrooms, stems removed
• 1 small red onion, cut into chunks
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes
• 1 pkg. tofu, cut into cubes
• 3 or 4 slices of pineapple cut into quarters
• 16 wooden skewers, soaked in water

Directions:

To make the marinade:
Mix together in a large bowl:
The molasses, lime juice, garlic powder, ginger, black pepper, cayenne pepper, pineapple juice, wine,Tabasco, and soy sauce.
Place the mixture in a large nonmetallic bowl or casserole dish. (Large enough to hold the marinating vegetables and marinade.)
Toss the mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, and tofu cubes in the marinade; cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat and lightly oil the grate.
Thread the tofu and vegetables on each skewer, mix and match the vegetables as you assemble the skewers.
Cook on the preheated grill vegetables are al dente.

Notes:

This meal was especially nice served on a bed of Caribbean pineapple rice.