Grilled Vegetable Salad With Parmesan is a colorful, healthy and delicious dish served with a sunny Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette.
If you are a veggie lover, this dish is for you! A combination of sweet corn, bell peppers, asparagus, zucchini, and yellow summer squash are simply seasoned and grilled to perfection. Granted, it does take more effort to grill vegetables, but dang, it’s sooo worth it! The real super star of this salad is the Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette.
The tartness of fresh lemon juice is balanced with the sweetness of honey and rounded out with tangy shallots and fresh thyme. There will be more vinaigrette than you need for this recipe, but that’s a good thing! It’s delicious with a green salad or drizzled on other cooked vegetables.
The original recipe author said this vinaigrette was like sunshine, and I agree entirely!
Assembling the Grilled Vegetable Salad With Parmesan
Once your grilled vegetables are cut into bite-sized pieces, they are combined with fresh, halved cherry tomatoes and then tossed with the Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette. Shaved Parmesan is the final flourish before serving. This salad is equally good served warm or at room temperature.
Leftovers can easily be rewarmed at a low power in your microwave and then topped with Parmesan just before serving.
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
True confession time. I have a tendency to glance at, vs. thoroughly read a recipe before plunging in. Especially when I have made similar recipes. I simply assume I know what to do.
Zucchini & Yellow Summer Squash – By instinct, I whipped out my trusty mandoline and cut my zucchini and yellow summer squash into planks. That’s what I do with my Balsamic Grilled Vegetable recipe. Don’t do this! The zucchini and yellow summer squash should be quartered lengthwise instead. That makes them easier to cut into pieces that can be tossed in a salad. Duh?! They still tasted great though.
Asparagus – I could only find thin asparagus spears at my grocery store, so that’s what I used. This recipe will work better if you use a medium to thick asparagus spear. That way they won’t get overcooked in the grilling process. I also recommend using a grill pan or screen for the asparagus. Otherwise, those little buggers can get away from you quite easily.
Regardless of vegetable size or format, this is a really wonderful recipe that I plan to make many times in the future. Enjoy!
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Grilled Vegetable Salad with Parmesan
Ingredients
Grilled Vegetable Salad
- 3 ears sweet corn, husked and silk removed
- 2 medium zucchini, ends trimmed and quartered lengthwise
- 2 medium yellow summer squash, ends trimmed and quartered lengthwise
- 2 large bell peppers (I used 1 red & 1 yelllow) cut into quartered, seeds and ribs removed
- 1 bunch asparagus, woody ends removed (use medium-thick to thick spears)
- olive oil or olive oil cooking spray
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
- shaved Parmesan to finish (crumbled blue cheese is another option)
Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp minced shallot
- 2 tsp fresh minced thyme
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/8 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette
- Combine all salad ingredients in a jar or salad dressing shaker and shake to combine. Can be prepared a few days in advance.
Grilled Vegetable Salad
- Arrange each type of vegetable in a single layer on a baking sheet and toss with a tsp or so of olive oil or spray with olive oil cooking spray, then toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss again. Then move the vegetable to another baking sheet and repeat the process with the rest of the vegetables, keeping each vegetable grouped together on the 2nd baking sheet. This will make the grilling process easier.
- Heat grill to about 400 degrees and grill each vegetable until lightly browned and to your preferred degree of tenderness. I recommend using a grill pan or screen for the asparagus. The approximate cook time per vegetable on my grill was 10-15 minutes for the asparagus, peppers, zucchini, and summer squash. The sweet corn took approximately 20-25 minutes. I estimated 45 minutes for total cook time, assuming the vegetable would be cooked in batches.
- Remove vegetables from grill. When cool enough to handle, cut asparagus, peppers, zucchini, and squash into bite-sized pieces. Cut kernels from cobs. Place vegetables in a shallow bowl and add halved cherry tomatoes.
- Drizzle with the desired amount of Lemon Thyme Vinaigrette, season with additional salt and pepper, if desired, and toss gently to combine. Top with shaved Parmesan and serve warm or at room temperature.
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