Share Marinated Grilled Zucchini and Tomato Coconut Rice – sensational sides for your next grill out!
Marinated Grilled Zucchini & Tomato Coconut Rice
Ever find yourself in this situation? You’ve decided to fire up the grill for dinner, but would like some side dishes that don’t need a lot of last minute fuss? That’s the challenge I faced when we had our friends Rick & Tracey over for dinner recently. Marinated Grilled Zucchini and Tomato Coconut Rice to the rescue!
Marinated Grilled Zucchini is a dish that crosses the line between antipasta, salad and side dish. Zucchini is cut into thick planks and pan grilled. Then it’s drizzled with vinegar infused with sauteed garlic, dried oregano, crushed red pepper and a touch of sugar. A sprinkle of fresh oregano or mint leaves finishes the dish.
Tomato Coconut Rice is an oven baked dish which is simple to prep in advance and pops into the oven for 40 minutes, leaving time to head out to the grill. Sautéed red pepper, onions and fresh basil are stirred into long grain rice. Then it’s combined with chopped fresh tomatoes, coconut milk and hot sauce. Interestingly enough, the hot sauce doesn’t make it spicy, it just balances out the sweetness of the red pepper and the tomatoes. A side dish which is perfect for grilled meat or seafood.
Main Course
Chicken & Sausage Kabobs with Herbed Sauce was the main course for the evening. There are a couple of key things that make these kabobs a personal favorite of mine. Fresh lime juice and herbs provide a nice pop of flavor in both the marinade and the dipping sauce. The chicken tastes best if you marinate it for the full 8 hours and grill it until cooked, but not dry. Rick stepped in as the grill master for the evening and cooked the kabobs to perfection!
The other highlight of the evening was Tracey’s Chocolate Almond Cake. This Julia Child recipe, which gets a cameo in Julie and Julia, was the dessert Tracey selected for our Movie Inspired Gourmet Group. A mid-April snow storm prevented her and Rick from attending that night, but lucky for us, she decided to pop her cake into the freezer. It was delicious!
Marinated Grilled Zucchini and Tomato Coconut Rice
Ingredients
Marinated Grilled Zucchini
- olive oil cooking spray
- 4 medium zucchini sliced into 1/4″ thick planks
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- olive oil
- 2 large garlic cloves thinly sliced
- 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 c. wine or cider vinegar I used white wine vinegar + a few tsp. balsamic to equal 1/2 c.
- 1 – 1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
- fresh torn oregano or mint leaves
Tomato Coconut Rice
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 small sweet onion finely chopped
- 2 tbsp. chopped fresh basil divided
- 1 red pepper chopped
- 1 c. long grain rice I used jasmine which worked very well
- 2 c. finely chopped plum tomatoes or well drained canned tomatoes
- 1 c. unsweetened coconut milk save the rest of the can in case a little additional moisture is needed
- 1 tsp. kosher salt it sounds like a lot, but it isn’t
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce like Tabasco
Instructions
Marinated Grilled Zucchini
- Spray a grill pan with cooking spray and heat over medium high heat (you could also use a non stick pan or a grill.) Add zucchini to cover bottom of pan, but do not crowd pan. Sprinkle zucchini with salt and pepper. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until lightly browned. Carefully turn and brown on the other side, about 1-2 additional minutes. Immediately transfer to a serving platter. Repeat the process with remaining zucchini, respraying with cooking spray, as need.
- If using a grill pan, use another small saute or sauce pan for the next step. If using a non stick skillet for browning the zucchini, you can use the same pan. On medium low heat, add a few tsp. of olive oil. Saute garlic and crushed red pepper until garlic softens; don’t let it color. Add the dried oregano and vinegar and 1 tbsp. of sugar. Boil down until reduced by half. Taste to check for sweet-tart balance. If it too acidic, boil down a little further and add a little more sugar. It it’s too sweet, add a little more vinegar. Pour the hot dressing over the zucchini and let it stand at least 30 minutes and up to 4 hours in advance (more marinade time will provide more flavor!) Scatter torn fresh mint or oregano leaves over zucchini just before serving.
Tomato Coconut Rice
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 2 quart ovenproof baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Heat oil in a medium skillet. Stir in onions, basil and red pepper, sauteing for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add rice and saute for 2-3 minutes, stirring ocassionally, and then remove pan from heat.
- Spoon the rice mixture into the baking dish. Stir in the tomatoes, coconut milk, salt, pepper and hot sauce, mixing well. Cover baking dish tightly with lid or foil. Bake the dish on lower oven rack for about 40 minutes, or until rice is tender and all liquid is absorbed, stirring a couple of times. Note – I have made this dish twice. The first time, the liquid/rice balance was perfect. The second time, the rice seemed a little dry after baking for 25-30 minutes, so I stirred in a few more tablespoons of coconut milk. That did the trick! Sprinkle baked rice with remaining 1 tbsp. chopped basil just before serving.
Notes
Tomato Coconut Rice adapted from Minneapolis Star Tribune Taste section, year unknown. It is a variation of a recipe featured in Joyce White’s cookbook Soul Food.
I am definitely going to try the zucchini, that looks yummy.