How To Grill All Of The Vegetables

Learn how to grill vegetables like a pro! No marinades, skewers or special equipment needed for perfectly cooked veggies every single time.

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You’ll Be A Pro At Grilling Vegetables In No Time

We’ve been grilling every kind of vegetable you can imagine for 20 years. It started out of necessity – here in the Midwest, it feels criminal to heat up the house with the oven or stove on a summer day when you could be cooking outside.

So the grill became not just the best place to cook meat, but the best place to cook everything else, too.

Over the last two decades, we’ve learned the best vegetables for grilling, the optimal way to cut each of them, and the ideal method for grilling each one. In the post below, we’ll teach you exactly how to do it – no special equipment needed – and how to cook your protein at the same time, so everything is done all at once!

The Best Vegetables To Grill

A full recipe card appears at the bottom of this post.

• green beans – the classic summer vegetable (and one our garden always gives us an abundance of).
• summer squash & zucchini – these are technically different vegetables, but they’re treated the same for grilling, so you can have all one or other, or both.
• shishito peppers – we’re torn on whether we like our cast iron skillet Shishito Pepper Recipe or grilled shishitos more. They’re both amazing!
• bell peppers – the grill amps up the sweetness of peppers in a really lovely way.
• onion – we’ve used red onion here, but any variety of white or yellow onion also works.
• asparagus – one of the very easiest vegetables to grill!
• portobello mushroom caps – bold and satisfying, these are the perfect centerpiece to a meatless meal.
• corn on the cob – we love this one so much that we have a whole post dedicated to it: How To Grill Corn On The Cob.

Do you need a marinade or skewers?

Everybody does grilled vegetables a little bit differently, and lots of recipes will tell you need a marinade. We don’t agree. With one important caveat – start with the best vegetables you can find.

If you don’t have your own garden, a farmer’s market or grocery store with great local produce is the next best thing! When these vegetables are in season here in the Midwest, they taste so good that in our opinion, they only need salt and pepper. We don’t want a marinade to compete with the natural flavors of vegetables at their peak.

Skewers are another hot topic! Many recipes for grilled vegetables arrange assorted vegetables on skewers. These are beautiful and colorful, but in our opinion, they’re not the best way to actually grill the vegetables.

As you’ll see below, each vegetable has its own cooking time, and that can vary quite a bit. With skewers, you often end up with undercooked onion, overcooked zucchini, and almost nothing that is cooked just the way you want it. So we skip the skewers!

The Most Important Thing Is How You Cut The Vegetables!

We’ve experimented with a lot of different ways of cutting every vegetable, and here’s what we’ve landed on for the most even cooking of each one:

• BELL PEPPERS – Cut into thirds or quarters, and remove the seeds, membranes and stems.
• GREEN BEANS – Trim off the stem ends and grill whole.
• PORTOBELLO MUSHROOM CAPS – Grill them whole. It’s completely optional to use a small spoon to scrape out the gills. The gills are edible, but sometimes we’ll scrape them out a bit because they can hold excess moisture and cause the caps to steam rather than sear.
• ONIONS – Peel them, but leave the stem attached, then cut the onion into quarters, through the stem. The stem will hold the pieces together as they cook, and then you should remove the stem before serving. We’ve found that this method works better than grilling slices of onion, as we lose a lot through the grill grates that way.
• ASPARAGUS – Trim off the woody ends and grill whole.
• ZUCCHINI & YELLOW SQUASH – Slice lengthwise into quarters to make long spears. There are detailed photos of how to do this in our Miso Zucchini post.
• CORN – No need to cut anything, just shuck them!
• SHISHITO PEPPERS – No need to cut anything.

Grilled Vegetables In Foil

We think that corn and green beans grill the best in foil packs, and if you don’t have a grill pan, you can do shishito peppers this way, too.

• CORN – Rub shucked corn cobs with butter, salt, and pepper. Wrap each ear in foil and grill over medium heat for 12 to 16 minutes, turning every few minutes. Listen for sizzling and watch for light grill marks on the foil to know it’s done. And again, we have a whole post about How To Cook Corn On The Cob On The Grill with even more details!
• GREEN BEANS – Place the green beans on a piece of foil and toss with oil, salt, and pepper. Close the packet and grill over medium-high heat for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the packet every few minutes.
• SHISHITO PEPPERS – Place the peppers on a piece of foil and toss with oil, salt, and pepper. Close the packet and grill over medium-high heat for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the packet every few minutes.

Grill Vegetables In A Basket

We know we said no special equipment, but if you happen to have a grill basket hanging around, a couple of vegetables are ideal for it. But if you don’t have one, no big deal – we’ve also included instructions for how to do these in foil, above.

• GREEN BEANS – Toss beans with oil, salt, and pepper, then place in a preheated grill basket over medium-high heat. Grill for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender and lightly charred.
• SHISHITO PEPPERS – Toss the peppers with oil and salt, then add them to a preheated grill basket over medium-high heat. Grill for 8 to 10 minutes, shaking the basket occasionally, until blistered and slightly charred.

Honorable Mention: Potatoes

We can’t believe we forgot to include them in these photos, but potatoes are probably our MOST grilled side dish! We grill all kinds of potatoes – russets, redskins and all varieties of baby potatoes. This also works for sweet potatoes!

They’re really a natural fit for the grill, and cooking them in a foil packet is the easiest method to get super tender, flavorful potatoes. Here’s how to do it:

1. Dice – For large potatoes, cut potatoes into 1-inch cubes. We leave the skin on! Cut baby potatoes in half, unless they’re super tiny, then you can leave them whole.
2. Oil & Season – Place the potatoes on a large piece of foil and toss with oil, salt and pepper. Be liberal with the oil, because the potatoes need plenty of it to prevent from sticking to the foil.
3. Wrap It Up – Fold the foil over the potatoes and crimp to form a sealed packet.
4. Grill – Place the foil packet directly on a preheated medium-high grill and cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until the potatoes are golden brown and tender, rotating the packet every few minutes.

What To Grill (And Serve) With Grilled Vegetables

If you’re grilling all of these vegetables, it only makes sense to grill your entree, too. Burgers are great, and so are:

• Buttermilk Marinated Chicken – This takes about 16 to 18 minutes to grill, so you’ll start this a few minutes before most of your veggies (except corn and green beans, which you can start at the same time as the chicken). You’ll start the chicken over direct heat, and likely end up moving it to indirect heat to finish cooking. That will leave the direct heat side of your grill open for more vegetables!
• Grilled Sockeye Salmon – This only takes about 4 to 8 minutes to grill, depending on whether you’re cooking a whole side of salmon or individual fillets. Either way, it’s very quick, so you’ll want to start your veggies first, then add the salmon to the grill.
• Grilled Marinated Pork Chops – These take 10 to 14 minutes to grill, and then they need to rest for 5 minutes before serving, so you’ll want to start them a few minutes before your vegetables (except corn and green beans, which you can start at the same time as the pork).
• Flat Iron Steak Recipe – This takes 10 to 12 minutes to grill, and then it needs to rest for 5 minutes before serving, so you’ll want to start it a couple of minutes before most of your vegetables (except corn and green beans, which you can start at the same time as the steak).

Grilled Vegetable Storage

If you have leftovers, transfer them to an airtight container and place them in the fridge uncovered for a few hours until they are fully chilled, then cover them with the lid and keep in the refrigerator up to 3 days.

Leftover grilled vegetables tend to be quite mushy when reheated, so we recommend only grilling what you’re going to eat for that meal. But, if you do end up with leftovers, they are best served cold. We’ll often chop them up and add them to Acini de Pepe Pasta Salad for another meal, or simply toss the veggies with a bit of our Italian Dressing Recipe for a cold chopped vegetable salad.