Grilled Veggie Kabobs

These Grilled Vegetable Skewers skewer the best veggies and are easy to throw on the grill! They are an ideal healthy side dish.

Ready for the best and easiest summer side dish? Let’s do it vegetable skewers! You may have already prepared them without a recipe. But as you know, vegetables can come out underseasoned and overcooked. Here’s our method for making veggie skewers using a simple spice mix. These summer vegetables are cooked to perfection! It’s the perfect grilled side dish for a grilled dinner. Let’s not waste any time and get straight to the point.

The best vegetables for vegetable skewers

Of course you can mainly use vegetables of your choice. But some vegetables are not ideal here. The trick? Use vegetables that all cook in a relatively similar amount of time. This means there are no very hard vegetables like carrots or potatoes. Here are the best vegetables for veggie skewers:

• peppermulticolored for a beautiful look
• Red onion or white onion
• Zucchini or yellow squash (or a combination of both)
• Mushroomseither baby bella (cremini) or white button
• cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes

Other ideas? The pineapple adds a nice sweet and salty combination. Small 1-2 inch chunks of corn on the cob work, as do diced eggplant. You can use cauliflower, but we recommend steaming it first (see Grilled Cauliflower).

What to avoid? Broccoli and asparagus are too difficult to skewer. Carrots and potatoes should be avoided or steamed. Brussels sprouts are also not ideal for doner kebabs, as they take a little longer to cook than the vegetables above.

Tips for cutting vegetable skewers

Once you’ve chosen your vegetables, here are a few things to keep in mind for the skewering process:

• Cut vegetables into relatively similar sizes. They should be bite-sized so they’re easy to eat once they’re grilled to perfection. Keep in mind that they will shrink a bit as they cook.
• If you’re using wooden skewers, soak them as you chop. They only take 15-20 minutes to soak, which is about the same time it takes to preheat the grill and chop.
• Or use metal skewers! We bought metal skewers to keep us from getting soaked. (It is worth it.)

Seasoning for vegetable skewers

How to season the vegetable skewers? You can make pickled veg skewers, but we prefer to just throw them on the grill with a little olive oil and seasoning. Here’s what we found that makes a killer spice mix. Discard equal parts of:

• garlic powder
• onion powder
• Dried oregano
• smoked paprika (a smoked version of regular paprika that you can find at your local grocery store; click here for more info)
• Kosher salt

Or spread with BBQ or teriyaki sauce

A variant that we often take with these vegetable skewers? Coat the vegetables with a sauce! Skip the condiments mentioned above and just go with the sauce. You should do this twice: once before they go on the grill, then a generous layer after. Here are a few sauces we’ve tried and loved:

Heat and grill the vegetable skewers

Once you’ve cut and seasoned the veggie skewers, throw them on the grill! Here are the details on the time and heat level (or jump straight to the recipe):

• Preheat grill to medium-high heat. It’s about 375 to 450 degrees.
• Cut the vegetables into small pieces, pierce and season. See the recipe below.
• Grill on the grates for 10 to 12 minutes. Fry until charred and tender, turning every few minutes.

Grilling!

These vegetable skewers (aka skewers) are a fantastic accompaniment to a grilled meal. Here are some ways to pair it!

More grilled vegetables

Of course there are many more grilled vegetables! These veggie skewers are part of our grilled veg series, which includes all of our favourites:

These grilled vegetable skewers are…

Vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, dairy-free and gluten-free.