This Grilled Cheese on the Grill is a delicious vegetarian summer BBQ recipe, with a fresh mint pesto to make it stand out.
What was the last event in your life where your normalcy was never the same again? Although Alex and I have been through tough times, becoming parents for the first time has been extremely positive for us. I had all sorts of fears about the transition. Am I going to lose my true self and become a different person? Will parenthood last so long that I lose my relationships and my community? Will I never be able to have fun again? Fortunately, none of these fears have (yet) come true.
It helps that Larson really is a funny baby. I feel like myself, or really, an even better version of me. Our community has been friendly and accommodating, and our relationships are intact. As parents, Alex and I were teammates and allies, never adversaries. And we have a lot of fun. And we always cook up a storm too! Read on for this grilled cheese recipe topped with a delicious fresh mint pesto.
BBQ Recipes…Think outside of the burger
Luckily, despite the baby, our summer barbecue game didn’t suffer at all. Alex even threw a juicy rib smoke party with some friends. But usually the recipes we love to share in the summer are vegetarian BBQ recipes. It’s easy to think of meat first when grilling, but over the years we’ve come up with some amazing vegetarian grilling recipes.
Think grilled romaine, grilled vegetable fajitas, and stuffed grilled zucchini. We like to leave the standard veggie burger to come up with creative and interesting veggie concoctions. And then why not… prepare grilled cheese on the grill?
How to make grilled cheese on the grill
We’re pretty much into grilled cheese here. One of our most popular recipes is this Spinach Artichoke Grilled Cheese. We have a grilled cheese tomato with roasted basil, a grilled cheese tomato with avocado, a grilled cheese egg, and smoked cheddar cheese. And even grilled cheese pancakes.
Somehow, out of all the delicious grilled cheeses we’ve made, we’ve never made grilled cheese on the grill. I recently dreamed this up as one of our first vegetarian grilling recipes of the season and convinced Alex to agree to use his grilling skills to make it a reality. The grilling part of this deal is easy: turn on the grill, toast the bread on both sides, cover, and grill until the cheese melts. The grill imparts a smoky flavor that complements the gooey cheese and hearty pesto nicely. We’re primed and ready for grilled cheese on the grill all summer long.
Add mint pesto for the best treat!
To enhance the topping of this grilled cheese, we decided to use the fresh mint chunks we have in the yard and make a mint pesto recipe! If you’re looking for a fresh, hearty weed to plant, mint is one of our top picks! It grows like a weed, so usually by late summer it has grown into a thick mat.
One good thing about mint is that it works in both sweet and savory dishes. We have a few mint recipes that we love to make this summer, including a refreshing lemon and mint mash in a mint syrup that you can drizzle over fruit. Now we can add this mint pesto recipe! It’s incredibly easy, a mixture of fresh mint, pumpkin seeds, garlic, olive oil and parmesan cheese that’s been put through a food processor. Feel free to substitute fresh basil for the mint here if you don’t have mint on hand.
Fancy more with pesto? Try our Vegan Basil Pesto, Basil Walnut Pesto, Italian Pesto Pizza and all of our best pesto recipes.
More recipes with fresh mint
Fresh mint is easy to plant and grows like weeds! If you’re just starting out, check out our guide to growing fresh herbs. If you have a lot of fresh mint, here are some of our favorite mint recipes, aside from this mint pesto recipe:
This grilled cheese recipe is…
Vegetarian. For vegans or plant-based, use vegan cheese. For gluten-free bread, use gluten-free bread.
The description
This Grilled Cheese on the Grill is a delicious vegetarian summer BBQ recipe, with a fresh mint pesto to make it stand out.
For the mint pesto
- 1 cup loosely packed mint leaves
- 1 clove of garlic
- 2 tablespoons Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
For the grilled cheese
- 8th Slices of multigrain bread
- olive oil
- 8th Slices of provolone (approx 6 ounces)
- Preheat grill to medium heat.
- Place the mint, garlic, and pumpkin seeds in the bowl of a food processor and blend until a thick paste forms. With the processor running, slowly drizzle with olive oil. Then add the kosher salt and parmesan cheese and stir until well combined.
- Cut the bread into 1/2 inch thick slices and brush lightly with olive oil. Place the bread slices on the grill and grill, covered, until grill marks form and the bread slices are lightly toasted, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Take bread off the grill, top with a slice of cheese, then pesto, then another slice of cheese. Return to grill and cook until cheese is melted, about 1 minute. Serve immediately.
- Category: main course
- Method: Goal
- Kitchen: American
Keywords: Grilled Cheese on the Grill, Mint Pesto Recipe
Looking for vegetarian grilling recipes?
For us, grilling in summer means vegetarian grilling recipes! Aside from that grilled cheese on the grill, here are some of our favorite vegetarian BBQ recipes:
