Grilled Vegetable and Grains Salad

Happy weekend! We have all sorts of fun plans that include a trip to Newport, visiting family, and hopefully, if all goes well, lots of time on the boat. If you are grilling and looking for a healthy side dish or perhaps even a dinner for your vegetarian guests, I have the perfect thing. Inspired by some beautiful, local zucchini and zucchini squash, this dish is super simple and utilizes some store-bought ingredients to make it something you can toss together very quickly.

You will need 3 medium sized zucchinis, summer squashes, or a mix of the two.

You will also need a half cup of a good bottled vinaigrette, unless you want to make your own, which is fine. I was purposely looking to cut corners here to get dinner on the table fast. I put my vinaigrette into the food processer with four cloves of raw garlic, crushed red pepper, and a squeeze of my Gourmet Garden basil to make it my own.

Once the dressing was all set, I heated up about a cup and a half of chickpeas I had already soaked and cooked the day before. I also cooked, according to package directions, half a package of Trader Joe’s Harvest Grains Blend, one of my favorite products ever. I love the texture!

The last step was simply grilling the veggies and assembling the dish. Right before serving, I poured in the dressing and tossed the grains and chickpeas to blend them together with it. A little sprinkle of salt and ground black pepper, and we were good to go!

I adore the flavors of grilled vegetables so much that I had a giant pile of them for dinner a few nights ago. May as well embrace summer as much as possible!

I love how healthy and easy this grilled vegetable salad is, and as I said earlier, it really is a complete vegetarian meal.

What are you cookin up this weekend?