Grilled Summer Vegetable and Shrimp Kabobs
Recipe by Alysha Melnyk
Alysha Melnyk is the Founder and Content Creator of The Kitchenologist©, a food blog dedicated to healthy eating and kitchen experiments. Alysha combined her background in biology with her passion for making food delicious, eye-catching, and accessible. When she’s not cooking in the kitchen or dreaming up a recipe, Alysha works full time as an Implementation Specialist at ECRI, an international medical nonprofit located in suburban Philadelphia that is dedicated to improving patient safety worldwide. Alysha finds her many career passions revolve around the power of knowledge and that equipping people with the right tools and resources will help them make better informed decisions.
One of my favorite ways to use all the wonderful in-season summer vegetables: grilled kabobs! This is something my family has been making for as long as I can remember, summer squash, sweet onion, fresh garlic and basil is all you need, but you can easily use other in-season local goodness like peppers and tomatoes & other fresh herbs. Eliminate the shrimp or swap out for other protein to make it your own!
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 and 1/2 Pounds Raw Shrimp, Deveined (*You can remove the tails also if you desire)
1 Zucchini, Cut into ~1 Inch Pieces
2 Sweet Onions, Chopped Roughly into ~1 Inch Pieces
3 Bell Peppers, Chopped into ~1 Inch Pieces
4 Plum Tomatoes, Cut into ~1 Inch Pieces
2 Cups Basil Leaves
8 Cloves Fresh Garlic
4 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Olive Oil Spray (*For Grill)
Salt
Pepper
*Feel free to mix-up/change-up the vegetables depending on what you have on hand!
Method + Assembly
First, cut your vegetables into approximately 1 inch pieces and combine in a large mixing bowl. Additionally, devein your shrimp.
Next, combine the basil, garlic, olive oil, salt (*as desired – I used a few dashes), and pepper (*as desired – I used a few dashes) in a food processor. Pulse until blended and the basil/garlic is in small pieces.
Spread this mixture over your vegetables and mix to combine (I find my hands work best for this to really coat/incorporate everything).
Next, take your skewers (I had 8 metal ones on hand) and slide on the vegetables and shrimp pieces as desired. You may have extra vegetables/shrimp and not enough skewers, but those can be easily cooked up on the grill as well.
After this is done, place a long sheet of foil on your grill (*which you will arrange the kabobs/any extra vegetables/shrimp on) and heat on high.
Once the grill is heated, lower to medium, spray your aluminum foil with olive oil, and gently place your kabobs on top, as well as any extra vegetables/shrimp which may not have fit on the skewers you have.
Cook kabobs/extra vegetables and shrimp for approximately 15 to 20 minutes, rotating/tossing once halfway. Our grill took about 17 minutes to cook everything.
Carefully remove the kabobs/any extra vegetables and shrimp using metal tongs and place on a serving tray.
Serve warm with grains or other additions if desired.
