Grilled Veggie Salad

We had a small family party on Memorial Day, and except for the amazing burgers and natural casing dogs from a local farm, we made all of the food.

Appetizers -
- Jon's shrimp and cocktail sauce
- Pico de gallo (Jon made it this time)
- Tortilla pinwheels - I made some like the ones in my original post with the addition of chopped fresh spinach, and changed up some ingredients on the other half. I mixed cream cheese with cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, and cayenne instead of using the dry Ranch dressing. Delicious!

In addition to my potato salad, I also wanted to serve another fresh salad. I came up with an idea for grilled vegetable salad while flying to Chicago last week (lots of time to think on a plane!).

Ingredients (serves 10)

• 2 zucchini, halved lengthwise
• 2 yellow squash, halved lengthwise
• 1 bunch of asparagus, ends trimmed
• 5 bell peppers - I used a mix of green, red, yellow, and orange. Remove tops and seeds
• 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1/2 red onion, quartered
• 1 head garlic
• Handful chopped fresh basil
• Olive oil, salt, pepper, dried oregano

Directions

• Toss veggies (except garlic) with olive oil, salt, pepper, and oregano
• Chop the top off the head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil, and wrap in foil. Place on top rack of grill to roast.
• Grill veggies until you get some nice color on them. I had to do this in 2 batches and it took about 20 minutes total. Remove veggies from grill and chop into bite sized pieces.
• Remove garlic from the grill after 30 minutes and peel - I was surprised that it had perfectly roasted in that time!
• Toss veggies with the garlic and basil. Chill until ready to serve.

When I thought about this recipe, I planned on tossing the veggies with olive oil after they were grilled as well, but I didn't have to. I didn't even need to add more salt and pepper, and the basil was just a nice touch at the end - I probably could have gone without it.

The grilled flavor was enough to make this a delicious and fresh salad. And could it be any prettier? I love all of the colors.