Wine Recommendations For Grilling Vegetables

Some things in life come easily. Others, you have to wait for. After all, you can grill up a steak just about anytime you want (though December in New York probably does not offer optimal conditions). But when it comes to things like baby squash and farm-fresh eggplant, there's a decidedly limited window. And that window is fast approaching.

Grilling adds wonderful depth of flavor and nuance to vegetables, and has the added bonus of drying them out, concentrating both flavor and sugars. I can honestly say that there's no season during which I don't love vegetables. But if there's any season when I am happy to forgo meat, it's the summertime, when grilled vegetable dishes meet my heartiness quotient and satisfy with their richness of flavors and textures. Grilled vegetables are also remarkably wine-friendly; and for those days when you still feel like a carnivore, they can round out a meaty meal in relatively healthy fashion. I tend to gravitate toward three familiar vegetables for grilling — eggplant, mushrooms, and squash — and I've included a pair of recipes for each here, to spark creativity on how to add diversity to the produce-deprived grilling repertoire.

Click here to find grilling recipes with wine pairing recommendations to go with them.

— Gregory Dal Piaz, Snooth