Green on the grill

We did burgers on the grill tonight, along with grilled zukes and crooknecks - a quintessential summer dinner with a little twist.

When I lived in Sacramento, summers were brutal. 105 wasn't at all unusual. Nights cooled off quick, what with the low humidity and river breezes, but before sunset, you really didn't want to turn on the stove if there was some way to avoid it.

That's where I learned about grilling veggies.

Like most folks of my pre-bagged-salad-and-farmers-markets generation, I grew up eating vegetables out of either cans or freezer bags. They were always nutritious -- thanks, Mom! -- but also always waterlogged, soggy, and lifeless. For 20 years, I actually believed I hated spinach and asparagus. Now I can't imagine going a week without either.

Since then, I've come to understand that the best way to cook most of my favorite veggies involves no water whatsoever. Just heat, a little olive oil, and a sprinkle of spice.

Most veggies grill well, either in foil packets or a basket, but the best candidates are those with some natural sugars. When grilled, those sugars come to the surface along with the water they emit, letting them caramelize beautifully. Also, it's fast, and it doesn't heat up your house, and hell, you've got the grill on anyway, right?

I try to cook the ones with the most sugar (yellow squash, potato, tomato, corn, red peppers) in a basket over open flame to take advantage of that caramelization. Corn's actually best directly on the grill, sans shuck - just brush it generously with olive oil and watch it constantly, since it goes zero to blackened in about 30 seconds.

Veggies with a little less native sugar - asparagus, zucchini, even broccoli - are great wrapped up in foil packets. Start them on the top shelf of the grill a good 5-10 min before you start your meat or fish.

Whichever way you do it, make sure you

• Take the veggies out ahead of time so they can come to room temp (they cook faster), and cut them so they're all about the same size. Smaller cooks faster.
  
• Dress them generously with an oil of some kind. Some folks like Italian dressing. I prefer olive oil, sea salt, cracked pepper, and some herb that works with the entree. Dill or rosemary is always good.
• Don't overcrowd. If you go the foil packet route, keep them no more than two layers deep. More than that, and you're looking at 20-30 minutes. If you're grilling a lot of veggies, it's better to divide them into several smaller packets than one big packet so huge you can't even flip it over.
  

Also, don't be afraid to put in a hot pepper or two, especially if you're doing potatoes. Roasted peppers lose a lot of their bite, but they add a nice dimension to the sweetness of browned potatoes or even squash.