Chargrilled Vegetables with Aniseed Myrtle & Basil
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Serves: 4
You can get creative with this dish and throw in pretty much whatever vegetables you have in your fridge that will hold up their texture on the grill! It makes a wonderful accompaniment to grilled fish or meat, or as part of an antipasti plate with some toasted bruschetta and fresh mozzarella.
- 2 red capsicums
- 2 corn cobs
- 2 medium zucchinis
- 1/4 cup Aniseed Myrtle
- 1 eggplant
- 8 baby leeks
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper (or Mountain Pepper Leaf!)
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large bunch fresh basil, leaves picked
- 2 tbsp herb or white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tbsp pepper
- 1 clove garlic
You can get creative with this dish and throw in pretty much whatever vegetables you have in your fridge that will hold up their texture on the grill! It makes a wonderful accompaniment to grilled fish or meat, or as part of an antipasti plate with some toasted bruschetta and fresh mozzarella.
- Wash all your vegetables.
- Heat the BBQ. Place whole capsicums on the grill. You want to char them on both sides, until they are black.
- While capsicums are still hot, put them in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to cool.
- Slice your zucchinis lengthways about 0.5cm thick.
- Grill the zucchini for about a minute on each side or until nicely charred. We don’t want the courgette to get too black or it loses all crunch.
- Transfer to a plate and allow to cool in one layer. Make sure they don’t sit on top of each other, otherwise they may steam and go soggy.
- Cut the eggplant across into slices 1cm inch thick.
- Chargrill the eggplant slices, turning them a few times until nicely marked with grill lines. Transfer to plate.
- Boil the baby leeks and corn in salted water until they’re just cooked. Then drain, rub with a little olive oil, and chargrill them quickly until lightly marked.
- Peel the capsicums. Very carefully rub off the black skin (we don’t want to lose all the flavour!), then remove the stalk and pips and tear the peppers up into large strips.
- Put all the vegetables into a large bowl.
- Tear basil leaves and sprinkle over vegetables.
- Combine 8 tablespoons of olive oil, the anise myrtle, salt, pepper and the vinegar in a small bowl. Pour this over the vegetables and toss quickly so that everything gets coated in the lovely dressing.
- Grate the garlic, add to the bowl and toss.
- Serve on a large plate at room temperature.