Today I’m going to show you how to grill onions and garlic. Onions and garlic made on the grill turn out wonderfully. They go through a texture change, from wet and firm to a soft almost silky texture. The heat from the grill caramelizes the sugars giving them a great flavor. Onions are perfect for grill because they have a higher water content that will keep them moist throughout grilling.
So, what types of onions and garlic should you grill? Vidalias, Mauis, Walla Wallas, red onions, pearl onions, shallots, green onions, scallions, and garlic are all perfect choices. Grab whatever you prefer, or get a mixture.
There is a bit of prep work involved before we can start grilling up the garlic and onions. For onions you are going to want to cut them into quarters and/or slices. This will help with grill time and also maximize the grilled flavor in the onions. Quartered onions and onion slices will start to fall apart when you grill them, so you are going to want to use bamboo skewers. Here are the skewers that I use. Make sure to soak the skewers in water for about an hour before using them. This will help keep them from burning.
Thread the onion quarters onto the bamboo skewers. Onion slices should be skewered as well, so cut them about ½ inch thick. You will want to skewer garlic cloves as well. Garlic doesn’t have the high water content that onions have, so you may want to loosely wrap them in foil so they don’t burn before cooking through. Beside cloves of garlic you can grill the heads as well; just slice the whole garlic heads in half.
Something I can’t recommend highly enough is a grill pan. One of these is so helpful when grilling small, delicate vegetables like garlic and onions. It helps to keep them from fall through the grate. Here is the one that I use.
Set up your gas or charcoal grill for direct cooking over high heat. Once the grill is ready make sure to oil the grate and grill pan. Place the onions and garlic on the grate or pan. Grill until they are browned on all sides, a bit of char is fine too. It will be approximately 4 to 8 minutes of grilling per side. If anything starts to burn a bit, move it to a cooler part of the grill.
Once they are finished transfer them to a platter and unskewer them. Sprinkle with any seasonings or sauce you like, and serve. You can even eat these at room temperature. This is how to grill onions and garlic that turns out great.
Make sure you check out the grill pan, it is really handy and not just for onions and garlic, I find myself using it all the time for lots of my small grilled foods. Again, here is the one that I use.
image courtesy of bagaball/flickr