Darling May: Vegan barbecued spring salad

Zazulete Ynn Anuca Romanța Ion

Barbecue season is officially open! Now, you know you can grill anything and everything, but one of the stars of my barbecues is a vegan recipe, that you can try each season in its specific combination, a salad made of grilled veggies and seasonal greens.
The smell of veggies and legumes inaugurating the barbecue on a fine May day, with birds singing, passing clouds, roses saying "hello!" is one of those rituals telling you: "and now everything will be all right, baby!"

Before we begin, we need a bit of focus, so let's fill a glass with pelin spritz and harvest some Rosa Damascena petals for future food plating. 

Then all you need is your market loot: the magical basket :D basking in jasmin perfume.

INGREDIENTS (for 10 servings)

4 medium sized courgettes
6 red kapia peppers
4 green and/or yellow bell peppers
500 g champignons
a bunch of green onions
2-3 green garlic stems
a bunch of fresh spinach
a bunch of fresh dill
a bunch of tarragon
5-6 lettuce leaves
extra virgin olive oil
fine balsamic vinegar
(optional) sliced tomatoes


- First: c'mon baby, light my fire.

- Slice the veggies in larger chunks, use a salad bowl to mix them with the whole mushrooms and massage them all with a little olive oil.

- Carefully arrange the sliced vegetables and the mushrooms on the grill and barbecue them on both sides, for about 10 minutes overall, until they get a little charred (don't overcook them, we do want them to keep their freshness inside). The fine result will be a good mixture of crunchiness that comes from the fresh with the crunchiness that comes from the fire.

- Collect them all in a goodie bowl. When hot, mix with lots of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar to taste.

- Coarsely chop the herbs, the lettuce, the spinach and the green onions and green garlic and add them to the mix.

- Season with a fine salt and enjoy, either as warm or cold salad.