GrillinFool
Full Fledged Farker
- Joined
- May 8, 2009
- Location
- St. Louis
I did this a loooonngggg time ago with my old point and shoot which was well, terrible as are any cameras that don't have an adjustable external flash, at least in terms of taking food pictures, so I decided to redo it entirely:
Sounds nuts right? Grilled salad?! I thought the same thing, but decided to try it anyway. I was ridiculed soundly by friends and family who thought this was some sort of joke. Take the ribbing and do it anyone. It’s an amazing recipe. Something about the combination of the charred flavor, the crispness of the lettuce and the fresh grated Romano cheese is simply amazing…
Ingredients:
2 heads of Romaine lettuce, the leafy outer leaves removed and sliced lengthwise
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp granulated garlic or garlic powder
1/2 cup of fresh grated Romano cheese (any hard grated cheese could be used like Asiago or parmesian)
Course salt and fresh cracked pepper
Serves four
Prep and cooking is even easier than compiling the ingredients. First, remove the outer leafy leaves as they will get wilted before the rest of the lettuce picks up a nice char:
With these two heads, I had quite a few leaves I had to pull away:
With the outer leaves removed, the heads look like giant hearts of romaine:
Rinse the heads under cold water:
Now place the heads on a cutting board and pat dry with a paper towel. Then cut them in half lengthwise:
Now time for the olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Always lay the flat side down first when doing this. That way you apply these ingredients on the flat side last and thus it will be facing up and not flat on the cutting board which is where all the oil, garlic, salt and black pepper will wind up and require a second coating. I didn’t get shots of them being applied to the curved side first, so in these pictures I have skipped ahead. First drizzle the olive oil:
Then dust with the granulated garlic and sprinkle with coarse salt and fresh cracked black pepper:
Again, apply the oil, garlic, pepper and salt to the curved side first and then repeat for the flat side.
Ready for the grill:
Now off to the grill which I prepared for direct grilling over hot coals. This is a quick process, so don’t go to the bathroom or refill your drink after you start. Place the half heads right over a hot fire:
This only takes a couple of minutes so keep checking the underside. Look for the lettuce to blacken a bit. A nice char is the desired result without having the lettuce wilt too much under the heat:
Notice how I have them not quite flipped over. With one side being rounded, in order to get an even char all the way around, I have to char them in three phases with the curved side getting a sear on two sides, almost like a triangle.
During the cooking process, some of the leaves you cut through are going to pull away from the head like so:
Pull them free with tongs and stuff them between the grill grates or toss them in the trash.
Once all four half heads are charred evenly they should look similar to this:
You can plate this a couple of ways. You can remove from the grill, lop off the bottom inch or two (where sediment can build up even if you wash well) and put into a bowl where you add the grated cheese and toss, serving with tongs. The other option is to serve the half heads individually as I did here, adding the cheese as soon as it leaves the grill:
On the table and ready to serve:
This may be the perfect side to go with a grilled steak. Once the steak is pulled off to rest, throw the lettuce on. The steak, depending on thickness, should be perfectly rested when your grilled salad is ready to be plated.
If you have any questions about the above dish please feel free to comment below or email me.
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