The grill isn’t only a great option for cooking meat during the warmer months. You can easily get more creative with your grilling and start enjoying seasonal fruits and veggies on the grill! Just prepare yourself with some of these tips before you start experimenting:

Precook

Some veggies need a bit of precooking to shorten the amount of time they spend on the grill. Harder veggies like asparagus, broccoli, artichokes, carrots and potatoes are among these kinds of veggies. Here’s what you can do:

Steam them or blanch them until they are only slightly tender, then pat them dry, and cook them on the grill. That extra step will make sure the outside and inside of those sturdy veggies are cooked evenly.

Oil Them

Rubbing a bit of olive oil or coconut oil on your veggies first will make sure they don’t stick to the grill as well as prevent them from drying out. Don’t overdo it with the oil though – you don’t want to use so much that you experience flare ups from dripping oil.

Soak Your Fruits

To get an amazing burst of flavor from grilled fruits, try soaking them first in honey, maple syrup or liquor. This works especially well for pineapples and pears. You can also grill apples, watermelon and peaches.

Stick It To Them

While it may be tempting to make pretty kabobs with meat and veggies mixed, this isn’t usually the best thing to do as meat and veggies have different cooking time requirements. But skewering the same types of veggies is a great ideas. For example, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, chunks of onion, and pineapple all work well when cooked on skewers.

Use Packets

For those veggies that don’t lend themselves to skewers or grill baskets (like peas, green beans and sliced peppers), just create a packet out of tin foil and cook them inside. You can also use this method for potatoes or to cook veggies with sauces or toppings.

Check out more great grilling tips over at The Dollar Stretcher’s 7 Tips for Grilling Veggies and Fruits.