Most of the time, grilled vegetables are seen as a side dish. You mightn’t even think they’re much to get excited about, especially if you love the protein part of the meal. Yet, when made well, grilled vegetables can be stunning and packed with flavor.
Part of the trick is in the planning. It’s essential to choose vegetables that grill well, cut them into similar sizes so they cook evenly, and pre-cook any vegetables that won’t fully cook on the grill. Seasoning and even marinating your vegetables can be relevant too. Doing so makes them taste even better.
Once you have a delicious dish, it’s time to think about what to serve with grilled vegetables. There are plenty of excellent grilled vegetable accompaniments to choose from, including a roast, stuffed mushrooms, chicken wings, dips, and more.
There isn’t even a single best side. Instead, it’s best to choose based on your preferences, the ingredients you have on hand, and how your vegetables have been seasoned. You might even choose two sides for your vegetables, one that’s rich in protein and another that’s carb heavy instead.
What To Serve With Grilled Vegetables (14 Sides To Try)
A Roast
Whether we’re talking about roast chicken, beef, lamb, or pork, a roast always does best with some type of vegetable at the side. Roast vegetables are the obvious choice, but they can get be a bit boring.
So, why not branch out with grilled vegetables instead? Because you’re cooking these separately, you have a greater chance to control the flavor profile of your vegetables. The grilling also provides an excellent smokiness that’s perfect with any type of meat-focused dish.
Greek-Style Leg Of Lamb
This Greek-Style Leg of Lamb relies on a Mediterranean seasoning mix to give it a delicious flavor profile, making it more exciting than many other lamb roasts. It’s also a fantastic recipe for anyone who hasn’t roasted lamb before, as there are plenty of details about buying a good lamb leg and how to cook it for the right level of doneness.
Of course, the seasoning is where this recipe really shines. The seasoning mix includes garlic cloves, oregano, paprika, olive oil, and fresh lemon juice. It’s essentially a wet garlic rub, one that imparts plenty of flavor. You could even use this Mediterranean seasoning on another type of roast or in a different type of dish entirely.
Risotto
Risotto is one of those dishes that can be boring and familiar or delicious and exciting, depending on how it is prepared. But, regardless, the dish is often rich in carbs, with a texture that contrasts the vegetables and any meat in your meal.
Rice risotto is the classic style here and you’ll find countless recipes for it online – including simple and complex versions. You can also change the base grain, such as using quinoa or farro instead of rice.
Using a base grain like farro tweaks the texture of the dish, often making it chewier and a bit more complex. Of course, each grain type brings its own features to the dish, making it something distinctive. Why not experiment?
Plus, you can make a light vegetarian meal using just risotto and grilled vegetables.
Shiitake Farro Risotto
Speaking of risotto variations, what do you think of this Shiitake Farro Risotto? The use of farro adds an interesting chewiness to the dish, while the shiitake mushrooms provide an earthy contrast.
To finish it all off, there’s grated parmesan on top. While this isn’t essential, the saltiness of the cheese is a delightful contrast to the rest of the meal.
Of course, the recipe isn’t just limited to mushrooms, farro, and parmesan. There are also ingredients for flavor and texture, including vegetable broth and white wine.
Steak
Despite being incredibly delicious, steak isn’t a full meal on its own. You’ll normally need at least one side with it – and vegetables are the obvious choice.
Not only do vegetables provide an interesting flavor and texture contrast, but they’re also an excellent source of fiber. This fiber is essential for good digestion and keeps you healthy.
There’s also a practical reason for pairing steak with grilled vegetables—they can be cooked in the same way. Often, this involves grilling the steak first and allowing it to rest while you grill the vegetables. However, if you get the timing right, you can grill steak and vegetables together. This typically involves putting the steak in the pan first and then adding the vegetables a little later.
Balsamic-Glazed Steak Tips And Mushrooms
With these Balsamic-Glazed Steak Tips and Mushrooms, you’re basically getting two sides at once. The mushrooms add flavor and provide texture contrast, while the steak tips are the star of the meal.
That said, steak tips aren’t essential. You could swap these for another cut of steak instead, like flank steak.
We also need to talk about the marinade, as this is what makes the recipe so exciting. It relies on balsamic vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, dijon mustard, and a handful of other ingredients. The choice of ingredients creates a flavorful meal, one that will naturally complement your grilled vegetables.
Polenta
Like risotto, polenta is a carb-heavy side that allows your grilled vegetables to truly shine. Much of the appeal is that polenta has a mild flavor. This allows it to take up flavors from your other ingredients and stops it from dominating the meal.
You could even make a simple dinner by combining polenta and grilled vegetables. Or, you could try the protein bowl style, where polenta is the base grain and is then topped with grilled vegetables, some protein-rich ingredients, and other delicious additions (like parmesan cheese or feta).
Polenta is easy to prepare, but like grits, a good recipe and practice are sometimes required. Notably, you’re trying to create a creamy dish instead of a gritty one.
Ricotta Polenta With Meatballs
This Ricotta Polenta with Drunken Meatballs is one of the best places to start your polenta. Not only does the recipe teach you how to make delicious polenta, but it also provides a delicious source of protein. In fact, if you serve this dish alongside grilled vegetables, you have a complete meal ready to go.
The meatballs deserve a special mention, as they’re phenomenal. They’re cooked in a brown beer gravy, which boosts their flavor profile and stops them from drying out. Caramelized onions complement the meatballs, providing extra depth and richness to the meal.
The meatballs, gravy, and onions would also work well with a different source of carbs, like couscous or mashed potato. For a low carb approach, why not try cauliflower rice? You’ll end up with a delicious meal regardless.
Stuffed Mushrooms
Mushrooms are a versatile ingredient, one that works well in many sides. Part of their appeal is that mushrooms have a different flavor and texture than most other ingredients. Besides that, they can be prepared in plenty of different ways.
If you’re looking for extra flavor, then stuffed mushrooms are one of the most appealing approaches. The idea is as the name suggests – you’re adding fillings to the center of the mushrooms, then baking them until both the mushrooms and fillings are fully cooked.
Sausage or ground beef are common as fillings, often with herbs and other ingredients. Using meat makes the mushrooms much more filling than they’d be otherwise while also creating a nice flavor contrast. There are many other options too, like a rich filling that relies on cream cheese or one that uses a combination of breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese.
Ground Beef And Feta Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms
These Ground Beef and Feta Stuffed Mushrooms are stunning. You get meatiness from the beef, plus a delightful burst of flavor from the feta. Then there’s the spinach, which helps with the texture and provides plenty of nutrients.
There’s even garlic and caramelized onion in the recipe. These add to the flavor profile and give you a surprisingly complex side dish.
The recipe relies on large baby bella mushrooms, which gives you a fairly substantial snack. However, you could easily go with smaller or larger mushrooms. Smaller ones would be more fiddly to create, but they would still provide the same fantastic flavor.
An Omelet
An omelet is a great choice if you want something fast and easy. After all, it takes barely any time to make and uses a handful of ingredients.
At the most basic, you’ll just need eggs, some salt and pepper for seasoning, and a little fat to help it cook evenly. Of course, you can easily add extra ingredients, like ham, chives, fresh herbs, or perhaps fried onions.
You even have options with your grilled vegetables. You could serve them alongside the omelet, which highlights the contrasts between your omelet and vegetables. Or, you could include grilled vegetables as an ingredient in the omelet itself.
Greek Omelet With Spinach And Feta
This Greek Omelet with Spinach and Feta offers extra flavors without being too complicated. The omelet doesn’t just rely on spinach and feta either. There are also roasted peppers and onions, both of which add to the flavor profile and create an exciting meal.
Because this omelet already has plenty of fillings, you’d probably serve your grilled vegetables on the side. You could throw a few cherry tomatoes on your plate as well, for an extra vibrant flavor.
Kofta
Kofta is a type of meatball, one that’s often found in Middle Eastern and Indian cooking. Some versions are formed into kebabs and cooked on skewers instead, but the flavor and texture are similar in either case.
Because kofta is mostly meat (plus seasoning and sometimes extra ingredients), it’s a natural complement for grilled vegetables. To create a full meal, you could serve the kofta and vegetables over rice or perhaps in a pita pocket.
Easy Grilled Lamb Kofta Kebab
This Lamb Kofta Kebab is one of the easiest ways to get started with kofta. It relies on just six ingredients and can be prepared in only 15 minutes.
Aside from the meat of choice (ground lamb), the rest of the ingredients are all used for flavoring. They include fresh parsley and fresh dill, plus cumin for complexity and earthiness.
While the recipe is designed for skewers, you could easily make meatballs instead. These are just as good with grilled vegetables and can be easier to cook.
Chicken Wings
Who can go past chicken wings? They’re incredibly delicious and can be flavored in so many different ways. But, they’re rarely a meal in their own right. You need at least one side and grilled vegetables are perfect.
After all, chicken wings are mostly protein and fat. The fiber in grilled vegetables is a perfect counterpoint and their flavor doesn’t hurt either. The same principle applies to other chicken dishes, particularly fried chicken.
Crispy Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings
These Crispy Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings would be perfect in so many situations. For one thing, these are baked rather than fried, making them much healthier than regular chicken wings.
Then there’s the combination of garlic and parmesan. This always tastes amazing with chicken, given that chicken has such a mild flavor of its own.
The recipe itself is easy to follow and uses familiar ingredients. Just make sure you have cornstarch in your cupboard (or an appropriate substitute), as some type of starch is needed to make the wings crispy.
A Delicious Dip
Dips are most often associated with cold vegetables like cucumber and carrots, but you can easily use dips with grilled vegetables instead. Doing so is stunning, as you get some smokiness from the grilled vegetables, which is perfectly contrasted by the dip.
You have endless options at your fingertips as well, including hummus, tzatziki, aioli, and lemon feta dip. Each of these has its own distinct flavor profile and can be varied to your heart’s content.
Whipped Feta With Hot Honey
This Whipped Feta with Hot Honey is one of my favorite dips, partly because it’s such a fantastic combination of flavors. Feta is, of course, one of the main ingredients. This gives the dip plenty of creaminess, plus a slight sharpness.
However, the dip doesn’t just taste like feta, as there’s also sour cream, honey, red pepper flakes, and a few other ingredients. These create a dip that’s both sweet and spicy. The use of hot honey on top also makes the dip look stunning.
Garlic Bread
Garlic bread is one of those amazing dishes that seems to go with everything. That’s partly because bread is so easy to enjoy and partly because of how garlic complements so many other ingredients.
That said, you’ll likely need a second side to make a complete meal. While garlic bread and grilled vegetables taste amazing together, there’s little protein present, so you’ll be hungry again before too long.
Thankfully, the challenge is easily solved. Most types of meat complement both garlic bread and grilled vegetables. You might even be able to find a tofu recipe that works well.
Garlic Twist Rolls
These Garlic Twist Rolls are much more exciting than regular garlic bread, partly because of how they’ve been twisted. They’re particularly good for serving at dinner parties, as each guest gets their own roll.
Because you’re making the rolls from scratch, you can easily experiment with their size and shape (just remember that the cooking time may change if you do so). You could also consider slicing the rolls in half and topping them with grilled vegetables.
Hasselback Potatoes
Potatoes always work well with vegetables. Honestly, you could use any potato recipe you wanted here and you’d end up with an excellent meal.
Still… just saying potatoes is far too boring, so let’s consider one specific type—hasselback potatoes. These are baked potatoes that have been thinly sliced, so they look a little like fans.
There are a few tricks to making these potatoes taste good. First, you want to make sure the potatoes are crispy. Doing so involves cutting them thinly, cooking them over a high heat, and basting the potatoes as you cook them. Seasoning is crucial too. Salt, pepper, fresh herbs, and garlic butter are all options to consider.
Hasselback Potatoes With Gouda And Garlic Herb Butter
These Hasselback Potatoes with Gouda and Garlic Herb Butter take things one step further by including delicious garlic thyme butter and plenty of melted gouda. The gouda really brings the meal together, which isn’t surprising, as cheese always makes everything better.
The other cool thing is that this isn’t a complex recipe. Indeed, one of the big advantages of hasselback potatoes is that they look impressive, yet are also very easy to prepare.
The recipe relies on familiar flavors, like garlic, rosemary, theme, and paprika. This means the potatoes will pair well with grilled vegetables—plus whatever source of protein you want to focus on.
Macaroni And Cheese
Macaroni cheese can be a full meal in its own right, especially if you add extra ingredients. However, it’s also often served as part of a meal, with one or two sides to round it out.
Grilled vegetables are an excellent choice here, partly because they’re nutritious and provide plenty of fiber. There’s also an interesting texture contrast, as grilled vegetables shouldn’t be mushy, so they’ll be firmer than the pasta in your grilled cheese.
The balance of flavors varies notably depending on the type of grilled vegetable you use. For example, grilled bell peppers are brighter than grilled mushrooms and grilled eggplant and offer an interesting sweetness.
Creamy Baked Mac And Cheese
This Creamy Baked Mac and Cheese proves that macaroni and cheese doesn’t need to be complicated. There’s only a handful of ingredients, including macaroni, butter, flour, milk, and cheese.
With so few ingredients, you wouldn’t expect the dish to turn out well. Yet, you end up with a delicious and creamy version of mac and cheese. The recipe’s instructions help ensure that the dish turns out perfectly every time.
Shrimp And Grits
Now, we come to shrimp and grits. It’s a pretty decent meal in its own right, as the shrimp provides protein, while there is plenty of creaminess from the grits. There are also some interesting flavor and texture contrasts between the ingredients.
The only thing missing is the veggies. Now, vegetables aren’t essential with shrimp and grits. Of course they’re not. However, they’re a great way to round the meal off and provide you with extra nutrients.
Cooked vegetables are ideal, given that your shrimp and grits are warm. This makes grilled vegetables an obvious choice, especially with the touch of smokiness from the grill.
Tasty Cheesy Shrimp And Grits
Want a comforting dish? If so, these Tasty Cheesy Shrimp and Grits are impossible to beat.
This isn’t a bland recipe either, as it relies on a bold creole seasoning mix. The seasoning really makes the shrimp come to life, providing plenty of amazing flavor. This is a fantastic feature. After all, it’s too easy to end up with bland shrimp and grits.
Pasta
Our final entry is pasta. This is the ultimate comforting dish, one that can be varied in plenty of ways. You can experiment with different sauces, different types of protein, and different spices.
Pasta and grilled vegetables isn’t a common combo, but seriously, it should be. The flavors and textures work together extremely well, giving you a delicious and nutrient dense meal.
One approach is to prepare a simple pasta dish (like alfredo) and serve grilled vegetables on the side. Doing so allows for an optimal contrast of flavor and texture. Alternatively, you could mix the grilled vegetables in with your pasta, creating an all-in-one dish.
Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
Pairing this Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo with grilled vegetables would give you a delicious comforting homestyle meal. Notably, the recipe relies on homemade alfredo sauce, rather than sauce you purchase from the store.
Homemade alfredo tends to be more flavorful and richer than the store bought version. This extra flavor is essential, given that most of the recipe’s flavor comes from the alfredo.
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