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Wow Your BBQ Guests With Salad Sticks

14 Replies

This is a guest post by Lisa Cain, PhD, a.k.a Snack-Girl

Now that grilling season is here, I have created the BEST grilled treat on the planet for your outdoor party. I call them – “Salad Sticks” and am currently trying to get a trademark for the concept :)

You see, we love food on a stick! Popsicles, corn dogs, satay are just a few foods that come to mind. How about salad?

Here is a photo of the cooked salad stick:

Salad sticks will help you eat fewer hot dogs, hamburgers, and chips. These babies have just 16 calories each and they taste great.

Now, I did not use any oil on these which you may find impossible to do. My grill is non-stick and I got it pretty hot before I put the skewers on it.

My suggestion for adding oil is to spray a little olive oil from a spray can. This will add a little flavor and ensure that your veggies are evenly coated without drowning them in calories (thereby reducing their healthiness).

Below, I have featured my new favorite kitchen tool – the Misto. I bought it on Amazon.com because a Snack Girl reader suggested it.

This is an olive oil sprayer that you can reuse instead of throw away. You save money and the environment by getting one of these – and you can put your own high quality olive oil in the can (or any other kind of oil that you like).

All you do is fill it about half way and “pump it up” and it sprays a fine mist of olive oil. It doesn’t use propellants and you will use less olive oil on your salads, etc.

How do you make grilling healthy?

Salad Stick Recipe

(makes 12 skewers)

1 pkg white whole mushrooms
1 medium red onion
1 green bell pepper
2 zucchini
1 pint cherry tomatoes
12 skewers

Wet a paper towel and clean mushroom caps. Remove stems from mushrooms. Cut onion in half and then cut 4 pieces of each half. Clean and cut bell pepper into 1/2 inch pieces. Peel zucchini and slice into 1 inch pieces. Place ingredients onto skewers. Heat grill and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes per side until vegetables are your desired doneness. Enjoy!

These can be made ahead and reheated on the grill or in the oven.

16 calories, 0.2 g fat, 3.5 g carbohydrates, 0.8 g protein, 1.0 g fiber, 5 mg sodium, 0 PointsPlus

Lisa Cain, Ph.D. writes about healthy snacks on Snack-Girl.com. She is a published author, mother of two, and avid snacker.

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  • Weberd01

    I suppose they wouldn’t be as fun for each individual party guest but…

    Kabobs work best when they are homogeneous. If you make one skewer of each vegetable you can get a more even cooking and have control over when each veggie goes on so your mushrooms (fast cooking) don’t dictate the cooking of your onions (slower cooking) and vice versa.

    To me, taste and texture trumps presentation. I don’t want people to not eat the onions because they were underdone. :)

  • Guest

    A trademark? Really? Those are pretty common in Mexico, it’s only a vegetable skewer.

  • http://twitter.com/thembithembi Thembi

    Thanks for posting and encouraging conversation but I hope the trademark thing is tongue in cheek. These are vegetable shish kebab and are nothing new.
    By the way if you have a nice vidalia onion those work great on the grill!

  • KMM

    Half-cooked zucchini, abused mushrooms, served up totally bland? Come on, this is why people DON’T serve vegetables at BBQs. A decent marinade (and better cooking) would fix this, but as is, this is terrible. “How to grill vegetables properly” is not just “throw on a stick and hope for the best.” Yuk. 

    Cook’s Illustrated’s BBQ cookbook has a pretty good vegetable chapter, in case anybody reading this is left hoping for usable instructions…

  • http://groundcherry.wordpress.com stephanie

    My complaint is that Misto and the like are always incredibly difficult to clean properly. You tend to end up with a light hint of rancidity unless you replace it every 6 months or year.  You can also just toss dry vegetables with a few tablespoons of oil and eat less meat/cheese/chip dip or the like. I have a couple healthier dip recipes that could replace the chip dip…

    I do agree that a bit more healthful olive oil and some savory herbs and spices would dress them up quite a lot.  Moosewood’s low-fat cookbook has some good marinades for roasting vegetables that would work well here.

  • April

    I’m sorry, she “created” this?  Seriously?  So did my five year old, and about a zillion other people.  Putting vegetables on a stick and heating them over fire is not “creating”.

    • queue

      Uh, yeah.  You can buy them at Whole Foods and Kroger.

  • turtle66

    Salad Sticks trying to get a trademark for the concept? I make Skewered Vegetables and skewered Fruit @ most of my BBQ’s but mine are marinated over night in one of my own marinades depending on the theme i’m shooting for Asian,Mexican,Italian etc..    

  • Goglsbliss

    Salad on a stick?? These are vegie kabobs…they have been around for quite awhile! Nothing new here, but you might try a tasty marinade or seasoning the vegetables to enhance the flavor a bit.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Heidi-Hall/607570309 Heidi Hall

    I think i will pass on this one. It looks completely bland and not even grilled enough… It needs something to make it special because the way it looks, it would not wow ANYONE i know

  • Jim Cooper

    Wouldn’t olive oil Pam do much the same job as a Misto?

  • Helenareinert

    Salad sticks? You are kidding I hope

  • Libwitch

    I wouldn’t go as far to call this a recipe – but I also don’t understand the people who insist this needs marinade.   Grilled veggies are yummy all on their own!   *chomp* 

  • Anonymous

    This blog is really very nice and I am always eating a different recipe. This is really very great Salad Stick Recipe. I love to eat this salad.
    Debt Advice