My Argentine Feast – Part 5 – Charred Vegetables with Shaved Parmigiano and Lemon & Basil Dressing

Though the Argentine diet is very meat heavy, they do enjoy eating their vegetables too. Like with so much of their food, they like to cook their vegetables over fire. They even like them charred. I can’t say that I blame them either. I charred mine and they came out so good. 🙂

Charred Vegetables with Lemon Basil Dressing and Shaved Parmigiano Cheese

Of course I did what I normally do. I had a basic recipe, then added to it. It’s just what I do. I can’t help myself. 🙂 Bob had just given me yet another batch of his delicious fresh tomatoes, so I added some to the vegetable mixture. I think they made the vegetables much better and certainly more colorful too. I also added garlic, and garlic oil, basil oil and oregano.

4 small fennel bulbs, cut in 1/2

3 zucchini, sliced into thick rounds

2 or 3 tomatoes, cut in 1/2 or 1/4

1/2 cup olive oil

1-2 TBSP garlic olive oil, optional

1-2 TBSP basil olive oil, optional

coarse salt & fresh ground black pepper to taste

1-2 tsp lemon zest

2 TBSP lemon juice

1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

1-2 TBSP fresh oregano, chopped

4 oz shaved Parmigiano cheese

Gently toss all the vegetables in about 1/3 of the oil(s) with the salt & pepper.

Combine the rest of the oil(s), lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic and fresh herbs together and set aside.

The Argentine way to char these vegetables is in a chapa, or very hot skillet. I cooked them all on my inside grill, while Larry was cooking all the meat on the outside grill. Char the vegetables for about 2-3 minutes, or until charred, then gently flip over and repeat.

Once the vegetables are charred to your liking, gently toss them together with the oil, lemon and herb mixture. You can toss them with the Parmigiano cheese too, to mix it all in, or you can just add it to the top of the vegetables. Since I am not a big cheese eater, I just added it to the top. You can also leave the cheese off completely too, if you prefer. If I were making it just for Larry and I, I probably would have left the cheese off. But since I was serving it to a bunch of cheese lovers, I added it to the top. It was a good compromise.

It was a big hit and everyone loved it. The freshness of the vegetables really came to life with the lemon basil dressing. !Desfruta!

Have a great day and make everyday great. Stay safe and stay well. ‘Til next time.