Delicious Vegan BBQ Recipes and Veggie Grilling Techniques

Brits are going vegan at a growing rate, with an estimated 4% of the population now following a plant-based diet. As global sales of plant-based meat reached over $6 billion in 2022, as many as 46% of Brits are currently considering reducing the amount of meat they consume on a weekly basis. As you get ready for your next BBQ party, how do you make your vegetarian BBQ or plant-based grilling taste as good as traditional BBQs of the past?

Delicious and Satisfying Grilling Options

Vegan cooking on the grill opens up a world of flavour you might never have discovered, with plenty of health benefits to boot. Whether you want to cater to vegan friends or simply branch out as a grill master, trying some plant-based options comes with a bunch of benefits, including:

• Healthier options: Even if you regularly eat meat, reducing consumption has various health benefits, including a lower risk of heart disease and reduced rates of certain cancers. Since burgers and hotdogs are not the healthiest way to eat meat, consider cooking vegan alternatives for your BBQ and enjoy healthier meat selections for other meals.
• Expand your culinary knowledge: Getting out of your comfort zone is a great way to expand your skills and work with new ingredients, techniques, and cooking styles. The BBQ offers much more than the traditional burger and sausage fare. Cooking with vegan alternatives or an all-veggie set of ingredients can be challenging—but the good kind of challenge.
• Have an inclusive BBQ: If you’re inviting people over, there’s a good chance there will be some vegetarian or vegan folks in your circle. Whipping up some delicious and unique plant-based treats provides a feast that everyone can enjoy. Your vegan friends will be touched to be included in the menu.
• Lower costs: Frankly, meat is expensive. While your soul may want to BBQ with friends and neighbours every chance you get, your purse-strings might say different. With plenty of delicious and extremely affordable food options available, a vegetarian BBQ or vegan feast can keep summer food costs down.
• Lower your meat intake: Actively trying to cut down on meat is on the minds of many Brits. But habits can be hard to break. Focusing on vegetarian or vegan options for your next grill will show you how easy it might be to lower your meat intake.
• Environmental benefits: As we learn more about the impact of eating meat daily on the environment, using the grill is a perfect way to use less meat while retaining delicious flavours. Reducing meat consumption, even by a small portion per week, has a cumulative effect on environmental resources saved by raising animals.

Effective Grilling Techniques

Cooking with Vegetables and Plant-Based Meat Alternatives

Cooking with vegetables and some plant-based meat alternatives can be a little more involved than simply throwing a hotdog on the grill. While some vegan burgers and dogs are ready to go, other ingredients can benefit from extra cooking techniques:

• Marinating: Meat isn’t the only food we can marinate. Many vegan foods like tofu, mushrooms, and lentils easily absorb flavours from herbs, spices, and sauces. Marinating your food for several hours or overnight before your BBQ helps with absorption and makes the flavours in your marinade shine.
• Smoking: The unmistakable taste of BBQ often comes from what we cook with. Introducing the rich, smokey flavours of charcoal or wood smoke to your vegan meats or veggies gives them that delicious BBQ taste we all love.
• Oil your grates: Plant-based proteins don’t produce fat when they cook, like traditional burgers and hotdogs. To stop your food from tasting dry or burning on your grates, add some healthy fats like olive oil, coconut oil, or avocado oil to your grates and your food before you start to cook.
• Using spices: Tofu, veggies, and meat alternatives are a great base for a BBQ but are not always flavour-filled alone. Just like dry rubs, spices, and BBQ sauces can elevate chicken, beef, and seafood on the grill, plant-based ingredients can be transformed by adding a little flavour. Experiment with different spice blends and marinades to find what suits your palate best.
• Kebabs: Kebab sticks are a perfect way to serve veggie foods. All the ingredients stay together, and no buns are needed. Kebab sticks are available in a range of sizes, from traditional large servings to smaller, hors d’oeuvres-size sticks.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls of Plant-Based Grilling

As vegan cooking is new to many grillmasters, mistakes can be made at first. Avoid some of the following pitfalls of plant-based grilling to speed up your mastery of the veggie grill:

• Under seasoning: As a lot of vegan staples are considered a base to cook with, they are not always packed with flavour alone. Vegan meat alternatives, tofu, lentils, and chickpeas often need to be lifted with more herbs and spices than you might think. If your plant-based BBQ turned out a bit bland, consider getting more liberal with the flavour next time.
• Sticky tofu: Tofu is quite a sticky food, which helps it form cubes, slices, and burgers easily. This property can be unhelpful on the grill, though, as you can find your tofu welding itself to your grill grates. As tofu doesn’t have natural fats to emerge like meat does, using a good amount of oil on your tofu can keep it from sticking to your grill and helps to create traditional grill marks. Consider using a grilled tofu recipe to achieve the best results.
• Overcooking: Vegetables are delicious when grilled, but just like when they are boiled or roasted, there is a point in the cooking process where they become mush. There’s no coming back from mushy vegetables, so keep an eye on your veggies at all times. Over a hot grill, they take very little time to cook.

Vegan Alternatives to Traditional BBQ Staples

Expand Your Grilling Horizons with Plant-Based Options

There is a whole world of delicious grilled food once you step out of the standard zone of burgers and hotdogs. Once you let your mind be creative, your grill truly becomes your favourite way to cook. Sometimes we just need the inspiration to think outside the box.

If you follow a plant-based diet, have friends who are vegan, or just want to expand your cooking skills, consider cooking up some of the following the next time you bust out the BBQ:

• Vegan meat alternatives: Vegan alternatives to meat have come a long way. With burgers, bacon-style strips, vegan chicken, and sausages all available from the supermarket, you can have a traditional-style BBQ with a vegan theme. For a guide to the best vegan meat alternatives, see The Independent’s 10 best vegan meat alternatives.
• Tofu: A versatile ingredient that absorbs the flavours around it, tofu takes on a delicious smokey BBQ taste that is easy to supplement with dry-rubs or BBQ sauces. Taking on any shape easily, tofu is perfect for adding to kebab sticks, burger buns, or hot dogs.
• Veggies: At the centre of the vegan diet, fresh, crisp vegetables are delicious when cooked on a grill. Ideal for handheld veggie kebabs.
• Breakfast: It may feel like a rather American-movie idea, but the grill can help make any meal more fun. Switch things up by trying a BBQ breakfast or brunch using a grill griddle pan for perfect vegan bacon, fluffy pancakes, and crispy hash browns. You might be surprised how much fun it is to change up your weekend routine for a staycation feeling.
• Mushrooms: Rich with savoury flavour, quick to cook, and easily absorbing smokey flavours, mushrooms are a hearty alternative to beef burgers, with portabella mushrooms making the perfect substitute in a burger bun. Vegan Food & Living’s BBQ recipes include some great mushroom grilling ideas.
• Veggie burgers and hot dogs: While vegan meat alternatives are growing in popularity, old-fashioned veggie burgers still can’t be beaten for a veggie BBQ in a hurry. Meat alternatives produce a taste and texture similar to chicken or beef, while veggie burgers and hot dogs let the earthy flavours of the classic vegetarian stay front and centre. The Guardian’s perfect bean burger recipe is a great starting point.
• Potatoes: It wouldn’t be an outdoor British feast without potatoes. The grill is a great way to cook your jacket potatoes quickly, or cook up some quick, crowd-pleasing hash browns in a cast iron skillet. For a creative take on grilling potatoes, check out BBC Good Food’s BBQ potatoes recipe.
• Dessert: When you really want to strut your stuff, cooking desserts on the grill opens a whole new world of opportunities. For inspiration, take a look at BBC Good Food’s collection of BBQ desserts.

Planning Your Complete Vegetarian/Vegan BBQ Menu

A great part of BBQing is entertaining, with most Brits only pulling out the grill when company is coming. To make the most of what your grill can do and ensure there’s no hungry people waiting around, plan your feast in advance. Organising your dishes into the following categories can help:

• Appetisers: BBQs sometimes lead to some waiting around while the food is prepared. Having some ready-made appetisers, or small bites that can quickly be made on the grill can keep guests busy while you prepare the main event. For some quick and easy appetiser ideas, check out BBC Good Food’s vegan starters.
• Main dishes: Vegan burgers and hotdogs, portobello mushrooms, and plant-based chicken all make great vegan BBQ options. You can even get creative with kebab sticks or try out some spicier dishes using tofu. If you are hosting a BBQ with both meat and plant-based options, be mindful about cooking practices and make sure your guests are sure which foods are which.
• Side dishes: A feast goes a lot further with dishes on the side. Baked beans, corn on the cob, salad, and coleslaw make great traditional side dishes for your BBQ.
• Desserts: Add to your outdoor vibe by using a cast iron pan to cook a large, chocolatey cookie, or brownie over your gas flame grill.

Tips for a Successful BBQ Party

Hosting a vegetarian or vegan BBQ is a great opportunity to explore new flavours and introduce your family and friends to new dishes. Follow the tips below for hosting a smooth BBQ:

• Offer variety: We all have our favourites, and experimenting helps us grow as cooks. When feeding a crowd, ensure you have a variety of options for the different tastes and dietary needs of your guests.
• Cooking times: Animal meats, vegan alternatives, and vegetables have very different cooking times. To make sure all your food is ready at the same time, make a plan around your food’s expected cook times to serve your feast on time. To stop guests becoming restless, plan to have on-hand snacks or small appetiser dishes that are quick to cook and keep the masses happy.
• Consider ingredients of your buns or condiments: If you are making an effort to serve a vegan feast, don’t forget the chance your burger buns or ketchup contain non-vegan ingredients. While these details are not a big deal if you are simply experimenting, if you expect vegan guests or those with food allergies, make sure all of your ingredients fit the bill. Vegan Food & Living offers a helpful guide to identifying vegan-friendly bread and condiments.
• Drinks: We can focus so much on the food component of having a BBQ that something as simple as beverages can get overlooked. Take some time to shop for extra drinks and make sure you have enough plates, serviettes, and glasses on hand.
• Light your grill on time: For charcoal grillers, underestimating the time your coals will take to heat is a major reason for delayed BBQs and hungry guests. Light your coals early and let them reach cooking heat with plenty of time to spare.

Final Thoughts

Grilling is for everyone, whether you are a carnivore or follow a plant-based diet. No matter what your diet, branching out into vegetarian and vegan BBQ options opens up a world of exciting recipes. Between healthier vegan options for guilt-free grilling and expanding your repertoire to cater for plant-based family and friends, exploring veggie options helps you master your all-round grilling skills much faster.

Celebrate your successes by sharing your newfound recipes, ingredients, and techniques with other grill masters on social media to help grilling newbies discover a whole new world of cooking.