Wood Grilled Romaine Lettuce

Wood grilled Romaine lettuce- Scrumptious!

It’s time to bring your vegetables into grilling season! Nothing beats the smell of fresh vegetables roasting over wood even on an LP/gas grill. Any time of the year works fine for this technique to get a great char wood flavor in your seasonal or store-bought fresh vegetables.

All you’ll need for this easy cooking experience is an LP or gas grill – any brand or size will do, double filet wood chunks from SmokinLicious®, and a head or two of fresh Romaine lettuce!

Grill Preparation

If you want to add special wood flavoring to your LP/Gas grill there are easy steps to follow:

Make sure your grill is clean from any significant grease build up. Remove the grilling grates and determine how much space is between the diffuser and the grilling grate. The diffuser is the plate covering the unit’s gas burner(s). Don’t remove the cover.

Once you have the sizing computed, then select the SmokinLicious® wood chunk size that will fit – Single Filet which is ~4 inches or the Double Filet which is ~2 inches.

Wood Preparation

Now, let’s set up the wood on the grill. Remove the cooking grates from the grill then strategically place the wood chunks over the heat diffuser. This is the metal piece covering the actually gas burners. If the SmokinLicious® wood chunks are fresh, then you can add them directly to the unit without pre-soaking them. If not, you may want to consider a lite soaking of about 15 minutes. Because I’m cooking lettuce, I am using the chunks in their natural state. However, feel free to consider a pre-soak in liquid with flavorings such as beer, wine or juice.

Now replace the grill grates back on the unit, over the SmokinLicious® wood chunks! Make sure the grates are securely seated back on the unit. If there is a lot of space on your unit between the diffuser and the grate you may want to consider a SmokinLicious® single filet or block item. Now light the unit, set the dials to a low heat setting and bring the unit up to temperature. Say around 180 degrees. Do not overheat the unit.

Preparation

In preparing my Romaine lettuce for this cook, I slice it vertically from stem to head creating two equal size halves. After pre-heating the grill to around 180 degrees, I place the two slices of the lettuce head directly on the grill grates. Let the wood infusion flavor begin!

Roasting Process

I position the two halves of the Romaine over the hot spots created by the SmokinLicious® “Double” filet wood pieces which are under the grilling grates. The wood will ignite and begin the charring stage. I recommend bunching the wood pieces together to produce a hot spot on the LP/gas grill to allow for a direct char technique. While I am not using the smoke from the wood, I am still infusing great natural grilling flavor with the wood.

My cooking is taking place with an open lid because I want to char not smoke! It’s important to keep turning the heads so the flavour will be even. At about 1/3 of the time cooking on the grill, I turn the gas completely off and let the flaming wood chunks on the diffuser finish up the final cooking. In this last stage of charring, I brush my clarified butter with chopped parsley and mint baste to the lettuce halves for final flavour and presentation. And, if desired, feel free to drizzle any remaining melted butter mixture to the finished product for a little extra taste kick.

Remember this is a delicate vegetable, not meat so there is no grease to flare up the LP/gas grill. This is another example of why using SmokinLicious® wood chunks on the diffuser and under the grill grates of your LP/gas unit can generate such exceptional wood-fired flavour. Now, get to your grilled Romaine lettuce and ENJOY!