Something about the warmer days makes me want to eat cleaner and lighter. I've had more and more tendencies to pick out my favorite foods from the Mediterranean 'cuisine' lately, with a focus on grilled chicken, olives, tomatoes, feta cheese, greek dressing, etc. So at home we were inspired to add our own twist onto an easy fan favorite: kebabs.
Actually, the reason we did this was because we found these awesome bamboo skewers (an essential!) and the rest of the dish sort of worked around it. Our kebabs had a variety of vegetables, including red onions (my favorite), grilled red pepper, zucchini, squash, cherry tomatoes, and even baby red potatoes. Our variety of ingredients was inspired my a nearby Mediterranean restaurant who has a similar dish. We used our own seasonings and spontaneously threw in other stuff (like the red potatoes, which I would probably cook separately next time). It was fun to watch it cook and turn out so great...except when you stab your index finger on your skewer.
One completely new thing I have never done before: prepare and grill my own shrimp. I decided to experiment a bit and make some grilled shrimp kebabs in the mix, and they turned out fantastic. I ended up making only one kebab because I was a little worried I would screw it up, but it turned out SO delicious that I wish I made more!
I would say the preparation piece (~20min) of this dish is key (especially with the business of peeling and disemboweling shrimp, EW). Besides the cutting of vegetables, it would be really fun to do a build-your-own sort of station and have each person create their own serving of what they'd like. The grilling portion takes maybe 10 minutes. It's seriously so light and perfect to accompany a salad, pesto flatbread, or eat over a bed of rice pilaf or quinoa. We had all of the above, and it was a nice and easy, light meal.
Firing up the grill so early makes me just that more excited that spring (and soon, summer!) is here. Happy kebabing :)
ciao, xo
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