Cooking for Vegetarians at a Barbecue

Treat vegetables as the main event

Charcoal does remarkable things to vegetables: it chars, sweetens and adds smoke that you cannot get indoors. Dense, sugary vegetables take real fire and become genuinely exciting rather than a consolation. Cook them with the same care you give the meat and nobody feels short-changed.

Things that grill brilliantly

• Whole cauliflower or thick cauliflower steaks, charred and dressed.
• Halloumi, the one cheese that holds up on a skewer.
• Aubergines and peppers cooked directly in the embers for baba ganoush and romesco.
• Corn, charred hard and dressed elote style.
• Cabbage wedges, cooked through then blackened.
• Portobello mushrooms, marinated and grilled gill side up in a bun.

Keep it separate

If you have committed vegetarians, cook their food on a clean part of the grate or a foil tray, away from where the meat juices run. It is a small courtesy that matters to people who do not eat meat, and it takes no extra effort to plan.

Dress hard

Vegetables are a blank canvas, so season and dress them boldly: tahini and lemon, chilli and garlic, herbs, good olive oil, a sharp yoghurt. A charred vegetable with a generous dressing is a proper dish, not a garnish.