Last summer someone told me that if you take a portabello mushroom and marinate it for DAYS, that it’s exceptional grilled. So I tried it, and sure enough. It was just superb.
I began experimenting with stovetop grilling and found that I liked that too!
An even better trick is to create salad-centric meals and apply the marinade concept to meats/veggies as a plan ahead mechanism for ease of preparing summer meals.
( like that word salad – centric ? It’s a mother earth – ism )
Salad – centric meals means meals centered around lots of salad and raw veggies. When it’s this hot it’s the perfect thing. I make a plate of mixed greens, I usually include spinach, a bitter green of some sort; I am on an arugula kick right now and lots of raw veggies – I go for color, texture and variety. Fresh herbs are wonderful if you can clip them from your garden to add accordingly – dill, basil, chive, oregano, mint. parsley, cilantro – yum!
I purchased sirloin tip, cut into steaks at about 6.99 a lb, ( nice inexpensive cut – when marinated this meat is just astounding on the grill and perfect for steak salad. I also bought boneless chicken breasts for a cobb salad, and marinated extra of both to freeze once grilled for added convenience. Lastly I thickly sliced some summer squash to marinate.
I meant to buy a boneless turkey breast, rubbed with a mixture of spices and also cooked on the grill, makes for excellant slicing or cold plate meals later - but I forgot to put it on the list, I’ll give you the rub ingredients anway since I promised it in the post title !!
Why am I saying all of this?
Tonight I prepared 2 marinades, am soaking a bunch of stuff overnight to do a super duper grill off tomorrow so then I will have like 4 meals ready to rock. Or 2 meals to eat and 2 to freeze.
Great way to stay out of the kitchen
Thai Marinade - I use this for the steak – it is applicable to anything really – it’s my favorite – the hot pepper makes if very sassy
1 T fish sauce
juice of one fresh lime
1 T soy
1 T of water
fresh ground black pepper
1 serrano pepper sliced – today i used a red jalepeno
fresh cilantro
3 cloves crushed garlic
mix together, place meat or veggies in a shallow glass dish – never marinate in metal ( why is that ? someone told me that too ) pour over and cover
Citrus Marinade – I used this for the chicken and the summer squash
Juice of an orange
1 T white wine
1 T of soy
3 cloves crushed garlic
fresh ground white pepper
lots freshly grated ginger ( martha tip – keep fresh ginger bits in the freezer in a glass jar – grate when needed – fabulous way to have that fresh grated ginger taste all the time )
Mix together. Again place meat or veggies in shallow glass, pour marinade over and cover.
Spice Rub - I use this for chicken and turkey with the skin on
2 T of sweet paprika
1 teas of chile powder
1 teas of thyme
mix
oil fingers and rub on skin of the meat, rub in dry spices, add crushed garlic and peppers and rub, doing this the night before makes for great flavor – wash hands well, the pepper and chile powder in your eye is way not fun. Making a double batch of the dry spice part of this and keeping it in a jar is a great time saving tip also.
Happy Summer Grilling!
Karen Hanrahan ~ Wellness Educator/Nutritional Consultant/Blog Publisher
708.482.0678 ~ Websites: Nutrition, Weight Loss, and Green Clean
Oh yum! I love trying new marinades. I haven’t tried the portabello one yet but I had the most fabulous porabello sandwich at the Lucky Platter in Evanston. Topped with goat cheese, red pepper, and fried onions (I know, I know) it was heaven. I’m going to try to make that at home this summer.
The secret with the portabello’s is to let it soak for days, those things are like sponges!! I once had them grilled with a navy bean/garlic sortof paste thing, that was surprisingly tasty and perhaps a little less caloric than that yummy goat cheese!! Good luck with your summer grilling and let me know if you enjoy these