Easy Veggie Kabobs

Kabobs are an easy summertime favorite, grilled or roasted, veggie kabobs are great for any occasion. They’re especially great on #meatlessmonday or to go with a salad or other grilled goods.

There are so many names for food on a stick. Different regions of the world have their names. Like shish kabobs, kebab, satay, shaokao, kushiyaki just to name a few. 

If there is anything that China taught me, it’s that you can put almost anything on a stick and grill it. Obviously within reason. 

Summertime in China was so much fun. Morning markets where you didn’t have to wear a heavy coat were refreshing. The nightlife included crowds of older ladies dancing in sync on the side of the road or in a park with loud clanging music. It also meant watermelon stands where you could buy a chunk of watermelon and share it with a friend. However, the absolute best part of summer was Shaokao or Chuan(r) — (pronounced – chw-are – that is my attempt to tell you how it’s said, but Northern China has a heavy accent and it is endearing). 

Shaokao (Chinese: 燒烤, shāo kǎo)

We’ll simply call the Chinese shao kao restaurants BBQ restaurants. You’d sit at tables outside that were not level, on chairs that were a little wonky, possibly under blue tarps to stay in the shade. There was a long list of items you could buy and usually our orders looked something like this: 

10 – Beef (牛肉) 
10 – Lamb (羊肉)
10 – Dried tofu rolls with spring onion inside
10 – Garlic shoots
2 – Eggplants
4 – Mushrooms
4 – Mantou (Chinese bread)
4 – Leafy greens (called You Mai Cai)

This would feed about 2-3 people.

We’d watch the man BBQ our food. It wasn’t anything like a grill you’d be used to. It was kind of like if you took a 10 ft long metal box just wide enough to rest skewers on, cut off the top, filled it with smoldering charcoal and had fans blowing. The summer vibe in our city included men rolling up their t-shirts and tucking the roll under their armpits, thus their belly would hang out. It was no different for the BBQ pit master. Also, there were no OSHA regulations so, flip flops were also normal footwear. 

We’d get the food on metal trays covered with a plastic bag and dig in. You’d either pull the goods off the skewer with your teeth or use chopsticks. We really didn’t add any sauces, because the spices used on the BBQ were perfect. 

Is this a Chinese Recipe?

Nope. What I wrote above gives a little background on why I love to make kabobs. That is all. The kabob options are almost limitless. I hope you enjoy the combo in this recipe.

What to serve these with

While veggie kabobs could be the main dish, I highly recommend pairing them with some sort of protein. Perhaps you’d enjoy these along with some grilled meat like this lemon oregano grilled chicken. You could also serve these with a scrumptious salad or with some grilled sausage.

Preparing Veggie Kabobs

If you’re using bamboo skewers, you’ll want to soak the skewers in water for at least 30 minutes if not longer. This will prevent the skewers from burning and falling apart on the grill (if you cook these on a grill).

For the ingredients on the veggie kabobs, you want to cut them into uniform sizes so that they’ll cook evenly.

For this recipe I chose to only use vegetables:

• Mushrooms
• Colored Bell Pepper
• Zucchini
• Garlic
• Green Onions (optional) 
• For the marinade, Garlic Basil Oil

Ways to cook kabobs

There are many ways that you could cook kabobs.

Grill

Ideally, you’d use a grill. The instructions in the recipe are for using the grill. Turn the grill on to medium and allow it to preheat (to about 350°F). Place the prepared kabobs on the grill and grill on each side for 7-8 minutes, until golden brown.

Once you remove the kabobs from the heat, lightly drizzle or brush basil garlic oil over each kabob.

Oven

I’ve got two options for the oven. They both involve roasting at 450°F. Either place the prepared and marinated veggie kabobs on a baking sheet and roast for about 7-10 minutes on each side until brown. Or place a wire rack on a baking sheet then lay the kabobs on the wire rack so they are evenly cooked all around. No flipping necessary with this second method. For the second method, roast for 15-20 minutes until golden brown on the edges.
Once you remove the kabobs from the heat, lightly drizzle or brush basil garlic oil over each kabob.

Stove Top / Griddle

If you’re only working with a stove top, you can totally make them this way. The only trick is, you’ll need a frying pan large enough. Perhaps you have a griddle that covers two burners on the stove. That would be sufficient lengthwise. Otherwise, you could carefully trim your skewers to a length that would fit in a frying pan you have.

On Med-high cook on both sides until fully cooked. About 5-7 minutes on each side. Allow them to brown.

Once you remove the kabobs from the heat, lightly drizzle or brush basil garlic oil over each kabob.

For THM friends, this is an (S)

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Easy Veggie Kabobs

Super easy summer veggie kabobs with low carb vegetables. With a basil garlic marinade you can't go wrong with these. Make them for dinner, for a bbq, or simply meal prep with these. Low carb, keto, THM-S – vegetarian, vegan, GF

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Servings: 4

Calories: 136kcal

Ingredients

• 4 cloves of garlic each sliced in 3-4 pieces
• Green onions optional
• 1 orange bell pepper
• 8 oz mushrooms quartered
• 2 Zucchini
• 12 bamboo skewers or metal
• 1 tsp avocado oil
• Basil for garnish
• 3 tbsp basil garlic oil recipe link below

Instructions

• Soak bamboo skewers in water for approx 30 minutes to 1 hr.
• Preheat the grill to 350°F.
• Remove skewers from water and drizzle oil over the portion of the skewer you’ll put the vegetables on. This helps to make loading the skewers easy.
• Chop bell pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms into bite-sized pieces. Slice garlic cloves in fourths.
• Load skewers with whatever design you’d like.
• Drizzle 2 tbsp basil garlic oil be sure to lightly coat each side.
• Grill on each side for 7-8 minutes.
• Remove from heat and drizzle 1 additional tbsp of basil garlic oil over the kabobs.
• Garnish with fresh basil (optional)
• Serve warm.

Notes

Note: Prep and cooking time does not include the time to soak the bamboo skewers. 

Find the Basil Garlic Oil recipe here.

**Alternative cooking methods are included in the original blog post**

Nutrition facts include the Basil Garlic oil. 

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