Grilled Romaine Lettuce. That's right, Salad on the grill!!!

I got this idea from the NetCookingTalk.com Foruns. I spend a lot of time in their BBQ forum, but they also have a lot of other great sub forums on the site.

Back to the grilled salad. Sounds nuts right? I thought the same thing but a few people tried it on NetCookingTalk and they raved about it. So after grilling burgers and brats for the fam on Mother's Day, I decided to give it a shot. I am extremely happy I did. This will become a regular staple at future GrillinFools cookouts. Something about the combination of the charred flavor, the crispness of the lettuce and the fresh grated Romano cheese that was simply amazing. Click below to see how you can add it to your menu too....


This is so easy that and so incredible. The ingredients?

1 head of Romaine Lettuce
Enough olive oil to slather both sides
1/2 cup of fresh grated Romano (Parm or Asiago could also be used, just nothing from a green can)
Pinch of salt
Couple turns of black pepper
A dusting of granulated garlic

That's it.

Prep and cooking is even easier than compiling the ingredients. Start off with a head of Romaine Lettuce rinsed and dried:

Slice the Romaine in two length wise and pull away the few leaves that will separate when you slice it:

Drizzle liberally with olive oil and put a little coarse salt, fresh cracked black pepper and dust with granulated garlic:

Repeat on the other side:

Grate about a half cup of a hard cheese like Asiago, Parmesian, or Romano. In this case I used Romano:

Now off to the grill:

You didn't think that all I made was grilled lettuce did you? We did burgers and brats as well. The lettuce thing was just something I wanted to try. But I think I lose all credibility as a serious griller if I don't show some meet on the pit. Brats, resting in a beer bath:

Burgers:

Place the Romaine right over the hot side of the grill. This doesn't need to be high heat for say searing a steak. Medium hot is about all it needs:

This only takes a couple of minutes so keep checking the underside. Look for the lettuce to blacken a bit. A nice char is the desired result without having the lettuce wilt too much under the heat:

After about 2-3 minutes on each side I now have a nice char on both sides of both halves:

Now, place on a platter, sprinkle the cheese on and eat:

This was devoured in pretty short order by about 5 or 6 people. All those that were sort of chuckling at the notion of grilling lettuce raved about it. This may be the perfect side to go with a steak. Once the steak is pulled off to rest, throw the lettuce on. The steak, depending on thickness, should be perfectly rested when your grilled salad is ready to be plated.