How to grill vegetables and toss them in Isaac Toups’ bacon vinaigrette

Want to make your vegetables taste better and have your friends love you? Char the hell out of some on the grill and then toss them in a bacon vinaigrette, using this recipe from my cookbook “Chasing the Gator: Isaac Toups and the New Cajun Cooking.”

These are vegetables so unhealthy a Cajun might actually eat them.

You can do this dish year-round with whatever is in season: eggplant and zucchini, radishes, green beans, radicchio or others. If the vegetable is sliceable, slice it. If it’s broccoli or cauliflower, cut into quarter-size florets; if green beans, leave them whole.

Grilled Garden Vegetables with Bacon Vinaigrette

From the cookbook “Chasing the Gator,” by Isaac Toups and Jennifer V. Cole

Servings: 4

Ingredients

8 slices thick-cut bacon

5 cloves garlic, peeled

3 anchovy filets

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 pound assorted vegetables, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Preheat the grill to high (about 500°F). Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Place the bacon slices on a rimmed baking sheet and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the bacon is crispy. Remove the bacon and reserve the baking sheet with the rendered fat. Crumble the bacon and set aside.

In a blender, combine the garlic, anchovies, and vinegar and put the lid on. Turn the blender on and slowly drizzle in the canola oil. This is never going to be a fully emulsified vinaigrette, so don’t fret if it looks like it’s breaking. Add the reserved bacon fat (about 1 1/2 tablespoons, but if you have more from cooking your bacon, just toss it all in) and keep the blender buzzing for 5 seconds to combine all the ingredients. Keep warm. I like to put it in a metal container, like a mixing bowl, and keep it by the grill while I cook the vegetables. The vinaigrette doesn’t need to be hot, just not too cold because the bacon fat will congeal if you let it.

In a large bowl or on a rimmed baking sheet, toss the vegetables with the salt, pepper, pepper flakes and olive oil. Place the vegetables on the hot grill in a single layer and cook on each side for about 2 minutes. They should char on the outside while keeping the crunch or snap of fresh crudités. They should be really crispy and charred, not all wimpy and overcooked; high heat is key here. Remove the vegetables from the grill and put in a nonreactive bowl.

Toss the grilled vegetables in the bacon vinaigrette. Top with the crumbled bacon. Serve.

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Isaac Toups has four times been named a James Beard Best Chef of the South semi-finalist or finalist since opening Toups’ Meatery in New Orleans in 2012 with his wife, Amanda. He was named an Eater Young Gun of the South, Eater New Orleans’ Chef of the Year, and appears on Top Chef. He is a passionate advocate for the protection of America’s wetlands. Jennifer V. Cole spent nearly a decade at Southern Living magazine, where she served as deputy editor and wrote annual restaurant lists. Her writing appears in food and lifestyle publications.

Excerpted from “Chasing the Gator” by Isaac Toups and Jennifer V. Cole. Copyright (copyright) 2018 by Isaac Toups. Used with permission of Voracious, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. New York, NY. All rights reserved.