Being summertime, the perfect time for standing over a barbecue grill in Florida (right), it was high time to throw on the flames that honkin’ piece of… mushroom?

When your carnivore-loving guests exclaim “Who needs meat?!” at your vegetarian barbecue, you’ve probably been pretty successful at cooking up some tasty dishes from the grill.

And if you’ve successfully paired wine with those dishes (because, of course, these are also fermented grape-loving guests), then you’ve got admirers for life. They probably won’t give up meat for good, but at least you’ve given them a new appreciation for the herbivore life.

Being the only vegetarian Swirl Girl, I had told you when we kicked off this blog I wanted to explore vegetarian wine pairings and give the ol’ filet/cabernet a run for its status as a swoon-inducing marriage.

So we got the party started at the “Earthy” casa recently, splitting heads of lettuce, slurping summery soup and slicing meaty mushrooms. And just in time to share our results with you for summer’s final grillin’ hurrah – the Labor Day weekend.

Be very afraid, carnivores.

I found so many enticing recipes in my collection of cookbooks, I had a hard time narrowing my list of what to cook, so I ended with five on the evening’s menu. On top of that, because I wanted all my guests to go home with a full belly, I told the meat eaters I wouldn’t subject them to a meal based solely on “rabbit food” and they could bring their choice of protein to throw on the grill.

Chilled roasted yellow pepper and mango soup

Swirl Girl “Dry” Gwen made our first course – a chilled roasted pepper and mango soup. The recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of hot sauce, and although she was light-handed with the “death” hot sauce in her cupboard, this sauce is not for the “one star” preference. The heat was a little too predominant over the sweet, rich flavors of yellow peppers and mango, and guest Tiffini aptly described the soup as bringing you to the “edge of pain.” (This, despite the extra dollup of sour cream added.)

However, to soothe that pain was a 2008 Cave de Genouilly Bourgogne Aligoté ($14.99), a white wine from Burgundy, France. Many would think that white grape + Burgundy = chardonnay, but a lesser known grape, and one usually used for blending, is the aligoté.

It was perfect for taming the heat and played well against the sweet and spicy flavors of the soup. It is light in body and fruity, yet dry on the palate, and can definitely be classified as an easy-drinking, refreshing summer wine. Despite that fiery overtone, we all immensely enjoyed the cool, flavorful soup, and declared this first course a great culinary kick-off.

Since first tasting the 2007 Zolo Torrontés ($11.99) at an event at ABC Fine Wine, I’d been saving the bottle I bought that night for a special occasion in which I could introduce friends to what I think is a fabulous find.

Grilled romaine hearts meet white grape torrontés! (These two became fast friends, dare I say lovers?)

Yes, the second course did indeed involve putting lettuce on the grill. Just the sound of this recipe was too intriguing to pass up putting it on the menu.

Gwen (right), her fiancee Mario and Tiffini taste the torrontés during the salad course.

After just 20 seconds of flame on each side of a romaine heart that’s been cut lengthwise, you’ve got wilted edges and a warm-on-the-outside, cool-on-the-inside salad. Drizzle a buttermilk, roasted garlic dressing on top, finish with a sprinkle of Manchego cheese, and you’ve got the means for drifting on a culinary cloud just outside of heaven.

And if you need a silver lining for that cloud, it’s in the torrontés. The group found tropical fruit and honey aromas, and a fruitier, fuller body than the aligoté. Gwen even detected lychee on the palate.

Mr. Swirl Girl “Bold” (Lynn’s husband, Scott) thought it was a delicious wine by itself but that it paired very well with the salad. Tiffini commented on its creamy consistency and rich feel in mouth. Which probably explains why it paired so beautifully with the creamy dressing.

I felt like a beaming matchmaker. For me, this pairing was divine! The grilling brought depth to the romaine with its smoky flavor, and, in turn, the lettuce, with its acidic dressing, brought the wine flavors forward.

Now that I had my carnivore friends around my little finger like a lettuce wrap, it was time to unveil the main courses.

In my cookbook, there’s not much else better than eggplant on the grill (except mushrooms – more on that later). I found quite a few different marinades, but the one that intrigued me the most was the Asian glaze.

The thing I like most about grilling vegetables, heck, the thing I love most about just plain grilling is that it’s easy! These next courses prove the point.

Start with half-inch thick slices of eggplant drizzled with olive oil, infuse it with that grilled flavor, baste with a glaze of orange, ginger, mirin, miso, honey and soy sauce, and then send back to the flame for another minute. Sounds exotic, huh?

The eggplant itself was a hit, as was the Beaujolais that I paired, but this was one match that was not made from above.

We sipped the slightly chilled 2007 Domaine Pignard Beaujolais ($11.99) and once again found an easy-drinking, light wine. Made from the gamay grape, it was full of berries on the nose and palate, dry and finished short.

But we thought the wine did not enrich the dish, as the previous pairings had. To be honest, this recipe was the one that stumped me the most as far as finding a complementary wine. I wasn’t sure what would be predominant on the taste buds – the smoky eggplant or the Asian glaze.

Upon a suggestion to pair with the eggplant and smoke, I was encouraged to pick a light red wine and thus came up with the Beaujolais. We thought the underlying discord was the citrus in the glaze not being a match for the wine. While it wasn’t a bad combination – one that would make you stop eating or stop drinking – we agreed it wasn’t ideal.

Perhaps on the next go-around I’ll try the alternative and pair the Asian flavors with a Gewürztraminer or riesling.

Stay tuned for the rest of this delectable meal in Part 2!

RECIPES

Chilled Roasted Pepper and Mango Soup

3 yellow peppers, halved
½ cup vegetable broth
2 medium mangoes, peeled and sliced
1 cup mango nectar
juice of 1 large lime
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 tsp hot sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
dash of cayenne pepper
sour cream for garnish
3 tbsp fresh mint, chopped

Place peppers on hot grill, skin side down. Cook for about 5 minutes per side or until slightly charred. Place in plastic or paper bag and let steam for 15 minutes. Skin with paring knife and slice into quarters.
In blender or food processor, puree yellow peppers, add broth and puree until smooth. Add mangoes and puree. Add nectar, lime juice, ginger, hot sauce, rice vinegar and cayenne pepper and blend well. (You can puree in batches.)
Strain through sieve into large bowl, pressing pulp and solids to extract all liquid. Discard pulp. Cover and chill soup 1 to 2 hours. Serve with dollop of sour cream and garnish with mint.

– from Florida’s Backyard, by Carrie Hanna

Grilled Romaine Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing

1 head of garlic, top third sliced off and discarded
1 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
¼ cup buttermilk
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
salt and freshly ground pepper
4 romaine hearts, halved lengthwise
3 oz Manchego cheese, shaved (1 cup)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the garlic cut side up on a double sheet of foil and drizzle with oil. Wrap the garlic in the foil and bake until very soft, 1 hour. Let cool.
Light a grill. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their peels into a blender. Add the buttermilk and lemon juice and blend to a puree. With the machine on, slowly pour in the 1 cup of oil until blended. Season the roasted garlic dressing with salt and pepper.
Drizzle the cut side of the romaine hearts with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill the romaine over high heat, cut side down, until charred in spots, about 20 seconds. Turn the romaine over and grill for 20 seconds longer. Transfer the hearts to a serving platter, cut side up. Drizzle the roasted garlic dressing over the romaine, sprinkle with the shaved Manchego and serve right away.

– from Food and Wine Annual 2008

Grilled Eggplant with Sweet Asian Glaze

Cooking spray
2 to 3 large eggplants, stems removed, sliced lengthwise into large ½-inch thick ovals, soaked in salt water if bitter
2 to 4 tsp mild vegetable oil, such as corn, canola, peanut
1 orange
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and minced
¼ cup mirin (Japanese rice wine) or dry sherry
¼ cup golden or white miso
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp tamari or shoyu soy sauce

Clean and then spray the grill with cooking spray. Preheat the grill to high, then lower the heat to medium.
Lightly brush the cut sides of the eggplants with the oil. Place on the grill, cover, and grill until the eggplants are medium-tender and grill-marked on one side, 8 to 10 minutes. Using tongs, carefully turn the eggplant slices and grill until very tender, another 8 to 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, grate the rind from about half the orange and place in a small bowl. Cut the orange in half and squeeze the juice in over the rind, removing the seeds. Stir in the ginger, mirin, miso, honey and tamari to make a thin paste. Very lightly brush the grilled eggplant with the orange glaze. Turning the tongs, brush the second side more heavily. Cover the grill and cook until the eggplant is very tender and the under side is deep golden brown, but not burned, 2 more minutes. Serve immediately.

– from Passionate Vegetarian, by Crescent Dragonwagon

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