Barbequed Calabacitas with Corn and Tomatoes Recipe

Ready for Labor Day BBQ? Our All-American Cooking Camp includes this Barbequed Calabacitas recipe.  We always prepare a Santa Fe Fiesta as our celebration meal on the last day of class.  Everyone is surprised by how yummy this combination of vegetables tastes.  We serve it with a pot of pinto beans, tortillas, salsa and guacamole.  If you are having a Labor Day Barbeque, this Barbequed Calabacitas recipe would also be really good as a side dish to barbequed chicken or flank steak.

- Laurie Zerga
Founder, Chef-K Inc.

Barbequed Calabacitas with Corn and Tomatoes Recipe

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 medium onion, peeled and sliced into eighths
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 3 yellow summer squash (Calabacitas), washed and sliced into 1” wedges
• 3 small zucchini squash, washed and sliced into 1” wedges
• 1 small bunch of green onions, sliced
• 1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels (about 2 ears of fresh corn)
• 2 mild green chilies, roasted, peeled & seeded, cut into pieces
• 4 Roma tomatoes, quartered and seeded
• ¼ tsp salt and pepper (or to taste)

Directions

1. Start Barbeque 1 hour before serving dinner, it should take 20 minutes to ½ hour to get coals to white hot stage.  Place grill over coals.
2. Take 2X 12” length of aluminum foil.  You can also put this in a grill pan instead.
3. Note:  Depending on width of foil, it may be necessary to create two packets of 4 X 12” length of foil.
4. Cross two sheets of foil over each other to make a “t”.
5. Drizzle olive oil over top layer of foil.
6. Layer vegetables over top layer of foil, add salt and pepper to taste.
7. Dot the vegetables with pieces of butter.
8. Bring two ends of top layer of foil together and roll down to vegetables creating a package.
9. Take remaining two ends of foil from lower layer and roll down completing package.  The vegetables should be completely sealed within the foil.  If needed add foil to seal package.
10. When the coals are ready; place the package on grill.  Let the package cook over coals for 30 minutes, turning once after 15 minutes. When ready, the vegetables should be tender.

Note:  Experiment with different vegetable combinations, such as different kinds of mild peppers, green beans, potatoes or acorn squash in the winter.  Chili powder, or cumin, or dried marjoram, sage or thyme can be added for flavoring as well.  Add grated jack or cheddar cheese instead of the butter.  For lower calories eliminate butter or cheese and use a little chicken stock for moisture (a couple of tablespoons in the packets – up to ½ cup if using a roasting pan as described below)

As an alternative, the vegetables can be placed in a roasting pan and cooked in a pre-heated oven at 400˚F.  Cover the roasting pan with foil.  Cooking time is approximately 40 minutes.

If you Like this, please Follow us and Share this with your friends. Also, we'd love to hear from you, leave a comment below.