So, is grilled food healthy? Generally speaking, the answer is: yes. When done in the right way, grilling is a good cooking method to achieve a balanced and healthy diet. But it does require a certain set of rules to achieve optimum tasting, nutritional foods.

• Choose lean meat over processed meats. Try and avoid meats such as sausages or burgers, as they often contain lots of fat, salt, and additives.
  
• Instead of buying pre-marinated meat, prepare a homemade, healthy marinade. You’ll find some tasty recipe ideas below.
  
• Try grilling a tasty fish or crunchy vegetables more often. These are a great alternative to meat.
  
• Avoid burning the meat. While experts are unsure about the effects of acrylamide in humans (a substance produced naturally in foods due to high-temperature cooking), they do recommend that we reduce the levels of acrylamide in foods.†
  
• Consider using smoke-less appliances, such as an indoor grill or an air fryer. These allow you to enjoy evenly browned food that stays tender without burning.
  
  

By following these rules and considering alternative technologies, creating healthy grill recipes can be a delicious way to cook healthy food.

So, you’ve decided to have a meat-free evening – now all you need are some tasty grilled vegetable recipes to show you how to serve them the healthy way. Learning how to grill veggies is pretty straight forward: all you need are fresh vegetables and a hot, good quality grill. Pre-marinade the vegetable and you’re on your way to a wholesome, flavoursome meal!

Here are some of our favourite marinade recipes for different grilled vegetable ideas, such as zucchini, corn, eggplant, mushrooms or whatever else you have on hand.

Smoked-paprika-marinade  

• 3 branches thyme
  
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika powder (or sweet paprika powder)
  
• 1 garlic clove
  
• 1 tsp chili flakes
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• Salt and pepper to taste
  
  

Lemon-ginger-marinade

• 1 stalk of lemon grass
  
• 2 stems fresh coriander
  
• 1 piece of ginger
  
• 1 garlic clove
  
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
  
• 1 tbsp lime juice
  
  

Honey-mustard-marinade

• 3 branches thyme
  
• 2 tbsp olive oil
  
• 1 tsp honey
  
• 1 tsp grainy mustard  
  
• 1 garlic clove
  
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
  
• Salt and pepper to taste