Shish Kabobs are a favorite entree to cook on the grill. The combination of meat and veggies, particularly if you have marinated them ahead of time gives you a dish bursting with flavor. It's a colorful dish, so it looks great as well.
I cooked this version a couple of days ago and was done a bit differently than I had done shish kebabs before. Here's the recipe, then I'll tell you what was different and some recommendations.
- Marinade
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1/3 cup beef broth
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (or use 1 tbsp dry if that's what you have)
- 2 tsp grated lemon zest
- 1 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp pepper
- Beef and Vegetables
- 2 lbs sirloin tips, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
- 1 large zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1 1/2 inch thick slices
- 1 large red pepper, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
- 1 large red or sweet onion, halved lengthwise, then cut into 4 wedges, then cut crosswise into halves
- If using wooden skewers, start them soaking in water (mine burned after soaking for 30 minutes, so you may want longer)
- Put all the marinade ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Keep 3/4 cup of the marinade aside to use with the veggies.
- Put the rest of the marinade and the meat into a gallon zip-lock bag and toss around to coat everything.
- Refrigerate for 2 hours (I found 1 hour to be not enough). Flip bag over every 30 minutes.
- Add the veggies to the bowl with the reserved marinade and toss.
- Cover and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- After the two hours, remove the beef from the bag an thread onto skewers. After threading, use paper towels to pat dry.
- On separate skewers, thread the veggies, alternating the pattern (looks great if you do that!)
- Cook the meat skewers on the grill over higher heat and the veggies over lower heat areas.
- Cook for about 14-16 minutes, turning skewers every 3-4 minutes.
- After the meat is done, remove it and cover it with a foil tent.
- Cook the veggies for another 5 minutes.
- Remove, and serve with the beef.
So the two things that were different were putting the beef and veggies on separate skewers, allowing them to cook at different temperatures. I know it's fun and looks cool to cook them on the same skewers, but they'll cook better separately. The tomato paste and beef broth in the marinade will help ramp up the flavor, but make sure you let it marinate for enough time. The marinade needs time to work.
By the way, if you just wanted to do these as veggie kebabs, that would work great too. You could add a summer squash, a green peppers, and small red potatoes to the vegetables and you would have a great veggie kebab!
A video of me cooking the beef kebabs is coming soon.
Here it is:
Enjoy!
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