Grilled Romaine with Vegan Ranch

We love this grilled romaine salad topped with charred corn, crispy chickpeas, avocado, tomatoes and homemade vegan ranch dressing. Grilled lettuce might sound odd, but the flame transforms this often-boring veggie into something totally new we think you'll love!

Jump to:

• 🥬 Why We Love This Recipe
• 🥗 Ingredients
• 📋 Ingredient Notes
• 🔪 Step-by-step Instructions
• 💭 Expert Tips and FAQs
• 🍽 Related Recipes
• 📖 Recipe

🥬 Why We Love This Recipe

• Unique way to serve romaine: Grilling romaine really elevates a normally boring ingredient, giving it additional flavor and texture. I know it sounds strange, but it's totally delicious! As someone that almost never uses romaine in regular salads, I'm absolutely hooked on this grilled romaine.
• Homemade dressing: Homemade vegan ranch is pretty easy to whip up with just a few basic ingredients, and it tastes much fresher than the bottled stuff. You can also use it as a dip for veggies, on other salads or even on pizza!
• Customizable: Grilled romaine makes for a great (and sturdy) platform for toppings, so feel free to take our recipe as a suggestion and top the romaine with whatever you like best!

🥗 Ingredients

Here's everything you'll need to make this grilled romaine salad with vegan ranch:

📋 Ingredient Notes

• Romaine lettuce: Other hearty lettuces, like radicchio or endive, with a strong core and thicker leaves, would also grill up well and add some nice colors to a grilled salad. However, we chose romaine for it's grill-ability and size, which helps to hold a lot of toppings.
• Homemade vegan ranch: If you're feeling lazy, you can sub out for regular store-bought ranch, but it won't taste as good. We used a cashew-based dairy free yogurt, but any type will do. You could even sub for regular yogurt if you don't have a dairy allergy.
• Crispy chickpeas: This is a key ingredient as they add a much-needed crunch to our salad. You can probably find these in the snack section of your grocery store, or you can make them from scratch.

🔪 Step-by-step Instructions

PREP: Preheat your grill to medium.

(1) Brush both sides of the romaine halves with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

(2) Grill romaine for about 5 minutes per side, watching carefully, until the lettuce is slightly charred. Grill the corn at the same time. You can wrap the corn in foil or leave it unwrapped - just be sure to watch it carefully.

(3) Whisk or blend all of the dressing ingredients together until combined.

(4) Lay grilled romaine halves cut-side up on a serving platter and top with grilled corn, diced avocado, cherry tomatoes, crispy chickpeas and vegan ranch dressing.

💭 Expert Tips and FAQs

• Grilling tips:
  • Preheat your grill to medium - this will be hot enough to char your leaves without wilting them.
  • We like taking 3-4 paper towels, spraying/lightly soaking them with canola oil, and rubbing them over the grates of the grill with a pair of tongs. This will help to prevent sticking. Y
  • our goal is to warm the romaine thoroughly while creating some charring on the leaves. This should take about 5 minutes per side. The outer leaves should be a bit crispy and browned.
• Be sure to dry your romaine thoroughly after washing, as it can retain a lot of water. If it's too moist, it won't get super crispy.
• Add-ons: We opted for corn, avocado, tomatoes, and some fresh herbs, but feel free to customize with your favorite grilled or fresh summer veggies. Just be sure to add a crunch element or else the textures can be too similar. Grilled zucchini, red onion, etc would all be great! This grilled romaine is also delicious served plain with the ranch.
• Storage: this grilled romaine salad is definitely best served fresh. It will wilt and get soggy the longer it sits, so we recommend waiting to grill and add toppings until just before serving. Luckily, it only takes about 10 minutes to grill!

🍽 Related Recipes

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