Smoked Vegetables

Smoked vegetables in foil are the perfect side dish when using your pellet or electric smoker. Perfectly tender zucchini, squash, mushrooms and other produce cooked in butter in under 30 minutes is our favorite way to cook veggies.

Now that it’s summertime it’s time for some smoked vegetables along side our protein! If you too love easy smoker recipes you’ll love this simple side dish that’s healthy and comes out perfectly tender every time.

Whether you have a pellet grill or electric version it doesn’t really matter. The only big difference is using wood chips versus wood pellets really. Some versions are a grill and smoker, like ours.

Low and slow is the name of the game with this machine. Don’t be in a hurry, it won’t turn out good. This time we didn’t put the veggies right on the grates, instead they kinda’ steamed at first, then opened to get some of the applewood flavor.

How Long to Smoke Vegetables

20-25 minutes works well for us with onions and squash. As for vegetables on the Traeger that are firmer like smoked baked potatoes would take a longer time to cook thru all the way. With those foil is necessary, wrapped individually.

What are the best vegetables to smoke?

We started with How to Smoke Corn on the Cob with Husks and that was great! This time sliced zucchini and squash with mushrooms sounded good and came out tender with a lot of flavor. I stick with these because they’re inexpensive to buy and easy to cook. You can cook anything though really, just the timing would vary.

Tips

I used a mix of zucchini, yellow squash, mushrooms and onions because they were in season and inexpensive. Set on the grill next to our meat it was done and tender at the same time as our Smoked pork steaks. Buttery and delicious together.

It is best to choose items that are in season at the grocery store. Zucchini, squash and whole baby bella or white mushrooms work best. Firmer varieties like carrots and cauliflower wouldn’t work in this. You could easily put those together though and cook longer to get them tender.

I use the same combination when making air fryer vegetables. Reason I really like these is they are cheap, and available year round and cook at the same rate. It’s really easy to throw all of this together in about 15 minutes.

Whether you have an electric Charbroil or one that uses pellets instead of wood the timing or directions won’t make a difference. If yours is small you could use 2 smaller square trays instead of this 9×13″ one so it will fit better. Covered in foil with butter will still take about 20 minutes.

In this time you could cook Traeger smoked chicken thighs at the same time and have an entire delicious dinner done at the same time.

This time we chose to use 9×13″ aluminum pans covered with foil. This won’t bring a smokey flavor to your zucchini and mushrooms but essentially sautés them.

Why bother doing it this way then? Well if we are already making steak then cooking a vegetable alongside it is handy. If I am cooking outside I want it all done together. Makes it easy peasy doing it this way. Stays warm with the foil left on for a fair amount of time and you can season as much or as little as you’d like.

I share below what seasonings we added but that is really entirely up to you. I think that is personal preference. We add garlic salt to literally everything, but Lawry’s is fantastic too.

Play with it and see what’s just right for y’all after you make it a few times. If you diced taters or bell peppers really small I think it would work well too to make smoked vegetables and potatoes.

Can you grill vegetables on a Traeger?

Absolutely you can. If you are going to put them directly on the grate you will need to keep them large so they don’t slide thru. Onions halved will take 12-15 min. Slices set on a grate would be closer to 8 to 10 minutes at 400 degrees, turn them every few minutes. Corn shucked get tender in about 15 to 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Smoking Vegetables in Foil

In this case I used a foil pan with foil on the top for most of the time to steam them to tender. If you didn’t have a pan like this you could use a 9×13″ pan or create a large bowl made of aluminum foil (twice as thick is best) but it can be messier with leaking if not sealed really well.

Cold Smoking Vegetables

Cold smoking is a method that imparts a smoky flavor to vegetables without cooking them. This technique can be used for a variety of vegetables to enhance their flavor. You can use a regular smoker with a cold smoking attachment to do this. You set the temp. to 68 – 87 degrees F.

Then place the vegetables in a single layer on the smoker’s racks or on a mesh tray to allow smoke to circulate evenly around them for 2-4 hours, depending on the intensity of smoke flavor desired. Some produce may require more or less time, so monitor and taste test as you go.

Cooking meat and veggies at the same time is possible as I explained above, and a great idea to boot. A smoked steak is a great one for beef, thighs we love for poultry. I spoke about this earlier, but these are the ingredients you need to get going on this. You could easily include several different varieties of onions. The smaller you slice or dice them the more tender they will get.