Easy Grilled Vegetables

June. The longest days. Portland stretching its evenings like a cat in a sunbeam, slow and luxurious and warm. I sit on the balcony after Miya goes to bed and watch the sky turn colors I do not have names for — the particular pink-gold that happens at nine PM in the Pacific Northwest, the light that seems to come from inside the sky rather than from the sun. The beauty is so consistent it becomes background, and I have to remind myself to see it, to not take it for granted, to notice that the sky is doing something extraordinary because extraordinary becomes ordinary when it happens every night.

I made natsu yasai no nimono — summer vegetable simmered dish — using eggplant, zucchini, okra, and shishito peppers from the farmers market, simmered in Fumiko's dashi-soy broth until tender and glossy. It is a lighter nimono than the winter version, appropriate for evenings when the air is warm and the appetite wants something gentle. The vegetables hold the broth, each bite releasing a small pool of savory liquid. I ate it on the balcony with rice and thought about nimono as a concept — the slow yielding of hard things to warm liquid, the transformation of raw to tender, the patience that the process demands. I am a nimono. The grief is the broth. The years are the heat. The tenderness is coming.

One year since Fumiko died. The anniversary is not a date on the calendar — it was a Tuesday in June, I know the day but I do not mark it, because marking it implies that the grief is annual when the grief is daily. Every day is the anniversary. Every bowl of miso soup is the memorial. The Tuesday in June when the phone rang and Ken's voice said the words is not more significant than the Tuesday last week when I made dashi and the smell was exactly right and I reached for the phone to call her and remembered, again, that the phone is a dead line now. Every remembering is the anniversary. Every forgetting is the anniversary. Every time the hand reaches for the phone and stops, that is the day she died.

I did not write a blog post about the anniversary. Some grief is not for the blog. Some grief stays in the kitchen, in the steam, in the chipped bowl, in the silence between meals. The blog gets the recipes. The kitchen gets the tears. Both hold what they can hold.

The natsu yasai no nimono I made that evening was Fumiko’s method — her dashi-soy broth, her patience, her way of watching the vegetables rather than the clock. When I want to make something in that same spirit but without the weight of ritual, I turn to grilled summer vegetables: the same cast of characters from the farmers market, treated simply, allowed to go soft and sweet over heat. It is not nimono. But it is the same impulse — take what summer gives you, apply warmth, wait for tenderness.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

1 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
1 medium eggplant, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
1 red bell pepper, cut into wide strips
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into wide strips
1 red onion, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
8 oz cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar (optional, for finishing)

Instructions

Preheat the grill. Heat an outdoor grill or grill pan over medium-high heat. Lightly oil the grates to prevent sticking.
Season the vegetables. Combine olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme in a large bowl. Add all vegetables and toss until evenly coated.
Grill in batches. Arrange vegetables in a single layer on the grill. Cook eggplant and zucchini 3–4 minutes per side until grill marks appear and flesh is tender. Cook peppers and onion 4–5 minutes per side. Grill mushrooms 2–3 minutes per side.
Rest and finish. Transfer grilled vegetables to a serving platter as they finish. If using, drizzle with balsamic vinegar while still warm. Let rest 5 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to settle.
Serve. Serve warm alongside rice, crusty bread, or as a side to grilled proteins. These are also excellent at room temperature the next day.

Nutrition (per serving)

Easy Grilled Vegetables — The Slow Yielding of Hard Things