Grilled Veggies Salad with Grilled Vidalia Onion Dressing

This Grilled Veggies Salad with Grilled Vidalia Onion Dressing is fresh and flavorful, perfect with almost any meal!

 

Easy Veggie Salad With Onion Dressing

This summer feels like it’s been one gathering of friends and family after another, and I absolutely LOVE IT! When we’ve been visiting at my parents and when we’ve hosted meals in our back yard, this grilled veggies salad has graced the table many times.

After seeing this salad for the first time, many guests have commented that they never thought to add grilled vegetables to big leafy greens to make a salad. But after going in for second helpings, I know they’ve been convinced.

Grilled Veggies Salad with Grilled Vidalia Onion Dressing. Give it a try. I think you’ll agree!

* This post is sponsored by the Vidalia® Onion Committee.

A couple years back, the Vidalia® Onion Committee invited me and a number of other bloggers to visit their home in Vidalia, Georgia. To take in the harvest of their prized sweet Vidalia onions, and to learn about their history. I had always loved eating Vidalia onions. How could I say no to that?!

So I booked a flight to Savannah and met up with a friend a day ahead of time to explore this new-to-me city. After 24 hours of eating, shopping, touring…and eating some more…we drove 90 miles west to Vidalia (yes, there is even a town named Vidalia!), to spend a couple days with the Vidalia Onion Committee.

McLain Farms hosted us at their farm (The bag of onions shown above, sent to me this summer, came straight from their farm!), taking our group out into their onion fields and showing us how their fresh produce was harvested and stored, and then shipped around the country. It was an especially great farm experience. To read more about it, just click here.

What Are Vidalia Onions?

Vidalia Onions are available from late April through early September in grocery stores across the country. They are naturally mild and sweet, grown only in the sandy loam soil and mild conditions of Southeast Georgia. Just imagine what the heat of a grill does to enhance the onions’ sweetness, softened and charred by the slow flames.

I gave the softened grilled onion rounds a whirl in the blender, along with a few other ingredients, to create a beautiful homemade dressing. It’s fresh-tasting, with a bit of smokiness from the grill. I also added a bit of tarragon from our herb garden. Do NOT skip the fresh tarragon!

You could make a fancier presentation of this grilled veggies salad with grilled Vidalia onion dressing, but I much prefer the casual assembly on a large sheet pan. It works perfectly for any backyard gathering. Just add a salad tongs for your guests to dig in and enjoy all that wonderful grilled freshness. This is the kind of dish that summer was made for.

Grilled Veggies Salad with Grilled Vidalia Onion Dressing

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

prep time: 10 minutes mins

cook time: 20 minutes mins

total time: 30 minutes mins

This Grilled Veggies Salad with Grilled Vidalia Onion Dressing is fresh and flavorful, perfect with almost any meal!

5 Stars (1 Review)

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Ingredients

For the Grilled Veggies Salad:

• 2 large Vidalia® onions sliced into 1/2″ rounds, divided
• 2 medium zucchini sliced 1/2″ thick on the diagonal
• 2 medium yellow squash sliced 1/2″ thick on the diagonal
• 1 red bell pepper seeded and sliced into 1/2″ rounds
• 1 orange bell pepper seeded and sliced into 1/2″ rounds
• 2 ears sweet corn husked and silk removed
• olive oil
• kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• your favorite sturdy leafy greens
• ½ cup thinly sliced raddichio

For the Grilled Vidalia Onion Dressing:

• 3 large rounds of grilled Vidalia® onions from above, chopped
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
• ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

For the Grilled Veggies Salad:

• Preheat grill to medium to medium-high. Make sure grates are clean, and then oil them well.
• Place rounds of Vidalia onions on a large pan or platter, keeping the slices in tact. Brush both sides lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper, and orange bell pepper on a large pan or platter. Drizzle with olive oil and toss gently to coat evenly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush ears of corn lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place all veggies on hot, oiled grill grates. Let each side of each vegetable sit for a few minutes before turning, until you have nice char marks and just-softened vegetables. The corn will take a bit longer, as the ears have more surface to char. But don't let them sit on the grill too long or the corn kernels will get over cooked and tough.
• Remove all grilled veggies to a large rimmed pan to cool a bit. Using a serrated knife, cut the kernels from the corn cobs.
• To assemble the salad, arrange salad greens on a very large platter or rimmed pan. I like to be super casual for summer grilling and just use an 11" x 17" rimmed pan. Then add grilled onion rounds, zucchini, yellow squash, red bell pepper, and orange bell pepper. Sprinkle salad with radicchio and grilled corn kernels. Sprinkle with additional salt and pepper if desired. Serve with grilled Vidalia onion dressing.

For the Grilled Vidalia Onion Dressing:

• Place all ingredients in a blender and blend on high for two full minutes, or until well blended and emulsified. This dressing keeps well for a few days in the refrigerator.

Notes

from a farmgirl’s dabbles

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 1 Calories: 264kcal Carbohydrates: 30g Protein: 4g Fat: 16g Saturated Fat: 2g Polyunsaturated Fat: 13g Sodium: 357mg Fiber: 4g Sugar: 20g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated by Spoonacular. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee accuracy. If your health depends on nutrition information, please calculate again with your own favorite calculator.

Did you make this recipe?Please leave a comment below. And share a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #afarmgirlsdabbles or tag @farmgirlsdabble!

© Brenda | A Farmgirl’s Dabbles

Cuisine: American

Course: Vegetables

Check out more from Vidalia Onions on their website. You can also find them on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter!

Here are a few more Vidalia Onion recipes you might enjoy:

• Sweet Vidalia Onion and Bacon Packets
• Beer Battered Vidalia Onion Petals from The Little Kitchen
• Burrata Caramelized Onion and Prosciutto Pizza from bell’alimento
• Stout Caramelized Onion Hand Pies from Steele House Kitchen

Thank you to the Vidalia Onion Committee for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own.