My dad came over when I was in the middle of making these kabobs a few weeks ago. I was excited because Paige was crawling all over and well, a babysitter had arrived! haha. Anyway, he said, “Kabobs? What a pain”. I had to agree, but these kabobs really weren’t that hard to prepare, quite honestly. Also, there is always the option of preparing your ingredients (the meats, the veggies) and then allowing your guests to skew their own kabobs (after all, that’s the most tedious part!).
I marinated everything the night before preparing the kabobs. That was simple, see the recipe below. I was at first planning on having our guests make their own kabobs but I just got in a rhythm and starting skewing away. I also really wanted to take a blog photo, of course.
Summer Kabobs
Ingredients
- STEAK (“Dijon Rosemary”):
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary, stemmed
- 4 cloves garlic, minced **
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound sirloin steak, cut into 1-inch cubes
- CHICKEN (“Citrus Tarragon”)
- 1 orange, juiced, remainder discarded
- 1 lemon, juiced, remainder discarded
- 1 lime, juiced, remainder discarded
- 4 cloves garlic, minced **
- 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup oil oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
- VEGETABLES:
- 4-cups of your favorite vegetables, chopped to somewhat equal size pieces; Onions**, Cherry Tomatoes, Mushrooms **, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Eggplant, Boiled Baby Potatoes
- ¼ cup balsamic vinaigrette, any brand **
Instructions
- If using wooden skewers, soak them for a couple hours in water to prevent them from catching fire.
- Whisk together all of the Dijon-rosemary steak marinade ingredients in a bowl. Toss the steak in the mixture until evenly coated. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
- Whisk together all of the citrus-tarragon chicken marinade ingredients in a bowl. Toss the chicken in the mixture until evenly coated. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight.
- Cut the vegetables and pour vinaigrette over them to evenly coat. Allow to sit for at least 2-hours, or overnight.
- After all ingredients have marinated for proper time, start to put them on skewers (or have your guests do it!) There is no right or wrong way to do this. Once they are ready, grill directly over heat source for about 10-15 minutes, turning ¼ rotation every 2 to 3 minutes, or until the meat/chicken is cooked throughout.
Notes
** If you are following a low FODMAPs diet, you can modify these to be low FODMAPs. First, make your own vinaigrette with ¼ cup olive oil and 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, plus a dash of salt and pepper. Use this instead of already-prepared balsamic vinaigrette, which almost always contains garlic and onion. Next, for the beef and chicken marinades, omit the garlic and replace the garlic flavor by using a garlic olive oil instead of regular olive oil. Lastly, be sure to choose low FODMAPs vegetables. All veggies listed here are low FODMAPs except for the mushroom and onion.
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 2 skewers Calories: ~250-350
I suppose you could put the chicken and the steak together on one skewer, but I like my steak a little rare (and of course you have to cook chicken all the way through in order to prevent food borne illness). So I always make mine separate. I cook the steak for a little less time (ie: I keep them a little pink, yum yum).
No, these haven’t been cooked, this is the “before” photo.
These kabobs were so full of flavor. I actually added some lime, orange and lemon “zest” to the marinades too (but when I say “zest” I mean small chunks of the rind, because I hate zesting things, it takes too long and I think it’s a pain). The rind has a lot of fantastic nutrients that are good for your body and heart, keep that in mind (and that white part of your citrus fruits? The pith. It’s full of nutrients too, don’t peel that off, eat it!).
I’ll be back next week with my take on some snack bars (my “Candid” take on which ones are best). I went to the store and perused the snack bar aisle for a few hours and came up with a list of my top nine. That’s right, not ten, nine. See you next week!
