Kabobs are an easy, healthy and delicious way to serve fruits and vegetables. Follow these helpful tips for the best way to cut onions for kabobs, along with other popular fruits and vegetables.
Grilling fruits and vegetables is a simple technique for making produce more delicious and creating easy dinners everyone will enjoy, but it can feel intimidating to know how to cut onions and other produce for kabobs. That's why I've created this step by step guide to help!
If you love to grill fruits and vegetables, check out these other recipes on how to grill cantaloupe, Grilled Green Beans, Grilled Okra and Tomatoes, and Chimichurri Burgers with Grilled Carrots.
Ingredients
For this guide, we'll focus on how to chop the fruits and vegetables needed to make my Grilled Fruit and Vegetable Kabobs, which include:
- Medium zucchini (sliced into half moons)
- Mushrooms - white or mini portabella work best
- Red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, and/or green bell peppers
- Large red onion (cut into bite-sized pieces)
- Pineapple (peeled, cored and cut into small pieces)
Zucchini
To slice zucchini for kabobs, follow this step-by-step process:
Start with the zucchini and cut off the stem end.
Then slice the zucchini in half lengthwise. (If it is very long, cut it in half widthwise first.)
Place the cut sides down on the cutting board so they are stable. Slice zucchini into half moon about ½ - ¾” in width.
When it's time to string everything onto the kabob skewers, starting each kabob with a piece of zucchini will help hold everything in place.
Onion
To cut onion for kabobs, follow these step-by-step instructions:
To cut the onion into pieces, start by chopping off the top.
Set it down on the cutting board with the now flat top down for stability. Slice the onion in half lengthwise.
Cut in half widthwise.
Pull off any dry outer layers of onion and discard.
Place one half of the onion, cut side down, on the cutting board. Slice off the other tip.
Lastly, cut each of the onion halves into 3, 1-inch cubes. Repeat with the other side of the onion.
Bell Peppers
To prepare bell peppers for the perfect kabob, follow these steps:
To prepare the bell peppers, lay it on its side on the cutting board, Cut off one side of the pepper, creating a pepper plank.
Slice off the bottom of the pepper to create a square.
Cut each plank again in half, creating square-ish pieces about 1” in size.
Rotate pepper and repeat with each side. This will create roughly 4 flat(ter) planks of pepper.
Depending on the size of the pepper, you can slice each plank lengthwise into 2 pieces or keep as is.
Repeat with the rest of the bell pepper.
Pineapple
To prepare a whole, fresh pineapple to be placed on kabob skewers, follow these steps:
Begin by chopping off the top leaves of the pineapple. Turn the pineapple cut side down on the cutting board and slice it down the middle to create two long halves.
Stand up the quarter piece, secure the rind side with a strong grip, and run your knife down the inside angle, about ½” in, to remove the tough core of the pineapple.
Cut off the other tip that still has the rind on it.
Now cut the flesh-only piece of pineapple into 1-inch cubes.
Lay the flat side of the pineapple down on the cutting board. Cut the piece lengthwise to create two long quarter pieces.
Cut the quarter piece in half lengthwise again.
Switch to a paring knife and slice along the edge of the pineapple, just below the rind to remove it. This won’t be a perfectly even cut and that’s OK.
Repeat with the other sides of the pineapple.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms are the easiest vegetables to prepare for kabobs.
You can simply snap off the stems and use the tops (which is best for small mushrooms), or you can slice them in half lengthwise with the stem still on. Either works well.
Equipment
- Cutting Board - I like using one with a trench like this one, especially when chopping something juicy like pineapple.
- Very sharp chef’s knife
- Paring knife
The beauty of my Grilled Fruit and Vegetable Kabob recipe is that it is fully customizable to your liking. You can use a variety of other vegetables depending on your preference. Happy grilling!
