SUMMER GRILLIN': LAMB KEBABS

I can't tell you why, but I've been craving grilled lamb for the last few months. I didn't even realize it- I just kept thinking of recipes I wanted to try and almost every single one featured lamb! When I finally made the connection last week, I decided to start with one of everyone's summer grilling favorites: shish kebabs! These are an easy, fun, and delicious way to celebrate summer!

lamb kebabs

1 pound lean lamb tenderloin, cut into equally sized pieces
Juice from three limes
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon tumeric (or.. if you're fancy... you can use 4-5 threads of saffron- the more traditional ingredient by far! Just much more expensive too!)
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 onion, sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Japanese eggplant
1 zucchini
1 yellow bell pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
6-8 wood skewers
1 tomato, sliced in half
Basmati rice

Combine the lamb, lime juice, salt, tumeric, black pepper, onion, and garlic in a gallon freezer bag, seal, and shake around a bit to mix well. Marinate the meat for 24 hours, turning every once in a while to make sure that all sides of the cubes are equally marinaded. When ready to cook, soak the skewers in water while you slice the vegetables into 1"-thick slices and then toss the sliced vegetables with olive oil to coat. Then thread the meat and vegetables onto skewers. If you have vegetarians in the crowd, you can make kebabs with just vegetables too. Heat your grill to medium high and when fully heated, grill the tomatoes (cut side down) and kebabs for 4 minutes, turn the kebabs, grill for another 4 minutes, and turn once more for a final 3 minutes of grilling, making sure to keep the grill lid closed when you aren't rotating the kebabs. You can keep the tomato as is the whole time- it'll get a bit charred and wrinkly but that's what we want! When the kebabs are nicely charred, serve them and the tomatoes over a bed of basmati rice! Mmmm I already want to make these again next weekend...