11 Surprisingly Delicious Foods You Should Be Grilling

Grilling watermelon sounds like blasphemy, but the heat drives off some of the water and concentrates the sugar. Those big pink triangles come off firmer, smokier and almost meaty around the edges. Add a little salt, a squeeze of lime and some crumbled feta, and you'll forget you were ever skeptical after the first bite.

Yes, you are about to grill salad and no, you have not lost it. A romaine heart sliced down the middle goes silky in the center while the edges crisp up and turn smoky. Keep it quick though, because lettuce goes from beautifully charred to a soggy mess in about the time it takes to check your phone.

Grilling avocado might feel like you're about to ruin a perfectly good thing, but trust the process. Halve it, pit it, brush the cut side with oil and lay it face down just long enough to pick up some char. It comes off warm and buttery, and your guac goes from good to the-bowl-is-empty in four minutes flat.

Grapes on the grill sounds like a great way to make hot raisins, but that's not where this is going. A few minutes over the heat and they shrivel into warm, jammy little bombs that burst when you bite them. Toss them onto a cheese board or over goat cheese and watch people slowly lose their minds.

Cabbage spends most of its days shredded or boiled within an inch of its life, but not anymore! Cut it into thick wedges, oil them up and let the grill crisp the outside while the inside goes tender. What you get is smoky, a little sweet and nothing like the mayo-filled slaw of your childhood cookouts.

Halloumi is the cheese that refuses to melt, which makes it a grilling dream. Slice it thick, lay it on the grates and let it form that golden crust while staying firm inside. It's salty, it's chewy and it will absolutely convert the weirdos who claims they don't like grilled cheese.

Eggplant easily lands in two camps of love it or hate it thanks to it’s reputation of turning to mush, but the grill is where it brings those camps together. Slice it into rounds or planks, brush with oil and let the heat coax out that silky, smoky flavor. Finish it with a drizzle of tahini or a splash of balsamic and it will hold its own next to anything on the plate.

Vidalia onions are already sweet and mild but toss them on the grill and that natural sugar caramelizes into something deep, nutty and almost jammy. They lose that raw bite completely, so even the person who picks onions off everything will polish off a whole pile before they realize what they just ate.

As if you needed another reason to eat pound cake. Give a thick slab a couple of minutes per side until the edges go toasty and golden and the middle stays soft. Pile on some berries and whipped cream and it hits like the strawberry shortcake your grandma used to make, except you pulled it off next to a pile of hot dogs.

Grilling a banana in its own peel is one of the laziest, most genius moves ever invented. The fruit goes warm and custardy inside while the skin does all the heavy lifting. Split it open, add a scoop of ice cream and the cold-meets-warm thing happening in that peel is straight-up dessert sorcery.

A raw tomato is fine, but a grilled one takes on a whole different personality. Halve them, oil them up and let the heat turn them concentrated and almost sun-dried in flavor. Spoon them over pasta, pile them on toast or eat them straight off the grate when nobody's looking (we won’t tell).