Beet Burgers and BBQ Broccoli

Confession: I love the Food Network - Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives; Chopped; Iron Chef America; etc.  There are rarely any recipes that I can enjoy (even vegetable side dishes involve bacon, a pound of butter, or prosciutto).  Over the summer, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives featured a recipe called Beet Sliders.  I had to try it.

To prep the beets - this can get messy so be prepared:
Boil whole beets in a pot with water and about 3 tablespoons pickling spice (I used McCormick's pickling spice mixture but I would imagine you could whip up your own if you were so inclined).
This will take about an hour but it's low maintenance.  You want the beets to be tender.
Allow the beets to cool.
Peel and slice the beets into about 1/2 inch rounds.
Warm up the grill and apply a thin coat of olive oil.
Place the beet rounds on the grill.  All you're trying to do here is make the outside of the beet slices kind of crispy.

Once the beets have been grilled, serve each round on a toasted bun topped with green goddess dressing (we opted for the ease of store-bought..yeah, I know, lame. but the beets alone were a serious endeavor), and shredded cabbage.

I served the beet burgers with BBQ broccoli.  Alicia saw the recipe in a cooking magazine and wanted to try it out.

This was ridiculously simple.

Toss broccoli florets in olive oil and arrange on the grill.  You'll want to keep the florets fairly large so that they don't fall through the grates.

Grill the broccoli until it becomes tender.

Remove broccoli from the grill and toss it in your favorite BBQ sauce.  I'm a fan of Sweet Baby Rays.

Don't go crazy with the BBQ sauce here because you want to taste the freshness of the broccoli and the smokiness from the grill.