Turn Your Cooling Rack Into a Grilling Rack (and Never Lose a Snow Pea to the Coals Again)

Call it the Curse of Those Without Outdoor Space: The less access to a grill one has, the greater the desire to grill. I'm living proof. I have no space in which to fit a grill, so all I want to do is grill my dinners, my lunches, even my breakfasts.

But I will admit that I don't envy those who grill their side dishes. Because how do you grill something small like asparagus, green beans, snap peas—even shrimp—without losing each piece one-by-one through the grates?

Grilled Steak with Peas and Eggplant over Whipped Ricotta

Well, you could invest in a grill basket, but they can be bulky, tricky to store, and there's no denying they're a dreaded single-use tool. Or you could do what our crew in the Epi Test Kitchen does: grab a rack.

That’s what senior food editor Anna Stockwell did when she cooked the sugar snap peas for her newest steak dinner. To make sure the peas didn't fall into the fire, she placed a plain, old stainless steel cooling racks—the same kind that moonlights as an oven rack—over the grill grates. Naturally, the snap peas were grilled safely on top.

Anna likes to flip the wire rack upside down when grilling, so she can grab onto the rack's feet—which are pointing up—with tongs to "slide it easily around, moving it from a hot spot to a cooler one" or to make room for more steaks or chops.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but you want to avoid grilling with wire racks that have either a non-stick or rubberized coating, since these aren't heat safe. Stick to stainless steel or chrome-plated steel-core racks, which you can simply place on the grill before heating it up. If you plan to do a lot of grilling this summer, you may want to invest in a rack to use specifically for this purpose—otherwise you'll be cooling snickerdoodles on the same rack that just grilled some scallops. If you do buy a new rack, use the old, bang-up rack for the grilling, and save the new one for your baked goods.

But you can still use that banged-up rack for cooling—just use it for cooling steaks. Anna notes that when she pulls a steak off the grill, that same cooling rack, set inside a rimmed sheet pan, "is the perfect place to let the steak rest before slicing in." This same set up will also keep your vegetables crisp, which is an important thing—you took the step of saving them from a fiery death. Why ruin them now?

Originally Appeared on Epicurious