After 25 years I ditch the old propane BBQ grill. In its place I bought a Weber Lumin electric grill. For the first cook I attempted to grill hamburgers and asparagus. The results were very good.
Bring On The Electric BBQ Grill
I’m not sure if it was me or the old propane BBQ, but most of what I cooked was bad. The food was either under cooked, burnt, or very dry. Add to the poor cooking results, the hassle of storing the BBQ in the winter and running for refills on the propane tank, I was more than happy to look at electric grilling options.
The Weber Lumin is compact and can sit right on a table top. I like this setting as it provides extra space for moving food to and from the grill. What seems to be a drawback compared to gas grills is the longer preheat time. Weber states it can take 15 to 20 minutes to preheat to at least to 600 degrees Fahrenheit. On a 85 degree day in California, it only took 6 minutes to hit the required preheat temperature.
The Weber Lumin Grilled Evenly
Weber also states that for the best cooking results the lid should remain closed – no lifting the lid to check the meat or veggies. I was a little concerned that I would over cook the burgers because I could not check them. However, we settled on 4 minute cook time for each side after checking other websites for burger cook times.
After toasting the buns, which only took 1 minute, I tossed the burgers and foil wrapped asparagus on the grill. I had no clue how the asparagus would cook or turn to blacken spears. At the 4-minute mark, I opened the lid and flipped the burgers. They looked good!
Compact With Enough Grilling Surface
When another 4 minutes had elapsed, I opened the lid and found the burgers had been thoroughly cooked with no patties burned or still oozing red juice. Much to my surprise, the asparagus was perfectly cooked. The spears were firm, but not withered from excessive heat. There were a couple overly blackened spears on the bottom, perfectly within tolerance of my poor grilling skills.
Never have I grilled 4 hamburgers to such an edible state. I was very impressed that the Weber Lumin electric grill cooked all the food, meat and veggies, within 10 minutes. It was one of the best grilled dinners we have had. I look forward to experimenting with pizza, chicken and grilling more vegetables. The Lumin comes with a stainless pan for either steaming vegetables or smoking meats. I also bought the griddle to toast pizza dough. The griddle is only half the grill width, so I may need to get another side in order to cook 2 pizzas at once.
See the smoke, hear the sizzle of my first cook with the Weber Lumin electric outdoor grill.
