A Weekend with a Weber Lumin – Mel (eCommerce Sales Manager)
I have to say I was very sceptical when Weber excitedly launched the electric Weber Lumin in 2023. Being a longstanding lover of the charcoal grill myself, I thought isn’t that just the same as taking your George Foreman out in to the garden. Other than people with balconies and or restrictions on the use of a gas or charcoal grill I could not really see the point.
Last weekend I took home a customer return to test out the Lumin before adding it to our demo fleet. What followed I have to say completely amazed me and totally changed my opinion and perception of the Weber Lumin.
The Lumin looks good, has the lovely Weber badge and sits at a nice height, with a handy side table to the left. I replaced the grill grates with a couple of Lumin griddles to cook a full English on to see how it would perform in one of our Beginners Barbecue classes. Sausages immediately peaked the interest of my two Sous Chefs, Pongo and Luna who soon became as fascinated as I with the new toy in their garden.
Preheating the Lumin was quick within 10 minutes the lid thermometer was up towards 200 degrees and the griddles were nicely hot. A splash of oil on the one griddle and on went the mushrooms and tomatoes, bacon, sausage and black pudding on the other griddle. Lid closed and away it sizzled. The Lumin as with most other Weber’s works on the lid closed “you’re not cooking if you’re looking” mantra. The sausages and bacon were ready for turning very quickly and had a lovely colouring. Quick flip over for everything and lid closed again for another 5 minutes.
In literally ten minutes of cooking time, a tasty full English was almost ready. All that needed to be done was a couple of eggs cracked on to a griddle whilst everything else was coming off the griddles and to try and stop two greedy Dalmatians helping themselves!
Not only did the breakfast look good it tasted amazing so far so good!
The next test was some popcorn. Inspired by a visit from the Weber Chef to demonstrate the new Weber Slate Griddle last week I thought I reckon I can do this on the Lumin too and inspire a few customers at the next class. A handful of kernels on the griddle, drizzled with a little oil and covered by the Weber basting dome and in a short period of time the kernels were pinging against the dome, almost tunefully.
Once it appeared to have finished popping, the dome was carefully lifted and to the dogs delight several more corns popped and whizzed around the garden with them in hot pursuit! The popcorn was light in colour, fluffy and had a subtle taste of smoke. Drizzled with maple syrup it made for a very tasty and light afternoon snack.
