Vegan mac and cheese dog

A couple weeks ago I was flicking through photos of a slide show for 13 Creative Hot Dog Recipes and came across a "mac and cheese dog". I would never have thought of putting mac and cheese on a hot dog. Never ever. However, I made a mental note to one day make this if I ever found a vegan mac and cheese recipe that I liked. 

Well thanks to good ol' Instagram, I saw a post that The Simple Veganista had put up for their spicy vegan mac and cheese recipe. I love The Simple Veganista. Their recipes are amazing, and so I knew that this one would probably not disappoint. I'm not a huge fan of cheese sauces made with nutritional yeast but I figured that I would be in good hands with this recipe. So I just took a leaf of faith with this one. 

Turns out, the recipe is totally yummy and about a million times more guilt free than your ordinary legit mac and cheese. This is one of the perks of being vegan. A lot of the substitutes are quite healthy. You still have to check though just in case. 

I made up a batch of the vegan mac and cheese and scooped in on top of a vegan hot dog which was snugly placed in a fresh hot dog bun I had bought today. I sprinkled some chipotle pepper seeds on top and served it up with smokey parsnip shoestring fries (original recipe from here). I have yet to meet a hot dog which has let me down, and today was no exception. It doesn't matter if you're vegan or not, everybody needs to try a mac and cheese dog. Sooner rather than later please :)



The Simple Veganista also have another mac and cheese recipe that sounds tasty. I think I'll try this one at some point too!

Vegan Chipotle Mac and Cheese (from The Simple Veganista)

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. favorite pasta
• 1 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk or your favorite unsweetened non-dairy milk
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 heaping tablespoons flour (spelt, rice, tapioca or all-purpose) - I used white spelt flour
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast flakes
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder
• mineral salt, to taste

Directions:

1. Cook your pasta according to package. Drain and place back in pot. 
2. In a small/medium sauce pan, heat oil over medium heat, add flour and whisk to incorporate. Continue whisking and cook for 2 minutes. Add milk slowly, whisking constantly. Turn heat to low and cook until sauce thickens, about 8 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Stir in nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder, chili powder and chipotle powder. Stir until everything is incorporated and smooth again. Taste for flavor. 
3. Add sauce to the pasta, toss well, add more milk as needed and serve right away...or on top of a hot dog!

Notes: 

This recipe is just a template. Add as much of the salt and spices to suit your taste. You may even like to omit the chili and chipotle opting for a mild mac n' cheese. Or use either the chili or chipotle powder alone.

For the nutritional yeast, if using powder form reduce amount to about 1/4 cup. You can try playing around with the amount. I have used less, 1/4 - 1/3 cup, and still had a nice cheesy flavor. You may opt to start with less and add more to taste. 

Toss in steamed or roasted vegetables of choice with the pasta...broccoli, brussel sprouts, sun-dried tomatoes, tomatoes, spinach, kale and corn are a few that come to mind that will work with the flavors. I'm sure I missed a few and would love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.

To reheat, add a small amount of milk and heat over low until warmed.
You may also like to top with some almond parmesan! 

Vegan chili dog & waffle fries

I don't always know exactly what I'm going to do for my 'something new' before I get out of bed and start the day. In fact, I only decided on my something new at about 3pm today. I did some very quick Googling and went out to buy my ingredients to make some dinner before the shops closed at 5pm. 

Now for all of you who have been following the blog, you'll know how much I love trying out different hot dog recipes. There's just so much you can load up in your hot dog to make it tastier (and messier) to eat. 

Today I went for a vegan version of the American classic chili dog (In Australia chili is spelled "chilli", with two letter "l"s). It was surprisingly so easy to make, and I was chowing down this baby in no time. 

I got the recipe for the vegan chili from Oh She Glows. It's a simple and delicious recipe which can be easily changed and adapted to suit each individuals taste. I added some vegan mince into the recipe to give it a bit more of that hearty feel. I used Sanitarium Casserole Mince which can be found in the health food isle of Cole or Woolworths. 

Now I just can't have a hot dog without some sides. As I was googling some photos of chili dogs, I came across what's called waffle fries (aka lattice fries). These looked so cool that I wanted to make my own. I was lucky enough to actually have potatoes in our kitchen as well as having the appropriate slicing apparatus to make these! It was meant to be! :)

I thoroughly enjoyed this chili dog! I don't have any words to describe how much I enjoyed it. I'll just sign off by saying that food is great :)

Vegan chili
Adapted from Oh She Glows

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1-3 cloves garlic, minced (I used 1)
• 2 bell peppers, chopped
• 1 sweet onion, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped 
• 1 can Sanitarium Casserole Mince (or 1 1/2 cup vegan mince)
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• pinch sea salt
• pinch cayenne
• 1 can each: black beans, white kidney beans, red kidney beans (rinsed) (I used 1 can of mixed beans and 1 can of kidney beans)
• 1 can diced tomatoes with juice 
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 tsp oregano
• 1 can organic mushrooms, drained
• 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (optional)
• juice of 1 lime (optional, I didn’t include)
• Secret Ingredient –> 2 tbsp CHIA SEEDS (it thickens up the sauce, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to. I didn't have to because mine was thick enough but I still added it anyways)

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium. Add garlic, peppers, onion, carrot and sauté until everything is soft, approximately 5 minutes. 
2. Add the rest of the ingredients, cover, and cook for about 20 minutes on low to medium heat. Add more water if it becomes too thick and cook for longer if needed. 
3. I served mine up with a bun, vegan sausage, mustard and diced white onion; and of course the lattice fries. 

 For the waffle/lattice fries, I followed the instructions from the video below and then deep fried them in sunflower oil. 

Chicago style hot dog with polenta fries and garlic aoli

I think of hot dogs and burgers as cousins. They're related, but different in their own way. The basic skeleton of hot dogs and burgers are the same: you've got the meat tucked snug between the buns; but then the rest is up to you. You can make your hot dog or burger become anything you want it to be. The possibilities are endless.

Although I am always keen for a burger, the fact that there are less vegan hot dogs out there, I always get a bit more excited when I find one, or find a recipe for one. Now I'm not into fancy material things, but when it comes to my hot dogs (and burgers), I like the fillings to be fancy. I'm talkin' a real gourmet hot dog. None of that plain sausage in a bun business. I want there to be so many fancy fillings that I struggle to keep it from dripping out when I bite into the thing. That's the real hot dog experience. 

I haven't tried many of the vegan hot dog joints in Perth yet, but I will be sure to get on that ASAP. Until then, I'm quite happy to try some of the recipes that I find online. 

I came across the Chicago-style hot dog the other week and I wanted to try it because it was vegan friendly. There wasn't any cheese so it was easy to veganise. 

The hot dog consists of a sesame seed bun, sausage, tomato wedges, green pickle relish, diced onion, dill pickles, mustard, celery salt and sport peppers. If you're not drooling right now...then I just don't understand why not :P

Now for all you readers in America, these ingredients might be very easy to find, but over here is Perth, Western Australia, it's not that easy. I couldn't find any hot dog buns with sesame seeds, and I had no luck with the sports peppers either. Although I would have loved a more authentic Chicago-style hot dog, it still tasted really good once it was all assembled. 

Another similarity between hot dogs and burgers is that they both go great with a side of fries. I've never had polenta fries before, but I liked the sound of them so I baked some up to accompany my hot dog. 

The fries were nice and crispy and even my brother liked them. I whipped up some garlic aoli as well. This was much easier to do ever since I found vegan mayonnaise in the supermarket. 

This was such a good dinner. I was so sad to put that last bite in my mouth. 

 

Polenta fries
Original recipe from here

Makes up to 3 dozen fries

Ingredients

• 1 cup polenta
• 3 cups water
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried cilantro
• ½ tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic minced)
• ¾ tsp salt

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan, add polenta, water, dried oregano, dried cilantro, garlic powder and salt and stir. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Grab a baking sheet and line with parchment paper. Spread the hot polenta evenly on the baking sheet until polenta is about ¼ to ½ inch thick. Put the baking sheet into the refrigerator and cool for 15-20 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 200C. Use a pizza cutter and cut the polenta into fries that are about ½ inch wide. Remove the polenta from the baking sheet and re-line it with foil. Add the polenta fries to the foil and spray with cooking spray, then season with salt.
4. Put the polenta fries into the oven for 15-20 minutes until polenta fries are lightly browned. Serve with tomato sauce, ketchup or aoli.

 Vegan Garlic Aoli

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Directions
Combine all ingredients and mix well