Fire up the grill and throw on those... carrots?

Word has it that 30ish years ago, there was a vegetarian restaurant in downtown Gainesville that served carrot hot dogs. The dish has gone down in Gainesville history. Some thought it divine. Some mocked it as ridiculous. A friend's mom used to wait tables there in the 1970s, and he turned me on to this pre-TofuPup treat from days gone by when veg*ns had to be a bit more creative for their meat replacement options.

Of course it doesn't taste just like a hot dog. Mainly the texture is off-- but the taste comes pretty dang close. Plus, you smother this baby with plenty of mustard, ketchup, and pickle relish... and you won't even miss the wheat gluten, TSP, or whatever else your usual go-to not-dog contains. This is as close as you can come to a dog without processed ingredients!

Using standard sized carrots, slice the ends and boil until tender (leave a bit of bite.) When done, drain and rinse with cold water. (I reserved some of the carrot cooking water for the marinade.)

Marinade:

1.5 cups water

~3 T red wine vinegar

~half tsp liquid smoke 

1 T salt

squirt of soy sauce/tamari/Braggs

1 tsp garlic salt

2 cloves crushed/minced garlic

Freshly ground black pepper

Put carrots in a jar, pour in marinade, refrigerate for at least 6 hours or up to 1 week. Longer is obviously better.

Brush with oil and grill it up. (We use stovetop cast iron grill. Any skillet would be OK too.)

Naked dog shown above. After this shot, it got dressed up in fixin's. I made this for myself, gave Kevin a bite, and then headed out to the library. Evidently he was pretty impressed, because while I was gone he made more and spoiled his dinner. I'll take that as a compliment.

ps- The concrete counters will be installed in T minus 48 hours. OMG OMG OMG. No more fiberboard covered in red wine stains!