The New Year's Day tradition in my area of the country (central Pennsylvania) is to eat pork and sauerkraut for good luck. My extended family (my sisters and I and our children and
their families) get together each year to do just that.
But... I no longer eat pork now that I'm vegan and I can no longer eat the mashed potatoes, either.
So, I decided to try to find a non-meat hot dog that I can stomach.
See, I've tried vegan hot dogs before and I didn't like them. Mostly it seemed like the texture was the issue more than the flavor. They were dry and sort of grainy. Yuck.
I asked my vegan friends for recommendations and many mentioned dogs I had already tried. Then someone mentioned that Field Roast, the company that makes the delicious vegan
sausage and
cheese I like so much, made a hot dog and I figured it was worth a try.
I found them at a Wegman's located about a 40 minute drive from home. (and I found a lot more different vegan mock meats, as well, and I decided to stock up!) But I digress.
Since I didn't want to eat even the sauerkraut that was cooked with pork and regular hot dogs, I thought I'd make my own crockpot of
not dogs* and sauerkraut. My daughter made sure I had a couple plain potatoes - which I mashed with my fork and put a little vegan butter on - and I was all set.
At the end of the meal, I noticed that all the pork and hot dogs were gone and so were the non-meat dogs! I guess I should have labeled them. Opps! I don't think anyone was fooled by them but they must have tasted good enough to them because I didn't hear any complaints.
These dogs come in a plastic (or plastic-like) casing. If you boil them -as I did- you leave the casings on to cook and remove after. I presume this is so they don't break apart while cooking. If you pan-fry them - which I haven't tried yet - you take them off before cooking.
For my "not dogs" and sauerkraut, I drained and rinsed a can of sauerkraut and dumped it in the crock pot. I added a cup or so of veggie broth, about 1/2 onion sliced thin and plenty of fresh ground pepper. I cooked this on high for a couple hours, then I boiled the dogs. I removed the casings, added the dogs to the crock pot and that was it. It worked out well.
I can't wait to try some of the other products I bought! When I do, I'll be sure to blog about them.
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*I thought I was quite witty calling my vegan dogs "not dogs" but, of course, it's been used before. There is a company that makes mock hot dogs called
Soy Boy and they
own the name Not Dogs. Full disclosure: I've never tried Soy Boy's product so it may also be a good meatless alternative to the hot dog.
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