gourmet veggie hot dog toppings

Today I delivered some stiff competition to the likes of Giada de Laurentiis and Rachael Ray! I was filmed doing a short segment on gourmet vegan hot dog toppings as a promo for ilovemikelitt.com's annual Fourth of July Veggie Hot Dog Eating Contest. I'll be on vacation in Minnesota this year, but it's always a great time!I uttered the line, "Hey, y'all! Sick of that boring old ketchup-mustard-veganaise?" about twenty times, nearly burned my chili every time Argentina scored, and came up with three original toppings for your next vegan cookout: sour cherry relish with soy yogurt amd mint, fried olives with romesco sauce, and black bean-espresso chili. Recipes below!

Sour Cherry Relish (adapted from Madhur Jaffery's World Vegetarian):1 cup pitted dried sour cherries (available at Wheatsville)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 dried red chile
2 tbsp water
1 tsp salt

This is the easiest one of all, and the collective favorite. It's inspired by Iranian and Afghani cooking. Just puree the hell out of it in a food processor, and serve with soy (or regular) yogurt and fresh chopped mint.

Fried olives:1 cup flour
1 egg (I left this out to veganize it, but were I making it for non-vegans I would include it, to facilitate binding the batter to the olives)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp smoked sea salt
40 pitted olives (I used a blend of kalamata and Spanish green)
olive oil

Blend flour, egg, baking powder, and salt. Coat olives in the mixture.
Fill a saucepan about 1 inch with olive oil, heat.
Fry for about 4 minutes, until olives get puffy and golden.Serve with romesco sauce, below:

Easy romesco sauce (loosely adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's recipe):
1 dried ancho chile
4 roasted red peppers
1/3 cup slivered almonds
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/3 cup olive oilStem chile and boil it in 3/4 cup water for 5 minutes. Reserve 2 tbsp cooking liquid.
Another job for the food processor. Mix all ingredients together (including reserved ancho liquid.) Also great over tofu or grilled veggies!

And this is what I'll be eating for lunch over the next few days-- Black Bean and Espresso Chili!3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 roasted red peppers, chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp chili powder
2 1/2 tbsp espresso powder
30 oz black beans
30 oz canned diced tomatoes
1 bag Boca crumbles
salt and pepper to taste

Saute onions, peppers, garlic, chili powder, and espresso powder in olive oil over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients, simmer for 20 minutes more.

Enjoy, and don't forget to go to the Tiniest Bar in Texas on Sunday for the event!

This is what you make when...

... you have soccer and work on the brain and all you want to do is relax.

It was a Sunday night, and I was wiped out from watching Brazil beat Cote d'Ivoire, complete with live vuvuzela! (They sound much better when there are fewer of them. The vuvuzela is definitely a case of less is more.) Lounging on the couch, I came up with an idea for a meal I've never cooked before. It was fresh, it was inventive, it was...labor intensive.

So what's a lazy cook to do?
This:It's whole wheat pasta tossed with pan-roasted cherry tomatoes from the market, eggplant, fresh mozzarella, and basil. Pan-roasted tomatoes sound fancy, but are super simple. All you do is saute some garlic in olive oil, then add the tomatoes. Stew them over a fairly low heat until they start to release their juices. Maybe one or two will burst, but you want them to remain fairly intact. Add some crushed red pepper and fresh basil towards the end of cooking, and there you have it!

Even Meadow the gourmand cat wanted some!