The unexpected glory of the carrot dog!

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RECIPE DETAILS

CAMPING TIP

Yes, I know.

There are a few things I write about where I fully expect people to roll their eyes,

this is one of them.

So, go ahead, roll your eyes, then continue reading...

Alright, eye rolling time has ended, let's proceed.

Back sometime around 2016

when sliding around the kitchen floor in wool socks while listening to folk-indie style music was a whole entire thing, carrots were slipping into the grill scene.

It was this strange plant based, hipster, emerging era.

Some of it has faded off, while a lot of the ideas and main concepts

around the reasoning Behind it all has stuck around.

Not just for vegans

The word vegan became a very popular label.

I personally feel like this was the time when people really started shoving themselves into boxes.

Labels became badges for who was healthier, better, or more extreme, especially in the food world.

I personally didn't like eating meat as a child.

Back then, I didn't know vegan was a thing,

I didn't even know vegetarian was a thing.

Fish and seafood was the only meat that didn't make me feel weird for eating it.

I'm sure I drove my parents bonkers as I was the only one that I knew of in my family that struggled with the concept of eating meat.

So once I was an adult and the whole plant based craze went wild I was excited.

I dabbled around, I wore the vegan badge, then after about 4 years I realized I didn't like boxes.

I like freedom, variations, and to make decisions based on me and not a label.

Either way, I think we can all agree

No matter what label we put on ourselves or remove or never acquired in the first place-

that hot dogs come from the land of the unknown.

We know they have questionable ingredients and we know they aren't the best quality.

People have fallen in love with them because of convenience, summer traditions, and nostalgia.

The humble hot dog has a surprisingly chaotic little origin story

Most food historians trace it back to German sausages, especially the frankfurter from Frankfurt and the dachshund-shaped sausages from Vienna. German immigrants brought those sausages to the United States in the 1800s, where street vendors started serving them in buns because it was easier than handing people a greasy sausage bare-handed while they wandered around cities and ballparks.

The term “hot dog” likely showed up in the early 1900s.

One popular story says cartoonists joked that the long sausages looked suspiciously like dachshund dogs.

Nobody has fully proven the exact moment the name stuck,

which gives the whole thing a slightly smoky-back-alley-food-cart twist.

By the time baseball culture exploded, the hot dog became practically stitched into American summers.

They are cheap, fast, salty, and portable.

The opposite can be said for the carrot

The first carrots weren’t even orange.

Early carrots grown thousands of years ago in regions around Afghanistan were usually purple, white, or yellow and were often tougher and more bitter than the sweet grocery-store carrots we are now familiar with.

The orange carrot didn’t really take over until farmers in the Netherlands started selectively breeding them around the 1500 or 1600 hundreds.

One popular story says they did it partly to honor the Dutch royal family, the House of Orange.

Historians argue a little about how true that is, but the orange version absolutely exploded in popularity afterward.

Before carrots became “healthy snack” celebrities, people used them more like a sturdy survival food.

They stored well through intense winters, grew in rough conditions, and quietly sat in root cellars waiting for people to get hungry enough to eat them.

Carrots have been known as basically being the opposite of a hot dog.

Creativity is a beautiful thing.

Sometime back in 2015/2016 the carrot walked into summer saying, enough is enough.

All of a sudden he came out of the root cellar wearing a new suit

and boldly told the questionable hot dog to scoot over. 

People had a fit.

The plant based world got mocked relentlessly and entire arguments broke out over a vegetable in a bun.

I even experienced a good bit of backlash myself. 

I had just started a plant based website called 'whisk and glitter.' It was tiny, in the beginning stages, and suddenly my variation of the carrot dog went viral on Pinterest and my website had a lot of traffic over night because of it.

If I remember correctly I think I made close to $200 off my single carrot dog recipe. Sure, that isn't much for a website, but for a website that had zero income to all of a sudden of made $200ish in a 72 hour window was pretty exciting, at least for me. Along with that little win came some heat, which I was okay with.

The carrot isn't trying to claim that it tastes like a mystery meat hotdog.

As a matter of fact it only rewards those that are intrigued enough to give it a try.

It is a delicious surprise wedged in the middle of a bun. 

The perks... 

-It is cheaper, even an organic bag of carrots is cheaper than the majority of hotdogs. 

-You can eat it without that weird thing that happens... 

come on, we all know that random feeling pops in your head, 

'what even is this odd thing? A combo of pig parts combined with the unwanted cow, turkey, chicken bits that didn't qualify to go into a different form of food, and what kind of preservatives are in here? I'm going to eat it super fast and pretend it's real food' 

Yeah, we have all been there.

Maybe that was why/how they invented hotdog eating contests.

That whole brain debacle doesn't happen with the carrot. 

-Nutrition. Okay, I get it. It's camping weekend, it's ballgame time, it's summer fun and no one wants to concern themselves with something as boring as nutrition and you absolutely don't have to. This carrot dog will show up without you having to worry about the benefits of additional beta-carotene. Shhh, this helps with eyesight, which can help you see your corn-hole goal better. Don't tell anyone your secret, we'll be quiet too. 

In all seriousness, there is no reason to eat boring food and miss out on the summer fun just because you want to skip eating harmful processed food. I'm not here to tangle you into a wellness web. I'm here to show you that choosing better does not mean skipping on flavor.

As a matter of fact these carrot dogs have way more flavor than any processed hot dog ever thought of having. 

They do take a tad bit of effort but it is so easy. 

All you do is 

Softly boil carrots- I use 8 smallish-medium size carrots. This gives 2 per bun. Get the carrots fork tender. You don’t want them mushy, you don't want them hard. You want a fork to go in easy but still have a bit of firmness to it.

I'd say it takes about 6-8 minutes. 

Then a simple marinade is made and the carrots sit in there for a bit.

Fire up the grill or heat a cast iron pan and get to sizzling! 

The rest is the same only something different happens. 

The edges get slightly blistered from the grill, the marinade turns smoky and salty-sweet, and somehow a carrot starts tasting like summer cookouts and a bit of rebellion. 

Load your carrot dog like you would your favorite ballpark hotdog. 

Get addicted and give a win to the plant based side for a little bit, at least this time. 

In a weird way

the carrot dog kind of represents the entire philosophy behind The Sigh Of Relief Method

It's about taking familiar comfort foods, lowering the overwhelm around “healthy eating,” and proving that choosing more nourishing ingredients does not mean abandoning flavor, fun, or summer traditions.

Let's get to it: Recipe

This is for 2 people with 2 carrot dogs each.

You can adjust this. Just double or triple the quantities

What you need:

8 carrots, peeled (I personally like the smaller/medium carrots and then I put two carrots per bun. Some people like using the large carrots and putting one carrot per bun. To me it cooks more evenly when the carrot isn't extra large.

4 buns - We like using Dave's buns if we are buying store bought

A pot of boiling water large enough to fit the carrots in whole.

I use a skillet and fill it with water

For the marinade:

1/4 cup coconut aminos (a soy sauce alternative with a slightly sweeter flavor and added nutrients)

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Black pepper to taste

A pinch of sea salt

All You do is:

Bring a pot of water to a boil and simmer the carrots for about 8 to 10 minutes until they are fork tender but not falling apart.

Drain them and let them cool slightly.

In a shallow dish or jar, whisk together the coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, smoked paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, and sea salt.

Add the carrots and let them marinate for at least an hour.

Overnight is even better because the carrots soak up all that smoky goodness.

Heat a cast iron pan or grill over medium-high heat.

Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

Cook the carrots until they get dark blistered spots

Turn them often so they char evenly.

You don't want them burnt, you want them to look like they spent some time with a grill though

You can spoon on some of the marinade if you want as they cook

Slide each carrot into a toasted bun 1-2 carrots per bun depending on carrot size and pile on whatever toppings you love

Sauerkraut and mustard give it that old-school roadside stand energy,

while pickled onions and tahini take it into slightly gourmet territory.

The toppings are endless!

CAMPING MREAL!

These carrot dogs are perfect for camping!

I love to prep these the day we are leaving for a camping trip.

I get the carrots to the marinate stage and put everything in a tall mason jar

Tip: Make sure your carrots are completely cooled before you close the lid or else they will steam and turn to mush

I pop the jar into the cooler and when we are ready to grill the carrots I pop them onto the hot skillet and dinner is ready in a matter of a few minutes.

For us they taste even better than our childhood hot dog memories

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