Our first cabbage of the season is ready from the front yard garden so I visited the greengrocer for some sweet organic carrots to make one of my favorites: Carrot dogs! No one else gets very excited about these – I mean, they don’t run out of the house screaming – but the announcement of carrot dogs doesn’t produce the usual upbeat, sniffing-around-the-kitchen-at-dinnertime response. Even though my carrot dogs are just tolerated as nostalgic throwbacks to my hippie/Whole Earth Catalog days, sometimes, I just have to cook what makes me happy and guess what? When I serve them, my husband, grandkids (well some of them) and 84-year-old mother, eat them up – I think it is the combination of sweet, roasted carrot with the flavorful crispy slaw – delish!
Not sold? For you meat lovers out there, this best hot dog slaw is also really good with slow-cooked pulled pork.
I like the cabbage slaw cut long and stringy, not grated; the final product seems less watery. Use the slicer blade of your food processor or cut it by hand with your chef’s knife. It is also best within an hour of being tossed with the dressing, so shred the cabbage and make the sauce ahead of time but don’t mix them together until the carrots are roasting.
Roast the carrots in the oven or you can steam them on the stove top then finish them in a skillet with a little browned butter.
Carrot dogs with the best hot dog slaw – a fun (and yummy) meatless alternative to regular hot dogs:
- 1 medium head of green cabbage
- ½ cup mayonnaise
- 3 Tablespoons sugar
- 3 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon salt
- In a large bowl, whisk the mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, mustard and salt together. Set aside.
- Cut the cabbage into large wedges (the size that will fit into your food processor feed tube).
- Using the slicer side of your blade, process the cabbage. Note: If you don’t have a food processor, hand cut your cabbage with a chef’s knife.
- Add the cabbage to the whisked dressing. Note that it will seem dry at first, like you don’t have enough dressing, but this will be remedied as the cabbage releases water.
- To enjoy the crispness of the fresh cabbage, don't mix the cabbage and dressing together until shortly before serving (no more than an hour ahead).
- Carrots
- 1 Tablespoon butter
- Hot dog buns (whole wheat or the soft, stretchy ones from the specialty bakery are best)
- Peel and trim large carrots to the length of your bread.
- Melt the butter in a roasting pan and roast at 375 degrees until soft enough to pierce with a fork, but not mushy.
- Alternate method: Steam the carrots in a large pan on the stove top until tender, not mushy. Melt the butter in a skillet on medium-high heat until it just starts to brown. Add the carrots and sear them slightly.
- Serve the carrots on the hot dog buns and top generously with our Best Hot Dog Slaw (recipe at SpatulaQueens.com)
