Vegan carnival corndog goodness

I love the fair. I hate rides, but I’ve always been content to just follow my friends around carrying their stuff while they enjoy roller coasters and giant swings. The reason is simple: the food.

Fair food is the best because so much of it comes on a stick, and who doesn‘t love that? My favourite would have to be the corndog, but these days I’m not down with the meat part that’s in the middle. Simple solution: bust out a big ol’ pot of vegetable oil and do my part to combat the skinny vegan stereotype.

 

Vegan corndog recipe

So, if you’re following along at home, the first thing you’ll need will be the ingredients. All of the ingredients. I stress this because we assumed we had soy milk and flour, but didn’t and ended up having to walk back over to the grocery store. (Though, considering the food we were about to create and consume, I’m sure the extra exercise was in my favour, so I won’t complain too much.) Lesson learned.

Ingredients

?    1 cup all-purpose flour

?    1 cup cornmeal

?    1 tbsp vegan sugar

?    1 tsp salt

?    1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

?    1 1/2 cups soymilk

?    2 packages veggie dogs

?    Cornstarch

?    A lot of vegetable oil (The oil can be reused a few times—you may even be able to find someone to recycle it into biodiesel when you’re done with it.)

?    5 pairs of those disposable chopsticks you keep getting with your sushi (That’s right, we’re going to repurpose those babies into the stick for the corndog! If you don’t have any chopsticks, it’s also fairly easy to find a package of skewers at the grocery store, but they’re not as sturdy and also not as free.)

You will also need either a deep fryer or to very carefully use the “pot-of-hot-oil-on-the-stove method,” which I will not describe to you because I don’t want to be responsible if your house burns down—but you can find instructions online very easily. Admittedly, this is how we made our corndogs since we don’t deep fry a lot of things around my house. If you do go for the non-deep fryer option, please be very cautious and make sure you have a lid around to put out any cooking fires. Remember, never put water on an oil-based fire, and never leave oil on the stove unattended.

Alright, if you’ve got all that stuff, we’re pretty much ready to get started.
 

Directions

1.    Get your vegetable oil heating to 400° F.

2.    Mix dry ingredients, then add soy milk until the mixture reaches the consistency of pancake batter. You may not need all of the soy milk; just use your best judgement. This is art, not science.

3.    Next, move batter into a tall cup to make dipping easier (completely optional).

4.    Skewer your veggie dogs and lightly coat them in cornstarch

5.    Dip into batter and then into hot oil. They cook fairly quickly and the corndog is done when it’s nice and toasty brown.

Toss some mustard on that bad boy and you’re ready for some vegan carnival corndog goodness.

This was our first time making vegan corndogs—or deep-frying anything, for that matter—and it turned out wonderfully. We ate far too many so I would recommend inviting some friends over and making a party of it.
 

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Kristy Westendorp spends her days in Victoria, BC, as a boudoir photographer, spoken word poet and lover of naps. She whips up vegan junk food at night, and if you’re nice she might tell you how to make some of it. Keep up with her other adventures at www.bettieboudoir.com or follow her (blindly) on Twitter @bettieboudoir or add her on Facebook or come to her house and say “hi.”