Hey team, and welcome to a special holiday edition of one5c! There aren’t a ton of things I miss since dialing back my red meat intake, but if I had to name one it’d be hot dogs. Especially in the summertime. Cookouts! Baseball games! Sure veggie dogs and tofu franks have been around for decades, but they just haven’t hit the same. Too bland. No snap. I always thought that was strange: How can a hot dog, an icon of ultra-processed food, have no satisfying copycat?
Times are a changin’, and the plant-based wiener world is on fire. Good thing, too. If we subbed the 150 million beef franks Americans eat in one day on July 4 for alt pups, that’s like turning off a coal-fired power plant for one full week. The team over at Cool Beans, our sustainable eating newsletter, put the new wave of dogs to the ultimate taste test to find out which one is ready to take over your next cookout. Enjoy! —Corinne (#TeamMustard)
THE BEST VEGGIE DOGS FOR YOUR HOLIDAY BBQ
By Gabriella Vigoreaux
Things have been heating up in the faux frank space of late, with alt-meat leaders like Impossible and deli-aisle veterans like Oscar Mayer rollin’ out plant-based dogs. All just in time for the Fourth of July, a day when Americans will down 150 million franks! Surely, we couldn’t not dedicate this holiday edition to the quintessential cookout food. Get your buns out, because today we’re searching for the top (plant-based) dog.
The plant-based hot dog throwdown
Nothing stirs up FOMO like being the only non-meater at the BBQ. While everyone is chowing down on burgers and dogs, you’re left assembling a plate of sides and condiments. That’s why we’re declaring summer 2024 the summer of BYOD (bring your own dog). We rounded up five of the top plant-based glizzys and put them to the test.
Because downing dogs is a group activity, I enlisted the Bandidas Bake Shop staff as taste testers. I cooked all the franks in a skillet on an induction burner in the bakery kitchen. Not exactly summer cookout vibes, but it made for one fun staff meal. We tasted them straight-up and on a bun with and without our fave toppings (ketchup, mustard, kraut, and kimchi), and ranked them on a scale of 0-5 🌭s, with five being the top dog. Here’s what we were looking for:
- Texture. Do they have the snappy exterior and springy interior of a quintessential dog? Do they get plump and juicy when cooked?
- Taste. Do they strike that delicate balance of smoky and savory with a hint of sweetness and spice?
- Appearance. How much does the color and consistency resemble a hot dog?
Let’s meet the pups, shall we?
1st place: Oscar Mayer Plant-Based NotHotDog
The poster brand of grocery store hot dogs recently released its first plant-based item in partnership with NotCo, the same company Kraft partnered with to perfect its cheeseless mac. They’re made primarily of wheat gluten, and we also peeped our fave umami agent, nutritional yeast, on the ingredient list. Each link has 10 grams of protein, and the pack of four retails for $5.99—which is pretty pricey.
Texture. The casing on these links is made of sodium alginate, a derivative of seaweed. They seared beautifully in a greased skillet, developing a shiny crust that made these dogs snappy like beef franks. We found the interior to be a little chewy and not quite as firm and bouncy as an OG Oscar Mayer dog.
Taste. Though they smell like kielbasa when they come out of the package, their flavor is a lot more reminiscent of barbecue sauce. They are sweet and smoky, and also saltier than other contenders, reminding one taster of “those cocktail wieners in sauce you see at parties.”
Appearance. These franks have an extreme reddish hue that’s almost impossible to not notice. It wasn’t quite as dramatic as a red hot dog, but close. There are only four dogs in a pack, which is less than all the other contenders.
Rating. 🌭🌭🌭🌭 1/2
2nd place: Impossible Beef Hot Dogs
With a range of plant-based links already in stores, it was inevitable that Impossible would roll out a hot dog. Launched earlier this year, the Impossible dogs are made from wheat gluten. They come six in a pack for $7.99, and each link has 12 grams of protein.
Texture. The outside has a good li’l snap, but the inside was a tad dry and lacked the bouncy chew that you expect in a hot dog.
Taste. All the tasters loved the sweet and smoky seasoning on these, though it’s a bit more peppery than a standard wiener. Everyone agreed its flavor was like a cross between breakfast sausage and a hot dog. On a bun with toppings, they tasted the most like meat in the bunch.
Appearance. These are slightly shorter than bun length but otherwise look like a paler skinless hot dog.
Rating. 🌭🌭🌭🌭
3rd place: MorningStar Farms Veggie Dogs
An OG in the veggie dog game, MorningStar’s franks are made of wheat gluten with 9 grams of protein each. The box had two suggested cooking methods: boil or microwave. We didn’t jive with either, so we boiled first, then tossed them in a hot skillet to get some browning action. Some immediate pros: They are extremely easy to find, affordable ($4.58 per six-pack), and store in the freezer so you can cook them off as needed.
Texture. The interior was pleasantly bouncy and juicy, and the cooked dogs had a really nice chew. They don’t have a casing, though, so the exterior lacked any snap.
Taste. One vegan tester noticed a familiar “MorningStar” aroma, and I would have to agree that the sweet-savory links did smell a bit like the brand’s breakfast sausage. The flavor was nicely balanced between sweet and savory and lightly spiced.
Appearance. The links are definitely more slender than the average frank, but otherwise the look is on par with a standard supermarket dog. When cooking, we noticed they browned very quickly, which is perhaps why searing and grilling are not on the list of suggested cooking methods.
Rating. 🌭🌭🌭 1/2
4th place: LightLife Smart Dogs
These franks, from the creators of the (now discontinued) Tofu Pups, are one of the more affordable options, costing around $4.28 for an eight-link pack—which blessedly matches the number of buns that typically come in a pack. Each dog has 8 grams of protein.
Texture. These proved to be a flop. The sausages were rubbery and though they seared well, there was no shiny, snappy crust.
Taste. LightLife’s dogs reminded testers of a vegan bologna and had a nondescript one-note flavor that wasn’t sweet, salty, or smoky enough to masquerade as a hot dog.
Appearance. These wee pups are the shortest of the bunch and don’t come close to filling out a standard bun. Straight out of the package, they are paler than the rest and have a red speckled exterior.
Rating. 🌭1/2
5th place: Field Roast Stadium Dog
Field Roast’s regular franks are a mainstay of the faux-dog landscape, and the Stadium Dogs promise a smoky hardwood flavor and maximum grillability—whatever that means. Though they’re made from a blend of wheat gluten and pea, brown rice, and faba protein, each link has only 6 grams of protein (the least of the bunch) and a six-pack costs $7.49.
Texture. While the Stadium Dog does have a casing, it’s both rubbery and dry and doesn’t at all evoke iconic stadium food. It’s also weirdly crumbly on the inside, perhaps due to the brand’s decision to include so many other plant proteins in addition to wheat gluten.
Taste. Tasters described the smell and flavor of this one as artificial and reminiscent of Play-Doh. It lacks seasoning, and the only distinguishable note is smoke, coming from the smoked sugar and natural smoke flavor. Every single tester (vegan or not) grimaced upon taking the first bite and spat this one out.
Appearance. While these are the plumpest, longest links we tried—which we appreciated—they’re much darker than a hot dog, a product of ingredients like paprika and coloring agents like cherry and beet extract.
Rating. 🌭
The final tasting notes
We were tempted to give Impossible our top rating on taste alone, but we have to ultimately hand the crown to Oscar Mayer. The hot dog king is doing something right with its faux franks, which snap and sizzle just like a beef hot dog in a skillet. Even though the seasoning was a little heavy, the dogs beat out most of their competitors because they nailed the textural experience and were well seasoned (something Field Roast and LightLife were severely lacking). Impossible dogs take home second prize because of their meaty flavor, but ultimately their texture did them in. MorningStar takes the bronze for its balanced sweet and savory flavor and springy, hot doggy interior.
Gabriella Vigoreaux is a recipe developer and test-kitchen veteran whose work has appeared in Good Housekeeping, Epicurious, Saveur, and Cherry Bombe. She’s co-owner of Bandidas Bake Shop in Lakeland, Florida.