This delicious homemade vegan hot dogs recipe will blow your mind! No seitan makes them gluten free and a hit for all! Try them with your favorite BBQ toppings!
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & we'll send it to your inbox. Plus you’ll get great new recipes from us every week.
When we first went vegan, you would have thought it was the end of the world when my girls thought they could never have hot dogs again. Thus, put me on a journey to create a delicious homemade vegan hot dogs recipe.
Don’t get me wrong. There are tons of vegan hot dog recipes.
Usually you see carrot dogs or ones using seitan; however, we really wanted to make more than just a carrot, but also a gluten free vegan hot dog recipe that would be perfect for BBQ season, but also year round!
We really worked hard to create a delicious recipe that everyone from kids to adults and beyond would really love .
I’ll be honest, the recipe does take a bit a work. It’s not one of our 30 minute meals. But if you really want to be in control of the ingredients that are going into your food, this is definitely the recipe for you.
We tried these multiple different ways and really prefer making them in the air fryer versus other methods; however, we will explain how to make in the oven as well.
What ingredients do you need to make vegan hot dogs?
We really love a good, simple recipe with minimal ingredients. While this isn’t a hard recipe, it does have a handful of ingredients that are a bit longer than our normal list.
Given that, we really think that you need each of the ingredients to make a delicious vegan hot dog recipe.
Full amounts listed in printable recipe card below.
The ingredients that you need for this recipe are:
- Dried lentils
- Vegetable broth
- Oat flour
- Ground flax seed
- Red onion
- Carrot
- Lemon juice
- Spinach
- Tomato paste
- Garlic
- Vegan worcestershire sauce
- Liquid smoke
- Italian seasoning
- Black Pepper
- Cumin
- Dried Marjoram
- Nutmeg
- Mustard powder
- Smoke Paprika
- Celery Salt
As you can see, it’s quite a list of ingredients. More than half of them are spices though, so that helps know that it’s not a ton of hard to use ingredients.
WHERE CAN YOU BUY VEGAN WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE?
We have started to finally find the Annie’s brand vegan Worcestershire in our local stores; however for this particular recipe, since we were trying to create a gluten free recipe, we went with a gluten free vegan Worcestershire sauce found on Amazon.
How do you make vegan hot dogs?
The overall process is not hard, but there are a few moving parts to these vegetarian hot dogs.
First, you want to add your vegetable broth to a pan and cook the lentils until soft, about 30 minutes.
While that is cooking, you want to make your oat flour if you didn’t buy store bought. You do this by just processing it until a fine powder forms in a food processor.
Once you have that ready, you are going to put all your remaining ingredients into a food processor, including the cooked lentils when done and puree until everything is well blended.
Next, refrigerate your mixture for four hours, or overnight. This allows for the ingredients to come together and bind well. If you skip this step they will not hold together well.
Once your mixture is chilled, you can roll the meat into hot dog shaped forms. Then, cook the mixture in an air fryer at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, flipping once halfway through.
Remove from heat and place on hot dog buns with your favorite toppings.
CAN I MAKE THESE VEGAN HOT DOGS IN THE OVEN?
Yes! You can definitely make them in the oven; however they are a bit more temperamental than in the air fryer. They also don’t get as crisp as they do in the air fryer either. For those two reasons, we highly recommend using an air fryer for these vegetarian hot dogs instead of the oven.
However, if you don’t have an air fryer, we recommend cooking them for 23-27 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees F on a very well greased pan.
Halfway through making them you are going to want to flip them over. They may stick. If this is the case, we recommend leaving them out and waiting for a few minutes to cool down, then carefully flipping, and returning back to the oven for the remaining cooking time.
What is the best way to mold these vegan hot dogs?
There are a few different ways that you can do this.
One way, would be to purchase silicone hot dog molds. We found that these were on the smaller side and while they were great for our kids, they would leave little to be desired for an adult unless you took two and molded them together after cooking.
Another method is to shape by hand. You will need very well oiled hands and use them to mold into a hot dog like shape before placing in the air fryer on to a baking sheet.
And lastly, our preferred way after making them for a few times is to place a scoop onto a piece of wax paper and then, holding two sides, move the sides up and down until it molds into a long log, or hot dog shape. Helping mold when needed. Then, roll onto the air fryer or baking sheet, depending on which method you are using.
CAN I MAKE THIS TOP 8 ALLERGEN FRIENDLY HOT DOGS?
As the recipe is written for these vegan hot dogs, there is soy in the recipe. The ingredient that contains these is the vegan Worcestershire sauce (soy and wheat).
You could also purchase a gluten free version of the worcestershire sauce.
As far as the soy, I haven’t yet found a vegan version that you can buy that doesn’t contain soy; however, you could make your own homemade worcestershire sauce, like this one, and replace the soy sauce with a no soy soy free sauce.
It does take work, but it is possible to make these Top 8 Allergy friendly and not sacrifice the flavor that anyone else is able to achieve!
WHAT OTHER VEGAN MEALS SHOULD I TRY?
Once you try our amazing vegan hot dogs, you may be wondering what other delicious vegan meal ideas you should try. We’ve rounded up a few that we love ourselves and think you will too!
- The Best Vegan Black Bean Burger
- Cashew, Chickpea, and Broccoli with Garlic Sauce Skillet
- Best Vegan Chickpea Burgers
- Vegan Cauliflower Coconut Curry
- The Best Vegan Lasagna
- Vegan Walnut Taco Meat
Pin these vegan hot dogs for later:
*Bonus Tip!*
You can use this same mixture to make vegan meatballs or vegan burgers. Just roll into desired shape after refrigerating.
They are perfect with some homemade BBQ sauce on some rolls or buns. Give it a try and let us know what you think!
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Homemade Vegan Hot Dogs
Ingredients
- ½ cup dried lentils, rinsed and drained
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 1 tablespoon flax
- ½ large red onion, chopped into 4 pieces
- ½ large carrot, cubed
- ½ juice of lemon
- 1 cup baby spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 ½ cups oat flour, or 1 ½ cup rolled outs made into oat flour, see directions
- 1 tablespoon vegan worcestershire sauce
- ½ tablespoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon liquid smoke
- ½ tsp cumin
- ½ teaspoon mustard powder
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon dried marjoram
- ⅛ teaspoon celery salt
- 1 pinch nutmeg
- hot dog buns
Instructions
- Add vegetable broth to a pan over medium heat.
- Add in lentils and cook until soft and no liquid remains, about 30 minutes.
- While that is cooking, make oat flour if needed by putting rolled oats into a food processor and blending until it's a fine powder. *Skip this step if using store bought oat flour.
- Chop your vegetables as directed.
- Put all remaining ingredients into a food processor, including the cooked lentils when done, and puree until everything is well blended.
- Refrigerate mixture for four hours, or overnight.
- Once mixture is chilled, scoop out the mixture into 4-6 equal size portions depending on how big you want.
- Roll the mixture into hot dog shaped forms. *Preferred method (see post for other options to doing this:Place a scoop onto a piece of wax paper and then, holding two sides, move the sides up and down until it molds into a long log, or hot dog shape. Helping mold when needed.
- Cook hot dogs in an air fryer at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes, very carefully flipping once halfway through. *See post for oven directions.
- Remove from heat and place on hot dog buns with your favorite toppings.
Notes
Video
Nutrition
This post was originally published on 7/24/2019 and updated on 5/7/2020 to Include a video.
Can frozen spinach be substituted for fresh? If so, what amount (thawed and squeezed) should be used? Thanks.
You’ll want a 10oz package that’s thawed and fully squeezed out of the excess water
Is there anything that I could use in place of the dried marjoram?
dried oregano or thyme
Thank you
Welcome!
Do you use red or brown lentils for the recipe?
Thank you for sharing… Jenjen
brown
Sorry, but I couldn’t find the instructions for baking them in the oven. Thanks for the recipe.
From the post:
However, if you don’t have an air fryer, we recommend cooking them for 23-27 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees F on a very well greased pan.
Halfway through making them you are going to want to flip them over. They may stick. If this is the case, we recommend leaving them out and waiting for a few minutes to cool down, then carefully flipping, and returning back to the oven for the remaining cooking time.
freezing after step 8 or step 10? thanks for sharing!
Either would work, but after 10 preferred
I’m excited to try a few of the recipes that were shown while looking at the vegan hotdog recipe. They ALL made me want to get in the kitchen and start experimenting! Thank you.
Hope you enjoy!
So delicious! My husband who is a meat eater loved them. Going to a barbecue this weekend and I’m going to bring some along.
So happy to hear that you all enjoyed them! Appreciate you taking the time to leave a review