One of the funniest parts of “The Avengers” franchise is when Steve Rogers’ butt is referred to as “America’s ass.”

For the first Veg Out super hero movie pairing, I knew I wanted to pick “Captain America,” my favorite movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Hot dogs seemed like another natural choice. And when my fiancé joked that I should call this pairing America’s Weiner, it stuck.*

This recipe, which makes 4 “servings,” is pretty open and can be adapted for whatever dietary restrictions you have. The particular hot dogs we made with all the toppings are vegetarian.
You might be familiar with America’s ass, now meet America’s weiner.

Ingredients
4 sausage-style pretzel buns
4 vegan hot dogs
toppings of your choice (can include relish, mustard, ketchup, cheese, onions, peppers, chili)
sides of your choice (can include baked beans, fries, potato salad, coleslaw, pasta salad)

Instructions
Fire up your grill or grilling pan. As apartment dwellers, we love our cast iron grill pan.

Slice your pretzel buns and toast them for about a minute. You can use different buns, but these are our favorites.

While you grill the hot dogs for about 5 minutes on each side, make sure your toppings and sides are ready.

I like to put a little cheese on my bun before the hot dog so it gets nice and melty.

For our toppings this go around, we had shredded cheddar, relish and mustard. They are my three favorite hot dog toppings.

For a side, we had a packet of cowboy beans that we heated up in the microwave.

Once your hot dogs are ready, place them in your toasted buns. Then top them and load up your plate with your favorite sides.

The Easy Route
This is already one of the easiest routes, especially if you purchase pre-made sides or pre-sliced/chopped/shredded toppings. Of course, you can always order a few hot dogs and sides for takeout or delivery to devour while you watch America’s ass—we mean “Captain America.”

The Pairing
I enjoyed “Iron Man,” but between the 1940s storyline and the chemistry between Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) and Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), “Captain America: The First Avenger” is what really sold me on the whole “Avengers” franchise.

This origin story is compelling from start to finish, and parts of it really reminded me of classic films from the ’40s.

Evans and Atwell, who both turn out star-making performances, are joined by Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Hugo Weaving, Tommy Lee Jones, Stanley Tucci and Toby Jones in the cast.

Atwell’s Peggy is everything you want in a modern-day superhero’s right-hand gal. Yes, they’re clearly in love, but she can also handle herself in a fight, both physically and mentally.

Don’t get me wrong, Evans and the rest of the supporting cast are great, but Atwell is perfect as Peggy, and it didn’t surprise me when ABC gave her a spinoff show, “Agent Carter” (which will be the subject of a future blog post).

Whenever any of these “Captain America” characters popped up in later “Avengers” movies, I always lit up thinking back to how much I loved watching this movie.

What’s your favorite film or show from the MCU? What food would you pair with it? Tell us in the comments.

If you decide to make hot dogs and/or watch “Captain America,” let us know! Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes

*A week or two after I tested this recipe and wrote the blog post, the promotional materials for “Lightyear,” where Evans plays the titular Buzz, started to come out. I laughed so hard when I saw Buzz plastered on a package of veggie dogs, the brand I used in this post. Now Chris Evans is officially both America’s ass and America’s weiner.