Toast soft hot dog buns with garlic butter until golden and fragrant for a simple side that turns an ordinary shelf into comfort food. They soak up sauce, soup, or stew, or stand alone as bread for a quick meal. This is how you make something from nothing.

Serves 2. 10 minutes, 5 at the stove.

About 450 calories a serving, 24 g protein, 4 g carbohydrate, 37 g fat. From USDA figures for 100% of the ingredients; amounts are the recipe's.

Cook mode

1. Mince 2 cloves garlic. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a small skillet over medium heat and stir in the garlic with a pinch of salt. Cook until fragrant, about one minute.1 min
2. Open the 4 buns and brush the cut sides generously with the garlic butter. Place them cut side up on a baking sheet.
3. Set a toaster oven to 400°F [200°C] and toast the buns until golden and crisp at the edges, about 5 minutes. Watch them so the edges do not char.5 min

Note Serve these warm with soup, stew, or bean chili to soak up the sauce, or split one and fill it with leftovers from the night before. Store cooled buns in a paper bag for one day. To stretch them into two meals, top one hot bun with butter and a fried egg for breakfast toast, or use crumbled pieces to thicken a thin soup.