The best football-party food fits the following criteria: It must be easy to eat mindlessly, it must be dippable and it needs to go with cheap beer.

For millions of American households, that means that their Super Bowl parties stand upon the two salty pillars of animal grease and cheese -- their coffee tables piled high with buffalo wings, barbecue, pizza, burgers and pork pork pork. For vegans, vegetarians and people with lactose intolerance or other allergies, that means having to get really comfortable with the chips and salsa for three hours.

Accommodating a vegan diet may be intimidating or even befuddling to many people. It not only excludes the obvious meat, dairy and egg products, but also trickier ingredients such as honey and gelatin. Vegans and those with allergies typically have to be on high alert when they encounter food that they haven't made themselves.

Can football maniacs and vegans ever reconcile? Emily Iwuc, a veteran vegan Super Bowl party host, thinks that they can. She says, "To me, the Super Bowl is about eating a lot of food that is pretty bad but delicious. And you can make a lot of pretty bad vegan analogues!" To wit, many vegans want to eat junk food just as much as omnivores do, so why not let everyone join in the fun? Cutting down on the grease might even save you the cost of the morning-after antacids, which seem to be as much a part of the ritual as the food itself.

According to Iwuc, the greatest challenge in holding an exclusively vegan party is figuring out which foods translate well enough to satisfy the meat eaters.

"When I'm figuring out what to make, I'm thinking, 'How do I prevent people from getting fed up and just ordering KFC or pizza?'" she says. "The key is filling that junk-food niche and not leaving people disappointed, hoping for the real thing."

Meagan Holtgrewe of the blog Rhymes With Vegan says her repertoire of football-party food includes smoked "sausage"-style jambalaya, a tostada bar, spicy mock duck lettuce wraps and barbecue pulled-"pork" sandwiches with creamy potato salad. Iwuc plans to offer pierogi, buffalo seitan nuggets and sweet potato fries at her party this Sunday.

Instead of the traditional potato-skin toppings of bacon and cheddar cheese, try slivers of sun-dried tomatoes, caramelized onions and nutritional yeast. Serve them with a side of dill and horseradish Tofutti sour cream (which, by god, actually tastes like its dairy-based counterpart). If you want to get all fancy and Miami-themed, make plantain and black bean fritters with a side of mango-habanero salsa for dipping. Though, yes, Oreos are technically vegan, do your friends one better and get some ginger or chocolate Newman-Os. And of course, you shouldn't neglect to crack out the chips and salsa.

For a black bean and plantain fritters recipe, check out www.heavytable.com this week.

The Churn

Valentine's Day dining starts early next week. Get three courses for $25 at D'Amico restaurants starting Monday. 20.21 at the Walker Art Center starts its menu on Tuesday at $80 a person. And Heartland's five-course, $75 dinner starts Feb. 12.

Chef Chris Olson (of the underground dining series "Paired") is teaming up with the Bell Museum of Natural History and the Heavy Table to present a five-course dinner focused on the evolution of cooking on Tuesday. For more information and reservations, visit www.bellmuseum.org.