When Chris Borges, executive chef at New Orleans’ vibrant Virgin Hotel, was cooking up a playful new dish for the on-site Commons Club, he envisioned a combination of two crowd-pleasers: sliders and fried green tomatoes. “With the Super Bowl in New Orleans, I wanted to create a slider that is Southern in inspiration,” says Borges. “Plus, I wanted to make a vegetarian slider, as almost all sliders tend to be so meat-centric that the whole genre excludes vegetarians.”

With the addition of mustardy fennel chow chow and pecan romesco sauce, the sliders are tangy, rich, sweet, and savory all in one bite. As a nod to the chef’s New Orleans roots, pecans replace classic almonds in the romesco, while the chow chow’s anise notes spotlight a prevalent regional flavor. Both condiments riff beautifully with fish, pork, or veggies, and the romesco even moonlights as a zesty seafood dip.
“To me these sliders are the perfect party food for the new South,” Borges says. “They’re not completely stuck in the past, as would be with a fried green tomato slider paired with pimento cheese, but a contemporary take.”
Since the green tomatoes are fried in batches, Borges recommends keeping the cooked ones warm in the oven as you work. As a timesaver, both the romesco and chow chow can be made in advance and stored in the fridge, but allow them to come to room temperature before assembling to prevent cooling the fried tomatoes.