CHOW Veggie Burger
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 1 hr
Active: 30 mins
Makes: 7 burgers
By Regan Burns
In this age of vegetarianism, veganism, and other restrictive diets, veggie burgers have become nearly as ubiquitous as regular hamburgers, and unfortunately, mediocre versions are rampant. While we find the premade frozen patties OK, we prefer to make our burgers ourselves. A sampling of house-made restaurant burgers left a lot to be desired, so we set off on a mission to create the very best veggie burger. The following is our stab at the perfect formula.
What to buy: TVP, short for textured vegetable protein, is a meat substitute made from soybeans that is low in fat, high in protein, and has a pleasingly chewy texture. It is often found in dried, flaked form in the bulk foods section of grocery stores.
Game plan: Be sure to have the lentils and rice cooked before starting the recipe (leftover brown rice from your Chinese takeout works great). For the lentils, start with 1/4 cup dry lentils and cook according to the package directions. For the brown rice, use 3/4 cup uncooked rice.
This recipe was also featured as part of our Hamburger Through Time story.
- 1 cup dry TVP (textured vegetable protein)
- 3/4 cup hot water
- 1 cup grated zucchini (about 1 medium zucchini)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup minced yellow onion (about 1/2 medium onion)
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced
- 3/4 cup grated carrot (about 1 carrot)
- 1/3 cup peeled, shredded red beet (about 1/2 large beet)
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons dry mustard, such as Colman’s
- 1 1/2 cups cooked short-grain brown rice (about 3/4 cup dry)
- 2/3 cup cooked brown lentils (about 1/4 cup dry)
- 2 tablespoons minced Italian parsley leaves
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 1 cup coarse whole-wheat panko, such as Ian’s
- 3/4 cup sliced cremini mushrooms
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg white
- 3 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 7 whole-wheat buns or kaiser rolls, for serving
- In a medium bowl, combine TVP with water. Stir and set aside until ready to use.
- Toss zucchini with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and put in a colander or strainer set over a bowl to drain, at least 10 minutes. Squeeze zucchini mixture to release excess water and set aside, discarding the liquid.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. When oil shimmers, add onion and garlic, and cook until vegetables are soft and translucent, about 5 to 6 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of the soaked TVP mixture, zucchini, carrot, beet, 1/4 cup of the sunflower seeds, tomato paste, dry mustard, 3/4 cup of the brown rice, 1/4 cup of the lentils, parsley, thyme, and 1/2 cup of the panko. Add the sautéed onion and garlic, and mix well; set aside.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in the same frying pan over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Transfer mushrooms to the bowl of a food processor; add egg, egg white, tamari, pepper, and remaining salt, TVP, lentils, brown rice, sunflower seeds, and panko. Process until mixture is well combined and uniform, about 30 to 45 seconds. (Mixture will not be smooth.)
- Add puréed mushroom mixture to reserved vegetable mixture and combine well (using your hands works best). Form mixture into 7 patties (about 3/4 cup each) and place them on a baking sheet. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 3 patties to the pan and brown on one side, about 6 to 7 minutes; flip burgers and continue cooking until crispy and heated through, about 5 to 6 minutes more. Repeat with remaining patties and serve on whole-wheat buns or kaiser rolls with your favorite toppings.
Beverage pairing: Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Reserva, Chile. The Casablanca Valley in Chile is one of the coolest places to grow wine grapes in South America. Consequently, this Sauvignon Blanc is zingy and bright, with grassy, citrus, herbal flavors that will complement this earthy burger.
COMMENTS | ADD YOUR OWN
I read tamari for tahini for a second and was SO confused. Haha tamari makes much more sence. I like the addition of ww panko for some heartiness. I make a version of these with some black beans and lots of cumin. The mushrooms in this sound delicious as well. Lots of ingredients for just a burger though!
Any word on whether these freeze OK? Looks like a long process, and it's always good to make a double-batch for future use.
sounds delicious, any nutritional info available?
no, mergek: we didn't track the nutritional info. sorry!
I think people here aren't stupid & getting rid of our comments doesn't make your veggie burger better, in fact it makes us want to go to leave Chowhound
hi Chow, how well do these freeze?
Rory, i think your comment is on the other page, atleast from what i can see?
hi, itsolivia. we didn't try freezing them during our tests. but, if you try it out, let us know how it goes! -chow test kitchen ;)
Hey mine is a lifestyle choice & here is what I'd make:)
grilled corn on the cob, served with salt chili & lime mexican style with indonesian bbq'ed wild rice tempeh in a peanut-coconut sauce.
I think that's fab & not 'restricted' at all
Rory
The instructions portion for the Veggie Burger does not print with this recipe!
That looks like the most ridiculously long ingredients list I've ever seen. As a lifelong vegetarian, I've never been able to make a superb veggie burger---I'm always on the lookout for a really great recipe---but this makes me want to make them even less. Plus the ingredients list looks waaaay too crunchy granola-y bad hippy foody to justify my making it. Who knows, it's probably delicious, but I'll never find out.
I tried out this veggie burger, long list of ingredients and all - sans the parsley and sunflower seeds - which i did not have. It tasted pretty good i must say - but Chow your measurements are way off. 1/4cup dry legumes yields more than 2/3 cup cooked. 3/4 cup dry rice yields way more than 11/2 cups rice. Also the burger was on the wet side - Maybe the sticky rice should be undercooked. The finaly assemblage of rice ,lentils, vegetables - like an indian meal in convenient , portable patty form resulted in way more than six patties - I got around 12! Of course mine were not the hyper jumbo too large that i crumble size. And yet each patty for some mysterious reason really really really filled you up. We never did get to the burger rolls or the onions or the tomatoes. This recipe definitely is a keeper, but needs a lot of tweaking.
Anybody else actually try this recipe?
Made these burgers last night for my wife and friend. Couldn't agree with mspresque more. It was a pretty good burger. Measurements are off, but hey I have some extra rice for tonight's dinner. I made some jumbo size burgers for 6. They came off as a little wet, but once cooked, it maintained it's shape, tightened up, and did not end up mushy as I thought it might be. The three other patties, that I froze, should have an even more solid texture.
It appears most commenters are looking for that store-bought soy patty. This is not it. I've never seen a recipe for a veggie burger that is like a Boca or Morningstar burger. With that in mind, I make plenty of veggie burger with a base using Gimme Lean faux-ground beef and add ingredients (veggies) to that. Creating a sort of meatloaf burger.
I digress. This is a DELICIOUS burger. There are a ton of ingredients. With cooking the rice and beans, this recipe is more of a 2 hour process. But, I knew that going into this. My friend (meat eater) said this was the second best veggie burger she has had. So, it's legitimate.
Well, I made these last night. Went to Whole Foods, picked up all the ingredients in their Organic form (except the rice which I buy 10lb bags of Organic Brown Basmati at Costco). I made 5 patties out of the batch, they were big, but about the same size as the house-made veggie burgers at a lot of the local "organic" restaurants in Boston so not bad.
I wouldn't say I followed the recipe exactly, I rough-measured the rice, TVP and stuff, but thats the way I cook in general). I would definitely suggest using about a 1/4-1/3 more zuchinni, beets and carrots and mushrooms than required, per taste for these ingredients.
But all in all they were delicious! Highly recommended for any other veggie burger lovers out there. I've got a few more recipes I've found on the interwebs to try, but this one is definitely a keeper!
Great work on this Chowhound community!!
I've used gold beets and red lentils for this which gives it a less raw-meat appearance. Also, using fresh thyme the second time around was a huge bonus!
This recipe looks very interesting and seems like a must-try! I make veggie burgers all the time but do not use TVP to try and keep things as natural as possible. For a twist, I add lots of cumin, cayenne, fresh cilantro, & ground flaxseeds for a mexican flavor. Was there any word on whether or not these freeze well?
they look good, but like a lot of work...
30 minutes doesn't look accurate if you have to cook rice and lentils and shred zucchini, beets, etc.
Is there any way to do this without a food processor? It looks fabulous, but I'm just too tired to round up all those ingredients and find myself a food processor...
I had leftover lentils that had been in a tikka masala-like sauce and used those. I swapped out half the amount of TVP for some tempeh and I added a dash of Worcestershire to the TVP when I swapped out the water for the TVP for some veg stock. I added some barbeque sauce in place of the tomato paste. And I swapped out the egg for some blended silken tofu (vegan). Finally I swapped out the beverage pairing for some Leffe blonde.
But otherwise, good recipe.
For those who find this too wet/ moist (and it is, compared to a meat patty or store-bought veg burger), use your juicer (if you have one) to pulp the beet, carrot, and zucchini. You end up with nice burger textured veg and you can add back some of the moisture from the juice to gain more control over the sloppiness of the burger.
any suggestions what can be used as a binder instead of egg?