CHOW Veggie Burger Recipe
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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.
Panko is coarse Japanese-style breadcrumbs, available in many 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 (from about 1 medium zucchini)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 cup minced yellow onion (from about 1/2 medium onion)
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced
- 3/4 cup grated carrot (from about 1 carrot)
- 1/3 cup peeled, shredded red beet (from about 1/2 large beet)
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
- 2 teaspoons tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons ground 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 the TVP and water. Stir and set aside until ready to use.
- Toss the zucchini with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and place in a colander or strainer set over a bowl to drain, at least 10 minutes. Squeeze the zucchini to release any excess water, then set aside, discarding the liquid.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. When it shimmers, add the onion and garlic and cook until the vegetables are soft and translucent, about 5 to 6 minutes.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine 1 cup of the soaked TVP mixture, the zucchini, carrot, beet, 1/4 cup of the sunflower seeds, the tomato paste, ground mustard, 3/4 cup of the brown rice, 1/4 cup of the lentils, the 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 the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender and nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Transfer the mushrooms to the bowl of a food processor; add the egg, egg white, tamari, pepper, and remaining salt, TVP, sunflower seeds, brown rice, lentils, and panko. Process until the mixture is well combined and uniform, about 30 to 45 seconds. (The mixture will not be smooth.)
- Add the puréed mushroom mixture to the reserved TVP mixture and combine well (using your hands works best). Form into 7 patties (about 3/4 cup each) and place on a baking sheet. Heat the 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 and continue cooking until the burgers are crispy and heated through, about 5 to 6 minutes more. Repeat with the 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.
How can this recipe be considered vegetarian or vegan worthy when it has an egg(liquid chicken) in it?TVP is not the best protein source as it is highly processed and soy effects thyroid hormone production.The lentils or beans are a better un-adulturated protein source.Please come again with a healthier nutrition oriented recipe.Thanks.
Agree with cinrucker all the way.
Oh no another veggie burger!! What? There's no tofu? OK I'll give it a try.
This recipe looked so complicated, I had to try it. 22 ingredients excluding the buns! It probably took me 2 hours to complete but they are quite good. The stuff looks incredibly similar to raw meat but is a little softer. I froze most of the burgers I made and yesterday, I microwaved one of those for 50 seconds then cooked it as the recipe suggests. There was no difference between the fresh and frozen versions.
I loved the "second job" comment, cinrucker!
Made these a few times. They're delicious but let's face it: making these burgers is like having a second job. Please Chow, try again with something that is less like a project and more like something I can make when I'm home from work.
We made this the other day, and I thought they were delicious! It's worth the extra time and long list of ingredients if you make them smaller than suggested, because than you have leftovers to freeze. Also, if they were thicker, I would think they would be too mushy in the center--as it stands, that texture is something you have to be prepared to deal with, and the center is not as firm as other, commercial veggie burgers. But--I still thought they were some of the very best veggie burgers I have ever eaten, let alone made at home. I didn't have any sunflower seeds, I used a whole onion and 4 garlic cloves, I upped the parsley by a few tablespoons, reduced the oil by about half, used heaping teaspoons of tomato paste, used a golden beet, and a generous amount of freshly ground pepper. They were fantastic. I froze them, and I plan on trying one out today to see how they work. Will report back.
For me to have a Burger like this one and its low in fat and high in protein gives me more on my menu to eat as a diabetic !!!!! from Nunzio Bagliere of syracuse N.Y
pardon my spelling/typing! //tom acito
well... I've tried thsi 2x and it's still not right. figuring out the order to combine things and in what was a lesson in patience. The 2nd time I KNOW I followed the instructions as I broke it down into 2 batches, processes and hand mixed. The pre cooked texture was spot on however the cooked texture is the same as uncooked, only browned onthe outside. They do not "set" and was just mushy with cruncy bits. Taste is great but suggestions to make these not pasty like raw beef would be welcome! toma@cafdewheels (if we can solve this and perhaps simplify a bit (a large bit...), I'll serve them from my food truck!
any suggestions what can be used as a binder instead of egg?
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.
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.
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...
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.
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?
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!
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!!
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.
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?
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.
The instructions portion for the Veggie Burger does not print with this recipe!
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
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 ;)
hi Chow, how well do these freeze?
Rory, i think your comment is on the other page, atleast from what i can see?
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
no, mergek: we didn't track the nutritional info. sorry!
sounds delicious, any nutritional info available?
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.
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!