For the past several months, I’ve been on a quest to make a veggie burger that had everything on our wish list. I’ve probably made over 100 veggie burgers and they all came up short, either by just a tiny bit or by a landslide.
I’m always asked what I do with failed recipes and my answer is usually the same- I eat them! An imperfect veggie burger crumbled over a salad is quite tasty. Same goes for a doughy muffin crumbled over a bowl of Vegan Overnight Oats. Unless something I make is really gross, I eat it.
However, I am picky about three things:
1) The recipes that I post on the blog
2) Homemade Veggie burgers
3) Tying my running shoes before a run (I always stop once to re-tie them, lol)
Now you know. :)
Eric and I put together a ‘must-have’ list of requirements during our mission. Veggie burgers are serious business around here and we have quite a checklist. ;)
Our veggie burger must haves:
- Can’t be mushy in the middle (the problem I have the most)
- Crispy outer shell
- Lots of flavour from fresh herbs & spices
- No tofu (not a fan)
- Crunchy, chewy texture is a must
- No cracking or falling apart (another common problem)
- Must cook well 3 ways: frying pan, oven, and BBQ
- Could make a grown man shed a tear of joy (ok, that was my requirement, heh)
If one of those elements is missing, the recipe is as dead to me as the burgers flippin’ on the McDonald’s grill!
After writing about my most recent Lemon Rosemary burger fail (that drove me to make PB Crunch Blizzards), I received an email from a lovely reader named Jenny who must have known that I was one failed veggie burger short of being buckled into a straitjacket.
Jenny writes, “After reading your post today, which has me day-dreaming about cookie dough blizzards by the way, I wanted to share with you the best veggie burger recipe our family has come across (even my meat-lovin’ husband requests them from time to time!). The recipe is from the Whitewater ski area in Nelson, BC and hasn’t failed us yet. It isn’t vegan but I’m sure you can work your magic to make it so.”
Isn’t Jenny great?
After reading Jenny’s email, I flew into the kitchen so fast my processor spun. I figured there was a 0.0002% chance they would work, so I was quite hopeful.
As luck would have it, magic did happen in my kitchen that fateful evening as Eric patiently awaited the outcome, fearing he’d be served yet another bowl of cereal.
He wasn’t. :)
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Our Perfect Veggie Burger
Yield
8 burgers
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Crunchy, chewy, with a crispy outer shell, these delicious veggie burgers have all the right elements we love in a veggie burger. Light on the beans, these burgers aren’t mushy in the middle, but have a nice mixture of veggies, bread crumbs, chopped oats, sunflower seeds, and spices to round them out. This recipe is inspired by Whitewater Cooks.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons ground flax
- 1/3 cup (80 mL) warm water
- 1 (14-ounce/398 mL) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
- 3/4 cup finely chopped red onion or yellow onion
- 2 large garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1/3 cup finely chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
- 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 mL) tamari, to taste
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 cup rolled oats, processed into a coarse meal*
- 1/2 cup spelt bread crumbs (or bread crumbs of choice)
- 1 to 2 tablespoons oat flour (or flour of choice), as needed
- 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk the ground flax and water in a small bowl and set aside for about 5 minutes so it can thicken.
- Into a large mixing bowl, add the drained black beans. With a potato masher, mash the beans until 2/3 of the mixture is a bean "paste" while leaving about 1/3 of the beans mostly intact.
- In a medium skillet, add the oil and increase the heat to medium. Stir in the onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Sauté for 3 to 5 minutes, until the onion softens. Transfer the onion mixture into the bowl with the mashed beans.
- Stir in the flax egg, grated carrots, parsley (or cilantro), sunflower seeds, tamari, chili powder, oregano, and cumin until thoroughly combined.
- Now, stir in the coarsely chopped oats, bread crumbs, and oat flour until the mixture comes together. It should be easy to shape the dough into patties. Stir in the salt and pepper, to taste.
- Shape the dough into 8 patties (roughly 1/3 cup of dough per patty). Pack the dough together tightly as this will help it stick together. Place onto the baking sheet.
- Bake patties for 15 minutes, gently flip, and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until patties are firm and golden.
- Cool the patties on a cooling rack for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. This helps them firm up a bit.
- Serve in a bun or lettuce wrap with your desired toppings. Leftover burgers will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 2 to 3 days, or you can freeze cooled patties for up to 1 month. Simply wrap each patty in tinfoil and then place all of the wrapped burgers into a zip freezer bag.
Tip:
- * To coarsely chop the oats, add 1/2 cup rolled oats into a food processor. Process the oats until a coarse meal forms (the chopped pieces will be a mixture of powder and chopped oats just smaller than rice). Be sure not to process too long or the oats will turn into flour.
- Make it gluten-free: Use certified gluten-free oats, gluten-free Tamari, and gluten-free breadcrumbs.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
This veggie burger ‘dough’ is so good to eat straight from the bowl! Another thing I learned during my mission: if the ‘dough’ doesn’t wow you, the burgers won’t either. Don’t be afraid to adjust the seasonings to taste.
For my first trial, I didn’t process the oats into a flour and they didn’t hold together very well when frying. For my second trial, I used oat flour instead of whole oats and they held together very well!
Before baking in the oven:
I love my silpat, but you can also use parchment paper.
After baking for 20 mins. on each side…crispy and golden!
Our preferred method of cooking is on the skillet, fried in a bit of oil. The burgers get this crispy shell similar to a hash brown! We already have plans to fry the ‘dough’ in a skillet for breakfast.
We also tried them on the BBQ, which also worked well. Pre-cook them in the oven for about 15 minutes first to firm them up a bit.
Then I raided the garden…
On the side, kale chips and ketchup.
On the burgers, we had homemade BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes. The second night, we had guacamole and pico de gallo on top- incredible!
I hope you love ‘em too!
I think this comment from Dawn says it all:
“Throw out any of your other veggie burger recipes! Seriously. This. Is. The. One! No weird ingredients. I’m no gourmet foodie, I’m just plain jane and have regular things in my pantry and fridge and I had all of these ingredients. I added about 1 Tbsp chopped jalapeno (from a jar of sliced jalapenos). Love the sunflower seeds!! Do not over chop the black beans. I recommend mixing by hand in a bowl. I used my kitchen aid and they were too mush-i-fied. Even with my mess ups, these were very, very good. I immediately ate one from pan fried. The others I baked and will freeze. Then I will give them a try on the barbecue. Truly. I am going to remove other recipes from my Pinterest, and toss the others from my recipe box.
Thank you for making the Perfect Veggie Burger recipe!”
These were a great hit tonight! Thank you for the recipe. I did use eggs instead of flax eggs. I will have to try that next time. :)
Hi! What a GREAT recipe! Made a whole batch last night – I froze most of them (will see how they last), and my husband and I took the rest to work today.
I made them over the stove, and I love that they don’t taste like they were deep-fried.
I doubled your recipe, and substituted chickpeas for beans, dill for parsley, and real eggs (what I had in the house). Absolutely scrumptious.
Thank you, thank you! :)
Thank you for such a great recipe. It’s a snow day today (yippee) and I decided to make this recipe as a treat for my daughter and husband ( and myself of course!). They were delish!!!! My husband despises mushy burgers and these were the first I’ve made that were a hit. We paired it with a vegan Cesar and your lighten- up crispy baked fries. Mmmmmmmm. Thanks for a fabulous lunch on our snow day :-)
Hi Adrienne, Im so glad you enjoyed them! We had a snow day too :)
I’m a little torn on these, I think maybe it’s too much bread crumbs. Kind of a bread on bread texture when put into a bun, but I do like the flavor and all the nuts and seeds!
These look amazing! I am not sure if you already answered this somewhere in here, but I couldn’t find it. I am allergic to almonds but not other nuts- could I substitute maybe walnuts instead?
Thanks!
Katie
I can’t see why that wouldn’t work! I’m sure it’s fine. Enjoy :) and let me know how it turns out!
This is like a vegan test kitchen! I’m so glad I found this site!!!! Thanks for all the wonderful recipes.
I just made these veggie burgers for the second time. They are so good I can’t stand to be without them! I have only been a vegetarian for six months and I was disappointed with my choices in the grocery store. I tried other recipes, as well. Having a supply of these in the freezer really helps me with my commitment to vegetarianism and that gives me peace of mind. Thank you!
Absolutely loved this recipe. We were looking for a way to use the pulp from our juicer, and instead of the shredded carrots, the pulp (carrots, beets and celery) seemed to work just fine.
OMG!!! Thank you so much!!! I´m going to try this recipe ASAP… looks yummy!
Best. Burgers. Ever. Served these to a long time vegan (I’m leaning there myself) and these made me look like I knew what I was doing! Thanks so much for the recipe.
These are as perfect as you promised! Thanks to you, we have permanently kicked the Morningstar/Boca processed burger habit!
Only tweak I will make is adding some smoked chipotle powder next time.
Pan fried as you suggested.
Love this recipe and your blog!
I am very happy to report that this recipe delivers as promised! Having had more than a few disappointing attempts at making a veggie burger I refused to get my hopes up this time around. Much to my delight I now have a recipe for veggie burgers that cook through, don’t crumble at all, are firm and crispy on the out side and can be frozen and thawed without issue.
I don’t tolerate oats so I swapped out the oat flower for brown rice flower and used 3 real eggs and they were still great.
Thanks Angela!
i loved these. it was hard to not eat all of it at once! i pan fried them. thank you thank you!!!
Frying is the only way to go. I got only 5 burgers out of the recipe, because my super carnivore husband needs to feel like he is eating a manly burger. Because they were so thick, I microwaved them for a couple of minutes after the outer portion was crispy and nicely browned, to be sure that the center was hot, since I had assembled the patties the day before, and they went to the frying pan from the refrigerator. He loved them, and he doesn’t love anything I make. I stored the left over burgers in the freezer, and I will thaw and microwave for lunches. YUM!
I made these last night and oh my goodness, heaven in my mouth! I LOVE the texture, everything works so well together! The only thing I changed was instead of parsley I used cilantro because I’m obsessed with it. I fed one last night to a carnivore friend and she said it changed her life a bit :)
I’ve made some really tasty veggie patties in the past, but they’re always mushy and fall out of the bun, etc etc. Delicious or no, the falling apart was annoying.
This recipe, the consistency is perfect.
I will be making these again and again, thank you so much!
Hello Angela,
I have made these burgers twice now, and they are so good. I eat them with some lettuce, tomato, cheese and avacado – no bun.
I made them again today and copletely forgot to add the seeds ad nuts, but they still taste great.
Thank you for a great vegan burger, and other vegan recipes.
.
I’m so happy you enjoy them Yvonne!
I made these tonight and they were delicious! Given that I had to make quite a few substitutions, I think the star of the recipe is the sunflower seeds! I used chickpeas for the black beans, rice for the oat flour, skipped the almonds, and used celery leaves for the parsley. Because I didn’t have the black beans, I went with another writer’s idea and used basil (dried), along with cumin and few dashes of fennel seeds. Crunchy and oh so good! Glad I made a full batch for myself – lunch for the next few days of 12-hour shifts. Thanks!
Forgot to say I made them in the oven. Worked just fine.
You are darn right about these being the perfect veggie burger!!! My son has even requested I make him a batch to take back to school with him. I will definitely be keeping a batch of these in hand. Thank you for such a great recipe.
I made these the other night…verdict? So good! I made a few modifications though (wanted to use what I already had on hand): used whole wheat flour instead of oat flour, pecans instead of almonds, 3 slices olive bread loaf instead of bread crumbs, sesame seeds instead of sunflower, peas instead of grated carrot, pinto beans instead of black. The whole wheat flour probably made these more dense, but they were still great! I used leftover patties for breakfast borrito’s (heated in skillet, then crumbled).
I love to cook, but as I was making these I thought to myself, this is a lot of prep work for veggie burgers. When they were done, I realized it was so worth it. They are delicious! The best I’ve had. Next time I will double the recipe and freeze them into burgers and “meat”balls. Yummy!