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!”
Finally! A veggie burger that stays together! I’ve attempted a few different veggie burger recipes, but this one has by far been the best one! We already had all of the ingredients in the house, and the recipe was straight forward. I used homemade bread crumbs by baking 2 pieces of bread at 250 for 10 minutes and then put it in a food processor. I was able to get 7 Patties from the recipe. The texture of the burger was great and it had a ton of flavor!
I’m so happy to hear the recipe’s a hit, Ryan! It’s a big favourite around here, too.
I just made these and they are hands down the best veggie burgers i’ve ever had. Thanks for the recipe
So glad you enjoyed them, Susan!! They’re a big fave at my house, too. :)
This was delicious! I’m not a fan of burgers that just taste like beans and this was perfect! I really enjoyed the texture the oats gave it as well. Thank you for such a yummy recipe!
So glad the recipe was a hit, Allison!
I can confirm – these are easy and awesome. Likely to become a weekly staple in our house :)
This month I have been trying to do a healthier food choice, I’ve been trying veggie as well, this recipe sounds delicious and the comments prove that, definitely trying this very soon :D
Hope you enjoy it, Ana!
With the leftover mixture of this recipe I made a wonderful vegetarian “kofta” curry. I shaped the mixture into “balls” and fried them with very little sunflower seed oil. Once they were golden all over I set them aside and made my “kari” or curry. I browned some onions and put them aside, I made fresh crushed garlic, crushed ginger, ground cumin, cayenne, paprika, into a paste and fried it in some sunflower seed oil until the mixture separated the oil from the paste and salted to taste. I added the browned onions and finally slowly released the veggie balls into the “kari”. it was excellent. I served with Basmati rice and cucumber salad.
Thanks for your great recipe.
I read this article http://animal-welfare.org/worlds-best-burger/.
Found out that a foodie startup named Impossible Foods, has made a delicious vegan burger that meat lovers will enjoy.
The burgers are available at New York restaurant Momofuku Nishi, cost is affordable at $12.
These burgers are BOMB.
hearty, crispy, chewy- they even have a meat-like texture.
The preparation required some effort but it was WORTH IT!
will definitely make this again.
Thanks Angela!!
I’m so glad the burgers were a hit, Tiff!
Is this recipe for the perfect veggie burger in either of your cook books? I’d like to buy a book as a gift and this recipe is my fave
Ok, I tried this recipe last night. Loved it. it kept its shape, had great flavour and crunch and I could dress it up and it could take all the condiments. I love the texture so much that I am considering making into a vegetarian “kofta” curry with it, making them into a ball and releasing them into a spicy curry to eat with rice. Thank you!
Oh, that sounds like an awesome twist, Sonila! I’d love to hear how it goes if you try it.
Amazing!!!!! I couldn’t wait to go to the store so I used pink beans and added extra buckwheat flour instead of bread crumbs but this is now goin to be my go to burger recipe. I’m not just think My of all of the different spice combinations I might want to try. Thank you this recipe is fantastic
I love these veggie burgers!! I haven’t bought veggie burgers from the store ever since I tried this recipe. I double the recipe and freeze them so I can just take one out of the freezer whenever I want one (which could be 3 to 5 times a week lol). I don’t usually leave comments, but I just had to comment on this one because it’s hard to find a great veggie burger. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
Thanks so much for your comment, Traci! I absolutely love freezing homemade burger patties, too; it’s just such a great way to make sure you always have some on hand for when a burger craving strikes. ;)
These burgers were super easy to make, and now that I have all of the ingredients it will be much cheaper to keep making them. Forget the $7.99 bag of 4 patties, these are way better and cheaper in the long run! Thank you for the recipe!
Dear Oh She Glows:
I just ordered your two cookbooks on recommendation of my son’s girlfriend. This burger recipe looks wonderful, but I am wondering what to substitute for the oats, if anything. My son’s doctor has eliminated grains from his diet. I would like to make these burgers for them sometime. Do you have any suggestions for a substitute for the oats?
Thanks very much!
Hey Nora, Thank you so much for supporting my cookbooks. I hope you enjoy cooking your way through them! In terms of the veggie burger, I’m sorry I don’t have an alternative at this time. I will definitely keep your question in mind the next time I make them though. If I was going to try something I might try a mix of almond meal or flour and arrowroot or potato starch (for binding), but I really wouldn’t know until it was tested a few times. All my best!
I have this same issue. Have you managed to do this burger grain free in the meantime?
These look great; thank you for providing the recipe. I wonder, though, about the discussion in the comments about using flax eggs versus real eggs. I don’t see eggs in the recipe list at all. Can you please clarify whether you still recommend them for the recipe and how many? Thank you.
Hey there! Thanks for the great question. The flax “eggs” are really just the 3 tablespoons of ground flax and 1/3 cup of warm water that you whisk together and set aside for 5 minutes or so in the second step. This little mixture helps everything stick together! (One flax egg is 1 tablespoon of flaxseed and 2.5-3 tablespoons of water, so this recipe takes the equivalent of about 3 flax eggs.) Does that help clarify things at all? Please let me know if you have any further questions!
I love this recipe…use it all the time.. it also makes a wonderful veggie loaf too. Absolutely yummy!!!
I’m so happy to hear that, Tanya! And what a great idea to use the recipe as a veggie loaf, too. :)
!!!@#$!! Trying to overcome a lifetime’s suspicion of vegetables and this marks a revolutionary moment in the evolution process! LOVE it! Thanks for sharing your awesome skills :-)
Aw, I’m so happy this recipe was a winner for you, Alex! :)
This is the fourth recipe I’ve made from your website, and it did not disappoint! I’m not a vegetarian or a vegan, but I absolutely love your recipes. You are so talented, Angela! The veggie burgers were wonderful. I used just one egg white and they bound together perfectly. I’ll be making these again.
First, I want to congratulate you on your blogging style. You didn’t drone on and on in the begining about irrelevant chatter. And you got right to the recipe. I despise scrolling for so long that my hand hurts just to read the recipe! Next, and most importantly, the recipe is awesome! Thanks so much!!?
Good recipe but wish I would have read the whole thing til the end. I baked the patties in the oven as indicated in the recipe and the burgers turned out dry. The skillet with oil is really the best way to go. I would have known this if i had read on! I froze the remaining patties. Next time, I’ll heat one up in a skillet with a good quality oil and flip it a few times til it’s nice and warm. That way, hopefully it will be more moist.
you may think they are dried out, but if you freeze them like they say, they are great warmed up and not dry at all.
What an awesome recipe. I made it last night and it was good but it got better after a night in the fridge. Its moist and packed with great flavors. The sunflower seeds were a great addition to this recipe.