How To Make Vegan Burgers: 4 Finger Lickin ‘recipes

The burgers are a quick very versatile food that can be perfectly healthy without resorting to rare ingredients or complicated techniques.

There are currently plenty of business options, but they are far from ideal. They use low-quality ingredients, prioritize appearance and aroma over nutritious, etc.

Therefore, the best solution is to make your own homemade vegan burgers, all are advantages :

• You choose the ingredients, what you want them to have and what not, always what you like
• They come out very cheap and they last you frozen for a long time
• They allow you to take advantage of leftovers from the fridge
• They save you time : from a good quantity of dough you get enough to store and then you just have to open and heat

Select the best ingredients to cook your vegetable burgers

For your hamburgers to be perfect, you have to keep these three keys in mind:

1. Choose a protein food as the base or main ingredient : legumes such as lentils, chickpeas or beans, and derivatives such as tofu, tempeh and textured soybeans.
2. The idea is to be able to shape it by hand or with a mold, compacting well, before storing or cooking it.
3. You must balance the dough so that it is neither dry nor too soft. This depends on the ingredients you use (now I’ll tell you more about that).

The protein part

The vegetables can be cooked and drained or germinated and drained. In the case of cooked legumes, you just have to crush them with a fork or a potato masher to form the dough and mix with the rest of the ingredients. If they are germinated, pass them through the mincer first, it will be easier this way.

The tofu can be crumbled with your hands, the tempeh can be grated with a grater, and the best textured soybeans are fine, which is similar to minced meat.

Unlike cooked legumes, sprouts, tofu, tempeh and textured soy are not very clumping, that is, when you take a portion and squeeze it, it does not retain its shape. For these cases you can add cereals, flours, other legumes, etc., in just the right amount to make a compact dough.

Texture and nutritional value

The grains and seeds add much flavor and good texture, especially if they are comprehensive. Brown rice, quinoa, oats, barley, bulgur wheat, buckwheat, millet, spelled …

The oat flakes or flaked absorbs moisture in the dough, so if you add liquid to make it softer oats also will absorb and binder will thank containing starches.

The rice and millet cooked can be crushed or left as is, agglomerate a little especially given texture. I really like to add cooked brown rice that I have left over from some other meal.

The quinoa is especially well. Made al dente, it does not melt and provides texture and a very good flavor, especially if you roast it a little before boiling it.

The rest of the cereals and seeds are great for adding colors and textures to hamburgers. They are not that clumping but you can always add a small amount of whole grain cereal or legume flour to bind.

The nuts are also a hoot on the burgers. Try chopped walnuts, sliced ​​almonds, pine nuts, etc. They do not agglomerate either, but they provide very good flavor and different textures.

The vegetables give much play: can provide from small amounts of color and flavor to change the entire texture, color and aroma.

• Roasted pumpkin, carrot and beetroot are always very good, they can be crushed with the rest of the ingredients and also agglomerate.
• The potato is not bad, but it can be a bit heavy.
• Peppers, both raw and roasted, are very good, as do onion, garlic, leeks, spinach, etc.

As vegetables in general provide liquid, your dough will be less dry. If it is too soft you can always add oatmeal, whole wheat flour or chickpea flour.

To give them flavor and aroma

To give flavor it is essential to use spices and sauces that give it that aroma and flavor that we are looking for. Although the ingredients we use will determine the flavor of the burger (for example, chickpeas and sweet potato), we can improve them even more with spices such as thyme, rosemary, parsley, oregano, basil, etc.

In general, the spices that are used in marinades and roasts are the best ones. Try thyme, rosemary, black pepper, smoked paprika, etc.

The soy sauce (shoyu or tamari) is also essential for a taste more akin to trade burgers. You need very little quantity and when the dough browns, a much more appetizing aroma will be noticed .

And there are many more ingredients that we can use to taste: breadcrumbs (preferably whole wheat), different flours (such as powdered gluten, which is what seitan is made with), liquids (water, vegetable milks …), pasta like tahini or miso, etc.

4 vegan burger recipes to put all this into practice

Try making these burgers and vary them to your liking with other ingredients to create your own different burgers. Gluten-free, soy-free. .. tailor-made for you!

Textured soy burgers and leeks

Ingredients

• 1 cup of fine textured soybeans
• ½ medium leek grated or finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 4 tablespoons flaked oats
• ½ cup of water
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon thyme
• ¼ teaspoon peppermint
• Olive oil to brown the burgers

Preparation

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the water, mix well, cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Stir the dough, form the medium-sized hamburgers (like with 2 tablespoons of dough), pressing them well with your hands or with a mold and grill them with a little oil, over medium heat, about 4 minutes on each side.

Tofu, quinoa and veggie burgers

Ingredients

• 250g extra hard tofu
• 1 cup of quinoa cooked and drained
• 2 roasted piquillo peppers
• 2 medium mushrooms
• 1 carrot
• ½ red onion
• 2 tablespoons whole wheat or spelled flour
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of tahini
• ¼ teaspoon thyme
• ¼ teaspoon parsley
• ¼ teaspoon chives
• A pinch of ground black pepper
• Olive oil to brown the burgers

Preparation

1. In a bowl, crumble the tofu with your hands, add the quinoa and mash everything together with a fork.
2. Finely chop the peppers, mushrooms, carrot and onion and add, mixing very well.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix very well. Knead it by hand and if when forming hamburgers they crumble, add a little more flour and mix very well again.
4. Make the patties a bit thick, with 2 tablespoons and a little more batter.
5. Brown them on the grill with a pinch of oil, over medium-low heat, about 5 minutes on each side.

Seitan burgers with rice

Ingredients

• 1 cup wheat gluten
• 1 cup of cooked brown rice (and drained)
• 2 tablespoons flaked oats
• 2 tablespoons of rice flour
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon thyme
• ¼ teaspoon rosemary
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• A pinch of ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of rice or apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup of water

Preparation

1. Mix the gluten with the oats, flour, garlic, thyme, rosemary, paprika and pepper in a bowl.
2. Add the rice, soy sauce, vinegar and water, mix and knead by hand for a few minutes. Cover it and let it rest for at least half an hour.
3. Shape the patties by squashing balls of dough, without paying too much attention to the shape (the important thing is that they are more or less the same thickness all over).
4. Grill over medium-low heat, covered, 5-6 minutes on each side.

Lentil burgers with walnuts

Ingredients

• 1 cup of lentils, cooked and drained
• 1 cup of rolled oats
• ¼ cup powdered wheat gluten
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• ½ cup peeled and chopped walnuts
• ¼ teaspoon onion powder
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ teaspoon sage
• ¼ teaspoon rosemary
• ¼ cup of water
• Olive oil to brown the burgers

Preparation

1. In a bowl, mash the lentils with the oats and walnuts. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix it very well until it is a consistent dough.
2. Make the hamburgers of normal size and thickness, with about 2 tablespoons of batter, and grill them for about 4 minutes on each side over medium heat.