Homemade Veggie Burgers
My go-to quick meal of late has been Morning Star Garden Veggie Burgers. I had never really liked veggie burgers, but when there wasn’t anything else in the kitchen during a trip home, I thought I could choke it down with enough cheese and ketchup. To my surprise, I actually really enjoyed it.
But they’re expensive ($4.89 for four), and my class on food last semester has made me skeptical of processed, pre-packaged meals. I’m interested in trying to make my own, without fillers or processed mystery “vegetables.” Do you have any recommendations?
Jane, if you come across any good recipes, I’d really appreciate it if you would share them. While I’m not a complete vegetarian, a lot of my meals are meatless. I too have a lot of concerns about processed foods, and have been trying to eliminate as many as possible from my diet. So, I hate to buy prepared veggie burgers for that reason. In addition, I haven’t been wild about a lot of the frozen veggie burgers I’ve purchased. I do like a few of Amy’s veggie burgers, but they’re really pricey.
Jane, the mushroom is the “burger.” I just clean out the gills and brush it with olive oil, a little balsamic and put on whatever herb moves me at the time. Grill on medium for 7 or 8 minutes per side. Cheese, lettuce, tomato, bun…Voila! Again, you might want to check allrecipes. They probably have many many variations on the theme. Happy hunting.
A cookbook called VEGGIE BURGERS EVERY WHICH WAY by Lukas Volger came out last year. (ISBN: 1615190195)–lots of 5 star reviews on Amazon.com.
Lori and Sydney- are portobella burgers simply a whole mushroom, cooked with some toppings? or is it more of a mushroom-based patty like other burgers?
Jean- the chickpea based burger sounds interesting. I love hummus, so incorporating that idea and some of those ingredients might be very delicious.
Have absolutely zero experience making veggie burgers, but there’s a burger chain in NZ called Burger Fuel that just, generally, makes damn good food, but that also has three veggie burgers that wow me every time I have them (shameless plug for Burger Fuel!). They use three patties: One with a chickpea base, one with a chickpea/kumara/mushroom base (kumara is like a yam, but starchier), and one with a pumpkin base.
http://www.burgerfuel.com/nz/
I’ve never had a veggie burger, but my husband and I are working on improving our eating habits so I’ve been searching for new recipes to try. Just this past weekend I came across the Homemade Black Bean Veggie Burger at Allrecipes.com. It’s a 5 star recipe with over 1,000 reviews. I’m circling around it, not quite ready to commit. You should try it and let me know how it turns out. :)
Beyond that, I do enjoy the portabella.
I’m not sure about a veggie burger, but a nice big portabella mushroom burger is great!