Hi, friends! In today’s post, I wanted to share with you my quest to find the absolute best recipe for veggie burgers. I was a vegetarian for around a decade throughout my childhood and teen years, then vegan, then I switched to an omnivore diet. As of late, I’ve been feeling compelled to going back to the vegetarian way of eating. I am not here to persuade anybody else to make the switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet (my daughter and husband are both happy omnivores) but it’s fun to switch things up and even those who do eat meat can enjoy a veggie burger here and there!
The mid 2000’s was a rough time to be a vegetarian in the Midwest, I’ll tell you that much. I was never an overly picky child, but one time my dad bought us Boca burgers and I remember finding the taste so repulsive I spit it out and didn’t touch the rest. It’s likely that they’ve come a long way since then, but I will be honest and say I have not tried one since! I really enjoyed Morning Star and Hilary’s frozen veggie burgers. I just googled Hilary’s and apparently it’s out of business? All the more reason to find the perfect recipe.
The “recipe” I found was just an ingredient list, and I did not attempt to find the full recipe, so I will share what I did and what I would do next time.
I used all the ingredients as is, except I did not have cumin, coriander, and cayenne pepper on hand.
- I chopped the onion and carrots up then cooked them on low with butter. (If I were to do this set of ingredients again, I would choose to grate the onion and carrot. I was worried they’d end up too mushy, but the chunks ended up being a little bit too big.) I would also maybe add some mushroom and corn to the mix to add a little bit more flavor and textural interest.
- While that cooked, I began to mix the beans, oats, and soy sauce together. I made the mistake of leaving the beans mainly intact. If I were to make this recipe again, I would make sure to mash them much better. These burgers did not stick together very well and I think that doing this would help with that.
- Then, I prepped my garlic.
- Once my carrots and onions were mostly cooked, I added the garlic for about two minutes.
- Once the garlic was ready, I transferred it into the bowl with the oats and beans and mixed together. Again, I would make sure to mash the beans more.
- I formed them into patties and cooked on the stove with some avocado oil.
- As there’s nothing in these that necessarily needs to be fully cooked, it’s really up to personal preference how long you cook them.
- Serve as you would any other burger!
And that’s that, friends! They certainly didn’t end up very pretty, but I would totally make these again with only minimal tweaks. They’re tasty and a great way to get some good nutrients in.
XOXO,
Mattie Mae
Midwest Mattie 