I’m planting my flag and calling these the best veggie burgers. Have you ever noticed that most veggie burger recipes are almost 100% beans?
I love a good bean burger, but I wanted to pack in as many veggies as possible for this recipe, and we did it! We add more than 8 cups of vegetables to this recipe, which means 1 cup of veggies for every burger.
Key Ingredients
Vegetables: I add mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, onion, garlic, and spinach to these burgers. I’m not trying to imitate a meat burger for this recipe (that discredits how delicious vegetables can be). Instead, we will use lots of tasty and nutritious vegetables to make the burger patties.
Black beans: This recipe uses one can of drained black beans as the base. That’s about 1 ½ cups of beans added to our 8 cups of vegetables! You can also use home cooked black beans.
Walnuts: I want lots of texture in the burgers, and walnuts help with that. They also add some sticking power and richness. You can substitute the walnuts in this recipe for other nuts or use sunflower seeds.
Breadcrumbs: Help hold our burgers together. Veggie and bean burgers don’t hold together as well as meat burgers, but the breadcrumbs in this recipe help a lot!
Eggs or flax eggs: I make this recipe with eggs, but we have tested it with homemade flax eggs, and they work! This recipe is vegetarian when made with eggs and vegan with flax eggs. Use what works best for you.
Spices and tomato paste: Smoked paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper combine to make these burgers a little smoky and incredibly delicious. Tomato paste adds color, sweetness, and an umami flavor to the burgers (highly recommended!).
Cooked rice: Adds more texture to the veggie burgers. I love brown rice, but you can substitute plain rice, cooked quinoa, or grains like farro or barley.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Veggie Burgers
These homemade veggie burgers take longer to prepare than regular burgers, but they are worth it (trust me). See our easy black bean burgers if you want a quick plant-based burger patty!
Tip 1: Remove extra moisture. To make the best veggie burgers, we will take every step to remove excess moisture. Too much moisture makes vegetable patties soft, smooshy, and not great. So, to remove it, we do two things:
Finely chop and roast the veggies until dried out and toasted.
Roast black beans until dried out and the skins split open.
Tip 2: Use a food processor. To make these veggie burgers as simple as possible, I use my food processor to finely chop all my vegetables (remember, we have 8 cups). I add all the veggies, a bit of oil, and spices, then pulse until tiny bits.
Tip 3: Roast the veggies. Then, I spread the vegetables onto a baking sheet and roast them until they cook, dry out, and smell a little toasty. They take about 30 minutes in the oven.
Tip 4: Roast your beans. Since the oven is already on, we want to dry our black beans. They take about 15 minutes. Then, we will combine the black beans with roasted veggies, fresh spinach, walnuts, breadcrumbs, eggs, tomato paste, and fresh herbs in the food processor to make the base of our vegetable patties.
Tip 5: Finish with rice and greens. When blended, I transfer everything to a bowl, then stir in cooked brown rice. I love the extra texture of the rice! See my photo below. The spinach and herbs make these veggie burgers so pretty, and the rice adds perfect texture.
How to Cook Veggie Burgers
Cooking these homemade vegetable burgers is easy. No matter how you cook them, take care as you handle them. They hold up well but are less firm than burgers made with meat. Some crumbling around the edges might happen when you flip. I push anything that falls back into the patty. To cook these burgers, you have a few options:
Stovetop: Use a skillet over medium-low heat and cook until golden on both sides. This is my preferred method. I love the golden crust you get when cooking them in a skillet.
Oven: To bake them, use a 400°F oven for about 30 minutes, flipping halfway.
Grill: To grill these veggie burgers, I recommend placing a cast iron pan onto your grill. The burgers might fall apart on you if you put them directly on the grates.
These are the best veggie burgers we’ve made. There’s no getting around the fact that veggie burgers take longer to make than regular hamburgers, but these vegetable-packed burgers are well worth it (trust me). The steps are easy, so stick with me. You can do this! I love serving them with spicy mayo or this burger sauce.
I use a food processor to make veggie burgers and highly recommend that you use one, too. If you only have a blender, you can use it to chop the veggies and other ingredients, but you will need to scrape the sides down a few more times (the food processor really is the better tool for this recipe).
You Will Need
1 (15-ounce) can black beans or 1 ½ cups cooked black beans
8 ounces (225g) mushrooms
1 medium carrot
1 ½ cups (85g) broccoli florets
¼ medium onion
2 medium garlic cloves
2 tablespoons (30g) olive oil or avocado oil, plus more for cooking
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon chili powder, try homemade chili powder
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
⅓ cup (35g) walnuts
2 cups packed (85g) spinach leaves
¼ cup fresh parsley, or other fresh herbs
½ cup (35g) panko or homemade breadcrumbs
2 large eggs or use 2 homemade flax eggs
1 tablespoon (15g) tomato paste
¾ cup (115g) cooked brown rice
Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F (204°C). Position two racks so you can fit both baking sheets in at once. Then, line two baking sheets with foil, parchment, or a silicone mat.
2Drain the beans and spread them on one of the prepared baking sheets.
3Wipe the mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Remove tough stems, then roughly chop.
4Roughly chop up the carrot, broccoli, and onion into ½-inch pieces.
Add the mushrooms, chopped vegetables, garlic, olive oil, smoked paprika, chili powder, salt, and pepper to the food processor. Pulse until coarsely ground (10 to 20 times). Put the ground vegetable mixture on the second baking sheet and pat it into a thin, even layer.
6Slide both baking sheets (beans and veggies) into the preheated oven.
7Roast the beans until dry with slightly split skins, about 15 minutes.
8Roast the vegetables until they look dry and toasted, about 30 minutes. Stir them a few times and press them back into a thin layer to prevent the outer edges from over-browning.
9Let both the roasted vegetables and beans cool on the counter.
Make Burger Mix
1While the beans and vegetables roast, rinse the food processor bowl and pat it dry.
2Place the walnuts, spinach, and fresh parsley into the clean food processor bowl. Pulse briefly until roughly chopped, resembling the size of breadcrumbs.
3Add cooled beans and pulse 5 to 10 times until the beans look crumbly with large crumbs.
4Add the roasted vegetables, breadcrumbs, eggs, and tomato paste. Pulse until everything is just combined. You want to keep some texture and avoid over-processing it into a smooth paste.
5Transfer the mixture to a bowl and gently fold in the cooked rice.
Cook Burgers
1Divide the veggie burger mixture into 8 equal portions (each portion should be about 3 ¼ ounces or 90 grams). Form each portion into a patty that’s about ½-inch thick.
2Place a skillet over medium-low heat and add oil (about 1 tablespoon for 4 burgers). Carefully place the patties in the skillet and cook on each side for 4 to 6 minutes until heated through, firm, and browned. As you flip them, a few bits might fall. Gently press any loose bits back into the sides of the patties.