Homemade veggie burgers

I've tried a lot of veggie burger recipes over the years.  This is my favorite.  They are cheap, delicious, awesome to fry up in olive oil and onions and as easy to make as cookies!

 

1 Cup granulated tvp (or see lentil variation in notes below)

1/4 Cup oats (old fashioned or quick cooking oats works fine)

1/2 tsp dried basil leaves

1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves

1/2 tsp dried parsley flakes

1/2 tsp garlic granules

1/2 tsp onion granules

1/4 tsp dry mustard

 

3/4 Cup almost-boiling water

2 Tbs ketchup

2 Tbs soy sauce

 

1 Tbs smooth or crunchy peanut butter

 

1/4 Cup whole wheat or white flour

1 Tbs nutritional yeast

 

Mix first 8 ingredients

 

Mix hot water, ketchup, soy sauce, and stir into dry mixture.  Mix thoroughly and let stand 5 minutes.

 

Add peanut butter and mix thoroughly.  This is especially important to be thorough, otherwise you'll get clumps of PB when biting into the burgers.

 

Stir in flour and yeast flakes and mix thoroughly.

 

Use hands to shape mixture into patties.  Cover large frying pan with oil and fry on medium-high heat on each side for 6-8 minutes per side or until cooked thoroughly and browned to preference. 

 

 

Notes

This is the recipe from straight from a book, but I add about double the spices and extra ketchup and soy sauce.

If you don't know what TVP is, it's Textured Vegetable Protein and is the same thing that Bac-os are made from.  It's a dry vegetable protein isolate, basically like unflavored Bac-os and you can actually substitute some of the tvp with Bac-os for flavor if you like. Here is an example of Bob's Red Mill TVP, but there are other brands and you can also find it in bulk at health food stores. 

This is a very flexible and easy recipe to experiment with.  Add your favorite herbs and spices like red pepper flakes, cumin, chili powder, etc.  You can also substitute bbq sauce for ketchup.

These burgers can be a bit soft at first but will firm up after they sit. 

I typically make a quadruple batch and freeze them.  They freeze well for several weeks and are easy to microwave or fry up to reheat.

I make about 40 patties with about $5 of ingredients when using the lentil variation below.

For a healthier and less expensive option, I like to replace half the tvp with cooked and pureed lentils.  This will make for an even softer burger at first, but they firm up really well overnight so great for large batches.  When using lentils, I start with making a very liquidy slurry of pureed cooked lentils then add all remaining ingredients to the lentil slurry.  What you will get is something the consistency of cookie dough.  The amount of water to use when substituting lentils is someone subjective but you can add more oats and flour if you need to thicken it up. If you do this, give the oats several minutes to absorb the moisture.  Note that using lentils will result in a little less of a “meaty” texture.

Alternatively, you may bake the patties for a lower fat version.  For baking, preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a baking sheet with a non-stick cooking spray and place patties in oven for approximately 30 minutes.  Do no overcook, they will dry out.  Because this is an all plant-based recipe, it doesn’t need to be cooked thoroughly for safety reasons like with meat.  Frying or baking these patties is more about firming them up.