How to make the best-ever veggie burger
Stodgy veggie burgers, be gone. We’re here to show you just how easy it is to make a delicious veggie burger, three different ways. By Jess Spiro
What are the different types of veggie burgers?
Veggie burgers aren’t created equal, and there are many different types out there, depending on what you’re in the mood for.
Bean or chickpea burger patties
Probably the most common of the veggie burger family, patties made from either beans or chickpeas are easy to make and offer a similar heartiness that a meat-based burger would. They’re also pretty quick to throw together, too. All you ready need to do is take a can of beans or chickpeas and blend together with a mix of aromatics and other veggies. The recipe below uses butter beans and peas, but there’s no rule here – you could swap the beans for any pulses, and the peas with any veggies. Roasted mushrooms or onions, shredded spinach or carrots, for example, would all work well, just make sure they’re roughly the same size as the beans once blended. Add lots of chopped herbs and finely grated garlic to add extra flavour.
Get the recipe for butter bean-and-pea burgers with smashed avo here.
Vegetable patties
Here we mean the process of using whole vegetables as a burger patty, which doesn’t sound like it would need an explainer all its own. But anyone who’s had a soggy mushroom wedged between a burger bun will know there’s a right way and a wrong way to do this. Firstly, you want to think of the vegetable’s texture in the same way you would with meat. When cooking the perfect burger, you’re looking for texture and caramelisation and vegetables deserve the same treatment. If you’re using a large mushroom, for example, look at covering it in breadcrumbs and shallow-frying, or do as this recipe suggests with aubergine and cover with oats.
Get the recipe for spicy brinjal veggie burger here.
Vegetable fritters
Everyone can agree that the best vegetable is a fried one and so when it comes to the best veggie burger, the same principle applies here too. While it requires a little more effort, a veggie fritter is undeniably the most interesting and delicious way to make a veggie burger. Using a basic fritter recipe, as the one explained below, you can mix and match the vegetables you use, depending on what’s available. Things like cauliflower or sweet potato will need to be cooked beforehand before adding to the flour and egg mix, but things like courgettes, carrots or cabbage only need to be shredded or grated. You can also mix more than one veggie together, such as cauliflower and shredded cabbage or courgette and carrots. Remember to include aromatics such as garlic and finely chopped onion or shallot. Below, we’ve dropped a few examples of simple veggie fritter recipes for you to get the gist of making them.
Get the recipe for carrot fritters here.
Get the recipe for sweet potato fritters here.
Get the recipe for baby marrow fritters here.
How to make the best veggie burger with a fritter
Method
Place 1 cup of your veg of choice grated baby marrow in a colander, sprinkle ½ t salt over them and leave for 30 minutes to drain. Gently squeeze out any excess liquid before placing the marrow in a mixing bowl.
Add the onion and parsley, and a little more salt, if necessary. Break the eggs into a separate bowl and beat lightly with a fork. Stir the eggs into the marrow mixture, then sieve the self-raising flour over the mixture and stir in to form a soft batter – it should drop easily off a spoon.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and use a large spoon to drop four roughly-shaped fritters into the pan. Fry until golden, then flip and repeat. Remove from the oil using a slotted spoon and drain on absorbent paper.
If necessary, add more oil to the pan, and repeat with the next batch of fritters. Continue in this way until all the batter is finished. Serve immediately.
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