Vegan Burger Patties

I have been craving burgers for a while now, but not just a veggie burger. I was in the mood for something richer and more like the hamburgers I used to have when I ate meat. So I decided I needed to come up with a recipe for good, “meaty” vegan burger patties.

I was somewhat concerned about how many attempts this was actually going to take. I confess, even though I’ve been mostly vegan for over a year now, I haven’t done that much cooking and experimenting with beans and legumes. This is because for years I thought my food intolerances were due to FODMAPs. I’ve only just started adding more beans to my diet lately, so I’m still figuring out how to get the flavours to work.

My other concern was that while I have had some pretty amazing vegan burgers lately, most of the patties I’d eaten used TPV, soy curls and seitan to get the “meaty” sensation. I’m not against those ingredients for occasional use, but I was looking to make a recipe that is quick and easy, and ingredients readily available in the pantry.

So, I’m sure you can imagine, I was utterly surprised that my recipe worked first time. I must say, it does help that you can taste vegan “mince” as you go to check the flavours. These patties have a rich flavour that will definitely meet any burger cravings. They are also a great recipe for when you’re transitioning and don’t want something that tastes too much like beans.

This recipe is also incredibly versatile. In fact, the first time I made it, we had burgers, and everyone went for seconds. I had some leftover patties, so I crumbled them up and cooked them with tomato sauce and had them over pasta for dinner. Then the next day I made a double batch and made half into patties, then baked the other half in small meat balls. We had more burgers (yes, they were that good!) for lunch, meatball pasta for dinner, and then had them on pizzas the next day. So delicious! And yes, I’ll do up a post soon for you with some more recipe ideas to use these in to help you save time cooking through the week.

To Make:

You could make this entire recipe without a processor. Finely chop the onion and grate the carrot instead of using the processor, then mash the beans, oats, carrot and onion together in a bowl. I did try making the entire recipe in the processor, but I found it became a bit too overprocessed and lost its texture, so it works better if you mix everything together by hand in a bowl at the end.

I also recommend not pressing the patties flat until you’ve flipped them over once. I find that they hold together better if you wait until they’ve been cooked on one side before pressing them.

So, here is my burger patty recipe. The recipe doubles well, and you could easily make extra patties and store them in the freezer for later. Let me know what you think!

Nutrient	Per Serve	Per 100g
Energy	407kJ (97cal)	514kJ (123cal)
Protein	4.22g	5.33g
Carbohydrates	13.49g	17.05g
Fat	1.48g	1.87g
Iron	1.96mg	2.48mg
Zinc	0.6mg	0.76mg
Calcium	53.69mg	67.85mg
Fibre	4.85g	6.13g