Vegan burgers are rapidly overtaking hamburgers in popularity, and for good reason. They’ve got all sorts of advantages: they lack beef’s huge environmental and animal welfare costs, and often cost less than a comparable beef burger. What’s more, most veggieburgers offer an excellent source of protein—just check the nutrition panel to confirm, or choose a recipe based on tofu, beans, or seitan.
Back in the 1950s, before the emergence of Taco Bell and Subway, hamburgers defined the American fast food meal. Today, thanks to pink slime and animal welfare concerns, Westerners increasingly gravitate towards veggieburgers. Dozens of large and small companies make them. They’re also one of the easiest meat-free meals you can cook from scratch.
If you’re new to veggieburgers, they offer a much greater diversity of flavors than your typical hamburger. That’s because hamburgers are typically all-beef (and—all too often—beef byproducts), which limits the texture and flavor variations. Veggieburgers suffer no such constraints and can take on a much wider assortment of possibilities.
Some products do everything possible to replicate the experience of ground beef. In particular, the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Burger can and do fool meat eaters. If you recoil at the idea of giving up hamburgers, you’ll be amazed by how faithfully these brands capture the experience you crave.
Other veggieburgers take the opposite approach, seeking to deliver unique flavors unlike anything meat can offer. After all, who’s to say that ground beef represents the pinnacle of burger flavor?
So, whether you love or hate red meat, there’s a veggieburger that perfectly suits your tastes. The key is to try as many brands and recipes as possible to see which you like best.
As with regular hamburgers, whether you’re preparing a store-bought brand or making your veggieburger from scratch, and whether you’re pan-frying or cooking on a grill, always completely cook your burger on one side before flipping to the other.
Vegan Burger Brands
A minority of veggieburger brands contain animal ingredients, but you’ll have no trouble finding vegan brands. All of these popular products are vegan:
- Amy’s: Veggie Burgers (Seven varieties at last count, all of which are vegan)
- Beyond Meat: Beyond Burger and Beyond Beef
- Boca: Vegan Veggie Burgers Original and Chick’n (Other varieties may contain animal products)
- Dr. Prager’s: Veggie Burgers (Seventeen varieties, all vegan)
- Field Roast: Chef’s Signature
- Gardein: Ultimate Burgers & Sliders (Seven varieties)
- Gardenburger: Original and Black Bean
- Impossible Foods: Burger Patties, Frozen Patties, and Ground-Style
- Meatless Farm: Plant-Based Quarter Pounders
- Strong Roots: The Kale & Quinoa
- Tofurky: Plant-Based Burgers
- 365 (Whole Foods Market): Meatless Plant-Based Burgers
Most of these brands are stocked in the frozen section of your favorite grocery or natural foods store. The rest are found in the refrigerated section, next to deli-style slices. Beyond Meat’s offerings are usually sold in the meat case right next to the hamburgers.
Also, many natural food stores carry a dried veggieburger mix in their bulk department. It’s super cheap and surprisingly tasty, although it’s certainly on the not-remotely-like-meat end of the veggieburger spectrum. Preparation is quick and easy. Just mix with some boiling water, allow to cool, form into patties, and pan-fry. These burgers go beautifully with barbecue sauce.
Homemade Veggieburgers
If you have no cooking experience, veggieburgers offer the perfect place to start. You can choose from hundreds of easy vegan recipes. Many of these recipes call for a food processor, but apart from that all you need is a skillet and a spatula.
The nice thing about making veggieburgers from scratch is that you can choose a recipe featuring your favorite ingredients. Whether based on beans or cauliflower or tofu, it’s easy to create a veggieburger recipe featuring the flavors you love.
Want to find the perfect recipe? Just do an internet search for veggieburger recipe plus whatever main ingredient you’d like it to contain. Given the multitude of vegan burger recipes available, you’ll surely find one based on your favorite ingredients.
Common veggieburger ingredients include:
- Finely-chopped vegetables
- Black beans, red beans, or lentils (cooked or canned)
- Tofu
- Seitan
- Breadcrumbs
- Spices
If you know your way around the kitchen, you can easily whip up something from the above list that’ll leave you impressed.
A good cookbook typically features recipes that are more clearly written and better tested than freebies published online. Any general-interest vegan cookbook is practically obligated to offer at least one veggieburger recipe. If you want to deeply explore veggieburgers and other meaty vegan foods, the book to get is Robin Asbell’s Plant-Based Meats.
Garnishing Your Vegan Burger
With the exception of cheese and mayonnaise, nearly all popular hamburger garnishes are vegan. And they are all sensational on vegan burgers. These include:
- Pickle slices
- Grilled chopped yellow onions
- Thinly-sliced red or Vidalia onions
- Ketchup
- Mustard
- Sliced tomato
- Lettuce
Cheese may be off limits to vegans, but vegan cheese certainly isn’t. Many companies make spectacularly good vegan cheeses that are perfect for vegan cheeseburgers. Violife in particular makes excellent vegan cheese slices.
If you enjoy mayonnaise on your burgers, vegan mayonnaise is sold everywhere. Thousand-Island dressing is another tasty hamburger garnish. Follow Your Heart makes a vegan version, and you can also make your from vegan mayo, a dahs of ketchup, and some diced pickles.
Veggieburger Alternatives
Want to change things up from your usual veggieburger? Don’t forget about fried portobello mushroom caps. Just fry each side for a few minutes in a little oil, and serve along with some condiments just like you would a regular veggieburger.
Marinated tempeh also makes a wonderful burger-style sandwich. I like to cut tempeh across its width so it’ll soak up more seasonings. For the marinade, use soy sauce plus some sautéed minced garlic and ginger plus your favorite spices. Then just fry a few minutes on each side at low-medium temperature.
You can also make a veggieburger using your favorite falafel recipe. Just shape the falafel into a hamburger-sized patty rather than the traditional balls. Keep the patty on the thin side so it’ll properly cook through. Then pan-fry it on both sides.
Veggieburgers at Restaurant and Fast Food Chains
Veggieburgers have become one of the most popular menu items in the restaurant business. Most fast food and casual dining restaurants use one of the brands listed on this page. Independently owned vegan restaurants often make their veggieburger patties from scratch.
Unfortunately, some restaurants serve their vegan burgers on a non-vegan bun. However, you can order a vegan burger at Denny’s, Burger King, and White Castle. See my vegan fast food guide for details on what to request to order vegan. No matter what chain you patronize, always request no mayo or cheese, since many restaurants will add it to their otherwise-vegan offering.
When it comes to veggieburgers, no restaurant chain surpasses the all-vegan Veggie Grill. They devote an entire section of their menu to an assortment of veggieburger possibilities that will blow your mind. And in the greater London area, check out the Neat Burger chain.
