Vegetable burgers is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store them, what to substitute, and 7 recipes to get you started.

What are vegetable burgers?

Vegetable burgers are meatless patties built from beans, grains, soy, or vegetables, bound together and shaped to cook and serve like a beef burger. The name covers a wide field, from a chunky homemade black-bean patty to a smooth, browning soy or pea-protein patty engineered to mimic meat.

What unites them is the job: a savory, hold-together patty that browns and lands on a bun. What divides them is texture and flavor, which depend entirely on the base. A bean-and-grain patty tastes earthy and rustic; a modern soy or pea patty tastes closer to beef.

That range is the reason a veggie burger so often ends up out of its bun and inside other dishes.

How to Use It

On a bun is the obvious route, and the method depends on the patty. Pan-frying in a little oil gives the best crust; grill from frozen or barely thawed so the patty firms up before it can fall apart; bake when you are cooking several at once.

The bigger trick is treating a veggie burger as a meat substitute you can crumble. Broken up, it stands in for ground beef across a surprising range of dishes.

That is exactly how these Recipeland recipes use it. Mexican Loaf and Mince & Eggplant Casserole crumble it as the savory base, and Best Vegan Chili Non Carne folds it into the pot.

Rolled instead of crumbled, the same mixture becomes Meatless Balls, while Gorgeous Burger keeps it in classic patty form.

Cooking and Pairing

Treat the patty as the savory anchor and build around it. Sharp cheese, caramelized onions, pickles, smoky barbecue or chipotle sauce, and ripe avocado all give a plant patty the richness and punch it can otherwise lack.

The number one mistake is overhandling a fragile patty. A bean-based burger has no animal fat or connective tissue to hold it, so flipping too soon or poking at it makes it crumble. Let one side set into a real crust before you turn it, and turn it only once.

The second mistake is underseasoning. Vegetables and beans need more salt and acid than meat does, so a squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar in the mix wakes the whole thing up.

The third is overcrowding the pan, which steams the patties instead of searing them. Give each one room.

Substitutes

If a recipe calls for a veggie burger crumbled into a dish, plain cooked lentils or mashed beans cover the same ground, as does a packaged meatless grounds product or crumbled firm tofu.

For a whole patty on a bun, a portobello cap, a thick slab of halloumi, or a homemade bean patty all work.

Going the other way, a veggie burger is itself a stand-in for ground meat in chili, tacos, and casseroles.

Use it one-to-one by weight, but cut the cooking time, since the patty is already fully cooked and only needs heating through.

Buying and Storage

The freezer case holds most of the choice. Read the label for the base, because it tells you the texture: bean and grain patties cook up soft and earthy, while soy or pea-protein patties brown and bite more like beef.

Fresh, refrigerated patties from the deli case usually have a less processed, more homemade character but a much shorter shelf life.

Keep frozen patties frozen until you cook them, and use them within the date on the box, generally several months. Cook most brands straight from frozen; thawing a fragile patty often makes it harder to handle, not easier.

Fresh refrigerated patties keep only a few days, so check the sell-by date and cook them promptly. Once cooked, leftovers hold three to four days in the fridge and reheat well in a pan or oven, though they soften if microwaved.

Quick facts

In Chinese

蔬菜汉堡

British (UK) term

Vegetable burgers

en français

burgers de légumes

en español

hamburguesas vegetales

Recipes using vegetable burgers

There are 7 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 7 recipes