Your Guide to Making Plant-Based Burgers
Making Plant-Based Burger Patties From Scratch
Want to save time in the kitchen? Try PLANTSTRONG Skillet Burger Mixes, available in three flavors: Black Bean, Portobello Mushroom, and Sweet Curry. Below is our simple method for making burgers from scratch.
Building Your Burgers:
1. Pick your bean base (you will need 2 cups COOKED):
- Black beans
- White beans
- Kidney beans
- Chickpeas
- Lentils (any color)
- Split peas
(Really any kind of bean you find would probably work here – use your imagination!).
2. Pick your starch (you will need 1 cup):
Brown rice, cooked - this is our 'go-to' starch but you can also use:
- Dry whole wheat bread crumbs or whole grain gluten free bread crumbs
- Uncooked rolled or old fashioned oats
- Quinoa, cooked
- Millet, cooked
- Amaranth, cooked
- Buckwheat, cooked
3. Pick your vegetable (or a few vegetables) and saute them for a few minutes:
Finely dice them! If you pick two vegetables, you’ll want to decrease the amount you use by about half. For example, if you use carrots AND celery, use 1 rib of celery and 1 carrot stick. For three vegetables, you’ll want to use about ⅓, etc., etc.
- Celery, about 2 ribs
- Carrot, about 2 sticks
- Onion, about 1 small onion
- Mushrooms, about 1 cup
- Jalapeño, 1 or 2 fresh depending on how spicy you like your food
Once diced, heat a skillet and cook vegetables for a few minutes to soften up. Add a splash of veggie broth or water to keep from sticking.
4. Choose your spices
Our general rule is to evenly coat whatever we are making with spices or herbs, or if using dried herbs/spices, start with ¼ teaspoon and go from there. Taste as you go to get a combination that works for you. This list is not even close to comprehensive, but remember – get creative! Italian burgers? Mexican burgers? Jamaican-jerk burgers? Whatever you can dream up!
- Garlic
- Basil
- Oregano
- Cayenne
- Thyme
- Cumin
- Rosemary
- Nutritional yeast (which will give your burgers are more cheese-like flavor)
- Black pepper
- Curry powder (works well with chickpea burgers)
- Turmeric (a little goes a long way – a few dashes will do, and also works well with chickpea burgers)
5. Choose your liquid (1/4 to 1/2 cup to start, adding 1/4 cup as needed:
PLANTSTRONG vegetable broth - Our Mushroom broth makes GREAT burgers!
Liquid from cooked beans
Unsweetened plant milk
Or, combine 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons warm water. Set aside for a few minutes until it gets an egg white-like consistency. Use this as your liquid and add splash of broth as needed.
Directions:
1. Preheat the grill, or your oven to 350 degrees. If baking, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or another nonstick surface.
2. Add cooked beans to a mixing bowl, then use a fork, potato masher or your fingers to mash them well. Add your starch – you’ll want to mix the starch and mashed beans very well. Your hands will probably work best. Add your vegetables. Mix in spices and liquid, and finally, the flax mixture.
3. Form patties and assemble onto a plate or the lined cookie sheet. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes, or until you are ready to bake or grill. Transfer to grill and cook 5 minutes before flipping. Then cook another 5 minutes until crispy.
To bake, place sheet in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until they look slightly crispy on top. You will likely want to flip them at the halfway point.
4. Do a happy dance around your house while you are waiting for the plant-strong healthy plant based burgers to cook. This step is absolutely necessary. Take out your finished burgers and bask in your greatness for a moment.
5. Serve your burgers on a whole grain bun with all of your favorite burger accessories, including but not limited to grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, tomato, hummus, ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, hot sauce – whatever you’d like! You can also serve your burgers over a bed of leafy greens. Baked sweet potato fries are a great side choice as well.
6. Once grilled, you make freeze any leftovers and then reheat in a dry skillet or in a toaster oven.
Tips: Too crumbly? Add more liquid. Too watery? Add more starch.
Servings: 4 to 5 decent-sized burgers or 8 to 10 smaller burgers.
