These homemade vegan burgers are scrumptious, satisfying, and easy to make. A recipe that both vegans and omnivores will love!
Over the years I’ve developed many recipes for hearty vegan burgers. Store-bought veggie burgers have improved in taste and texture, but for me they still never compare to homemade.
Homemade always better, right? Plus, you can really tweak seasonings like dried herbs and spices, and also salt – whereas you “get what you get” with commercial burgers.
It’s funny, though, because I think vegan burgers are still perceived as being bland or not very satisfying.
It feels like a long time ago since I wrote LTEV, but must reference it in this post because I have a full chapter on hearty vegan burgers in that cookbook. I wanted to show people that homemade burgers are far better than storebought, more satisfying, and can hold their own on a burger bun!
When I wrote Let Them Eat Vegan, our girls were younger and a little fussy about veggie burgers. Store-bought burgers were far too spicy for them, and if they saw pieces of onion, mushrooms, or bell peppers in a patty they would try and pick them out. Plus, many burgers didn’t hold up well on a burger bun.
So, I set out to create a collection of hearty vegan burgers that kids and adults would both enjoy – and that would be easy to make.
These Nutty Veggie Burgers are one of our favorites. They are dense and toothsome, and very satisfying. Since they have a base of nuts, along with vegetables and oats, they are one of the more filling vegan burgers.
These Nutty Veggie Burgers also hold up well on a bun, and they are EASY! So easy that there is no sauteing of onions or other ingredients before working the mixture together. Instead, all the ingredients go straight into the food processor. The machine does all the work, apart from shaping the patties!
To cook, you can bake or pan-fry (a non=stick works best). Then, serve up on a bun (or in a pita or green wrap). If you have Let them Eat Vegan, be sure to try the Almonnaise and Sunshine Fries to pair with these burgers. Quite a delicious way to round out these hearty vegan burgers!
Hope you really enjoy these… more soon! x Dreena
Nutty Veggie Burgers
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups raw almonds
- 1/2 cup raw walnuts
- ½ cup raw pecans or more walnuts
- 1 small clove garlic roughly chopped/sliced
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp tomato paste or ketchup
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp tamari SOY-FREE: use coconut aminos
- 1/4 tsp poultry seasoning or 1/8 tsp each of dried thyme and ground sage
- ½ cup finely grated carrot packed
- ½ cup finely grated zucchini packed
- ½ – 1 cup rolled oats see note
Instructions
- In a food processor, add almonds, walnuts, pecans, garlic and salt.
- Puree until the nuts are finely ground.
- Then add ketchup, nutritional yeast, tamari, poultry seasoning (or thyme/sage), carrot and zucchini, and pulse through until the mixture becomes dense and is starting to hold together, and then pulse in oats.
- Remove blade, and shape into patties.
- To cook, you can either bake or pan-fry.
- To bake, place shaped patties on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake about 9-10 minutes on each side.
- I prefer these burgers pan-fried. To do so, use a good non-stick skillet.
- Place patties on skillet over medium heat.
- Cook patties, about 5-7 minutes on first side, and then another 3-5 minutes on second side until golden brown.
- Serve with lettuce, tomatoes and fixings of choice.
Notes
- Using ½ cup of oats will firm the patties up nicely enough, and you can use up to 1 full cup of oats for even firmer patties.
- If you’d like to make this into a loaf, it works pretty well. Press into a lightly oiled and lined (with a strip of parchment, for easy removal) loaf pan. Cover with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, uncovering for the last 5-10 minutes just to lightly brown the top. Let cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan, and then use the parchment to lift the loaf out of the pan to slice.
image credit: Hannah Kaminsky
Anna says
These burgers are amazing. Even the meat eaters in my family have left the beef burgers for these beautiful Nut burgers.
Dreena says
Amazing to read that, thank you Anna!
June Siegel says
This looks fantastic. I just made your artichoke sunflower burgers for the hundredth time since you posted it 6 years ago. It’s even better the next day, heated up. I was thinking it would make an amazing finger food for appetizers. Now onto trying this one. Thank you.
Dreena says
How wonderful! Thank you June – I’m very late to see your message, but thank you for the feedback and wishing you a happy 2021!
JoAnn says
Great recipe! It’s now our family fave! Thank you for sharing
Dreena says
Thanks JoAnn 🙂
Colleen says
Thank you for sharing this recipe, Dreena! They were very tasty and great broken up over a salad. I did find them to be a bit dry even though I added an extra tablespoon of tomato paste and a few tablespoons of water, along with chopped red onion, so I think I will use gram weight instead of trying to guesstimate cups for the nuts. I think that was probably my issue. Thanks again for sharing your talent! Your CREAMY VEGAN ARTICHOKE SPINACH DIP (WITHOUT THE JUNK!) is my absolute favorite!
Dreena says
Hi Colleen, thanks for the note – my reply is late. Sometimes you need to puree longer, longer to release the oils from the nuts. But yes, extra bit of tomato paste or ketchup does the trick! And thanks re the dip – it’s def a fave for us too. 🙂
Jane says
We just ate these for dinner and they were delicious thank you. I added grated red onion and mustard (and some left over cooked chick peas).
Great texture and will add this recipe to my vegan collection.
Dreena says
Oh fabulous! So pleased to know you loved them. Hope you make them again and again… thanks Jane!