It took a while to create a veggie burger that our family truly enjoys. This burger is full of flavor and has a nice texture. You will note that I add dehydrated vegetable powder to these burgers. If you don’t have this in your pantry, don’t let this stop you. This is strictly optional and these burgers are still tasty without any of these ingredients added. I dehydrate my own vegetables and this is one place where I can add veggies and boost nutrition with out altering the recipe. I hope this will give you inspiration to experiment.
Yield: makes 11 patties (85 g/3 oz) each
Ingredients
- 1¾ cup onions, chopped small (about 114 g/4 oz)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 5 large mushrooms*, chopped fine (about 142 g/5 oz)
- 1 pkg extra firm tofu (350 g/12.3 oz)
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp paprika
- ½ tsp sage
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp liquid smoke
- 2 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- ½ cup walnuts, small pieces (56 g/2 oz)
Dehydrated Ingredients (optional)
Use one, use none or use all.
- 2 Tbsp dehydrated tomato powder
- 1 Tbsp dehydrated roasted red pepper powder
- 2 tsp dehydrated beet powder
- 1 tsp dehydrated carrot powder
- 1 tsp dehydrated celery
- 1 tsp dehydrated zucchini powder
Cook Onions Garlic and Mushrooms
- Add onions, mushrooms, and garlic to pan. Cover and cook until onions and mushrooms have softened. Remove lid and simmer briefly until and all liquid has been evapoarted. Remove pan from heat and let cool.
Tofu and Food Processor
- Drain moisture from tofu and add to food processor. Add soy sauce, paprika, sage, black pepper, salt, liquid smoke and if using the dehydrated veggie powders. Process until tofu gets creamy. This could take a few minutes. At first the tofu gets crumbly, but after bit it starts to get creamy and holds together. This could take 3-5 minutes.
- Empty tofu mixture into a large mixing bowl.
- Add the mushroom mixture to the tofu mixture and stir well to combine.
- Add the rolled oats and walnuts then mix well to combine. You may find it helpful to use your hands to mix and squeeze the burger mixture together. The batter will be thick but still fairly moist.
- It’s ideal to leave the burger patties sit overnight before baking. This will allow for the rolled oats to soften and patties to get more firm.
- Form into burger size patties. When shaping burger patties the mixture will likely stick to your hands. If this happens, dip hands in water and shake off excess.
Bake
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Lay the patties on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. To prevent the burger patties from drying out lay another sheet of parchment paper over the top. Bake for 30-40 minutes. After 15-20 minutes remove from the oven and gently flip. Replace the covering and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Patties will be lightly browned and firm, but still moist when broken open.
- These patties are freezer friendly.
Notes/Tips
- Mushrooms – Use button or cremini but can substitute with dried shiitake mushrooms. When using dried, you will need about ten mushrooms/28 g/1 oz dried. Soak about 2 hours in hot water or overnight in cold water then squeeze out excess water. Generally the stems are tough and should be removed but when making veggie burgers it’s ok to chop fine as it will add texture to the burger patty. Save the cooking water for soups, etc.
- Instead of parchment paper, a Silpat, a non-stick silicone baking mat can work well. A silicone baking mat will produce a lighter browned burger while parchment paper adds to the browning. With using parchment paper, it may not stay in place when using a convection oven so I find laying a silicone baking mat over the parchment paper will keep it in place. Covering the burgers this way allows for steam to escape and the parchment paper helps the veggie burgers to turn brown.
- To get grill marks on the burgers I remove the burgers from the oven about 10 minutes before they are done and put them on a preheated George Foreman grill for 7-10 minutes.