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 vegetables and this is one place where I can add a boost of nutrition without altering the recipe. I hope this recipe will give you inspiration to experiment.
Yield: makes 11 patties (aprx 85 g/3 oz) each
Ingredients
- 1 lg onion, chopped small (about 1 cup/6 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 (200 g/7 oz)
- ½ cup walnuts, chopped small (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
Step One: Cook the Onions, Garlic and Mushrooms
- Add onions, mushrooms, and garlic to pan. Cover and cook until these have softened. Remove lid and simmer briefly until and all liquid has evaporated. You want this mixture to be moist, not extremely wet or dried out. Remove pan from heat and let cool.
Step Two: Tofu and Food Processor
- Drain moisture from tofu, break it into pieces and add it to the food processor. Add soy sauce, paprika, sage, black pepper, salt, liquid smoke and the dehydrated veggie powders. Process until tofu gets creamy. This could take a few minutes. At first the tofu gets crumbly, but after a bit it starts to get creamy and holds together. (like cream cheese) 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. Use your hands to mix and squeeze the burger mixture together until there are no visible dry flakes of rolled oats. At this stage, the dough will be thick but still fairly moist.
- Transfer dough to a sealed container and put in the refrigerator at least 3 hours or as long as overnight. This will allow for the rolled oats to soften and dough to get more firm.
- Form into burger size patties. When shaping the burger patties the mixture will likely stick to your hands. If this happens, dip hands in water and shake off excess.
Step Three: Bake and Serve
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Lay the patties on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Lay another sheet of parchment paper over the top and cover loosely with aluminum foil. Alternatively, you could lay a Silpat over the them. This is important to prevent the patties from drying out. See notes for a more in-depth information.
- Bake for a total of 35 to 40 minutes. After 20 minutes remove from the oven and gently flip. Replace the covering and bake for another 15-20 minutes. Do not over bake. Patties should be lightly browned and firm, but still moist when broken open.
- Serve burgers on buns with desired toppings. If desired you can make this homemade Tofu Cashew Mayo and add Homegrown Sprouts.
- Keep leftover burgers in an air tight container and refrigerate up to 5 days or freeze them up to 5 months.
- Check this link for tips/pictures on cooking, freezing and re-heating veggie burgers.
Notes/Tips
- Mushrooms – Use button or cremini. Can also used dried shiitake mushrooms. When using dried, they will need to be rehydrated first. Use about ten dried shiitake mushrooms (28 g/1 oz dried). Soak them for about 2 hours in hot water or overnight in cold water then squeeze out the excess water. The stems will be tough but can be used when chopped small. Save the soaking water for soups.
- Instead of parchment paper – A Silpat or a non-stick silicone baking mat can work well. I have found when using a silicone baking mat, it will produce a lighter browned burger while parchment paper adds to the browning. With using parchment paper, it will 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 and not dry out.
- (Optional) to get grill marks on the burgers – I remove the burgers from the oven about 10 minutes before they are done and place them on a preheated George Foreman grill for 7-10 minutes.