My incredibly delicious Vegan Veggie Burger is packed with garden veggies, chickpeas and big flavours. It can be made ahead, frozen and is the perfect meat-free lunch. Smooshed in a soft burger bun with more good things like tahini sauce, smashed avocado and beetroot relish, this veggie burger is like a party in your mouth!
Jump to:
Why you'll love my Vegan Veggie Burger!
- My Vegan Veggie Burger is a plant-based burger packed with green goodness from the garden. It has a chickpea base and is packed with leek, spring onion and zucchini.
- Rolled in green pumpkin seeds and cooked until golden, it is super healthy and bursting with incredible flavour.
- Easy to make, can be made ahead and freezes well.
- Makes the perfect school or work lunch.
- Take it to the next level! Smoosh it in a burger bun with more veggies and herbs - beetroot slices, smashed avocado, dill, pickled onion, mustard and lettuce. Delicious!
The Veggie Patch Van copycat Veggie Burger
Every year my girlfriends and I trek down to the Finders Keepers markets in Sydney - once during winter and once during summer. When we first started going to the markets, the line-up of food trucks included the infamous Veggie Patch Van. Inspired by the Paddock To Plate concept, this hippie food truck had reached notoriety for its flavour-packed veggie fast food - the most popular was their Veggie Burger. Veg and chickpea burgers served with golden halloumi and crispy sweet potato fries. They were absolutely delicious!
A few years later, the Veggie Patch Van became a casualty of Covid. I was gutted and took it upon myself to not only recreate their delicious Veggie Burger, but to make it vegan, gluten-free and more delicious. And so my Vegan Veggie Burger was born!
The original Veggie Patch Van burger had a chickpea and zucchini base and a whole lot of feta and parmesan. My goal was to make it vegan by eliminating the cheese but still bringing that sharp salty and savoury flavour to the veggie burger. I achieved this result with nutritional yeast which is also a good protein source. I also dialled up the ginger, garlic and spices. With anything that needs to be pan-fried, one must always remember that the flavour dulls after cooking. So to ensure that you don't have bland burger patties, you must always amp up the spices in the mix. You'll thank me later.
Secret Of A High Protein Veggie Burger
So what is the secret to a great Veggie Burger?
Beans & Legumes!
Beans and legumes not only add heft and body to the burger base but add the much-needed protein element to a plant based burger.
There are three vegan burger recipes I have created and cook regularly. Each has a different bean or legume for its base. This Vegan Veggie Burger has chickpeas, the super delicious Vegan Beetroot Burger has quinoa and the Sweet Potato Burger from my cookbook Tasty Express has red kidney beans. All three have very different flavour profiles and I can't decide which one is my absolute favourite. This Veggie Burger comes very close and I especially love how much tastier it becomes with all the sauces and condiments.
Because this veggie burger recipe is so ridiculously easy to make, I often prep this in advance during my Sunday meal prep sessions. The filling sits in a glass container in my fridge for a few days and I quickly shape the patties and fry them for hot burgers on demand. I also use the filling to stuff sandwiches or shape into a thick flat pancake and serve topped with salad and relishes.
Tips & Tricks
- Veggie Burgers tend to be very delicate as they lack the dense, fatty, binding tissue that is found in meat burgers. A special trick is utilised for making sure they are golden and bound well. The trick is to add breadcrumbs to the mix and slow cook them on the pan till they are dry to the touch and firm in the middle. The breadcrumbs absorb any excess moisture from the beans and veggies and helps bind the veggie burger better.
- Making flatter patties is another way of ensuring that the middle of your burger patty is completely cooked.
- I always like to roll my burgers in seeds before pan-frying them to give them a bit of texture and crunch.
- Remember that the burger mixture should be of a firm dough-like consistency. If you feel it is too loose and wet and sticks everywhere when you try and shape it, increase the amount of breadcrumbs by a tablespoon. Also, remember to chill the burger patties in the fridge for 30-60 minutes before pan-frying. This firms the burgers up. It is not essential to do this but makes the frying easier.
More Veggie Burger Recipes
Recipe
Hungry For More Recipes? Subscribe to my newsletter. Check out Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to see everything I share! And if you love cooking and new cookbooks, join my free Cooking Club on Facebook!
Vegan Veggie Burger
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 leek, chopped
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 tablespoon ginger, grated
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
- 250 g canned chickpeas, drained
- 1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
- 2 spring onions, thinly sliced (white and green)
- 150 g zucchini, grated, squeezed and liquid drained
- 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt flakes
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 40 g chickpea flour
- 1 tablespoon gluten-free breadcrumbs, (dry)
- 2 tablespoons pepita seeds
- Oil, to pan fry
- Burger buns, turmeric tahini sauce, pickled onion, smashed avocado, beetroot relish, lettuce, tomato, extra dill, - to serve
Instructions
- Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large shallow frying pan on medium. Add leek, cumin seeds, ginger, garlic and chilli flakes. Sauté for a minute or two until leek starts caramelizing.
- Add chickpea. Increase heat to medium-high. Cook for 3-4 minutes until chickpeas are heated through and the mixture has dried a bit. Turn off heat.
- Using a potato masher, mash the chickpeas until you get a coarse mixture.
- Add dill, spring onions, zucchini, salt, nutritional yeast, paprika, baking powder, chickpea flour (besan) and breadcrumbs. Mix well using a spoon. Taste the mix and adjust seasoning. The burger mixture should be like a soft but firm dough consistency (if it is too loose, add extra breadcrumbs until you get a dough you can shape into a patty).
- Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place pepita seeds in a medium shallow bowl. Take about half a cup of the burger mixture in your hand and shape it into a half inch high patty. Place the burger patty gently on the pepitas. Turn it gently so the pepitas coat the other side as well. Place on the baking paper. Repeat with the remaining burger mixture. You can refrigerate the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour in order to ensure easy frying
- Heat oil in a large frying pan on medium low. Place two patties in the pan. Shallow fry each side for 3-4 minutes until golden. Then reduce heat to low and continue to cook for at least 8-10 minutes on each side, turning gently a couple of times (total time about 16-20 minutes). This slow cooking ensures that your burger patty cooks through and through and that there are no soggy bits in the middle. Remove from the pan when firm, cooked with golden sides and quite dry. Repeat for the remaining burger mixture.
- Burgers can be stored in the fridge in an air-tight container (separated by baking paper) for up to 4 days and in the freezer for up to a month.
- To serve the chickpea and green garden burger, slice a burger bun in half. Smear some tahini sauce on each side. Add a lettuce leaf to one half of the bun, top with a huge slice of tomato, some pickled onion, a little beetroot relish, more tahini sauce. Place the burger patty on top. Add smashed avocado over the burger patty, top with more relish and dill. Cover the other half of the burger bun and enjoy.
I made these and LOVED them so much! I usually don't bother squeezing the zucchini but I did and it made all the difference to have a drier mixture that fried up so nice and crisp. A game-changer. Thank you! MC
I’m going to a bbq tomorrow and want to try these. Do they hold up well on a bbq grill do you know.
I haven’t tried them on the grill. They are slightly wet in nature (so they don’t dry out after cooking). I think the’ll hold up well on a hot plate as opposed to a grill section. Perhaps you could cook them slightly on the hot plate and transfer to the grill. That will work!
I’m not vegan but I love incorporating vegan recipes into my weekly meals. Tasty veggie/vegan burgers are still not always the most flavorful but these are delicious! I still need to try making the turmeric tahini sauce because that sounds tasty with these.
I am so thrilled you love these! These are one of my fave vegan burgers. Oh yes, you'll love that sauce! thank you 🙂
YUM! Can't wait to try this. If I don't need this to be gluten-free, is it ok to use regular breadcrumbs? Thanks for this fabulous recipe!
Yes, absolutely. Thanks Susie ❤️
Yummo! Is there a substitute that you would recommend for nutritional yeast? I'm not vegan.
Hello Amy, Nutritional yeast has a very umami taste (kind of like parmesan). The flakes are dry and add a little body to the burger. Worth trying even if you are not strictly vegan. I add them to a lot of my recipes for that flavour hit and also because they are high in protein. A good non-vegan alternative would be finely grated parmesan cheese in the same quantity. I have tried with parmesan and it is equally delicious 🙂 x
Cannot wait to dothis!!!! One question. We freeze cooked patties right??
Thank you so much for all the inspiration!!!
B
yes! cooked and stored in freezer bags or boxes, separated by baking paper to avoid sticking.
Nice post