Home-made veggie burgers are a tricky thing… Will they hold together? Will they be hearty enough? Will the texture be appetizing? Will they taste good?
In the past I’ve used oats and beans as the main ingredients in various veggie burgers, but the recipe I’m about to share is definitely my best one to date, and it used neither of those aforementioned foods.
What you’ll need to recreate this heavenly patty…
Wild rice and extra firm tofu.
Lentils.
Chia seeds.
And carrots.
Pink veggie patties (v, gf)
- 4 oz. extra firm tofu (approx. 1/4 a normal package)
- 1 cup (cooked) wild rice
- 3/4 cup (cooked) pink lentils
- 8-10 (raw) baby carrots
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (or more to taste)
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp Bragg’s liquid aminos (or tamari/soy sauce)
As an FYI:
My lentils had already been soaking in the fridge for a few days so they took minutes seconds to cook.
I also had leftover wild rice, so it was chilled and a bit more dry than freshly made rice.
My tofu was drained, not pressed, so there was probably a bit of extra liquid in it still.
Given these factors, be cautious with the amount of water you add (erring on the side of less water at first, and adding more as you need it to reach the quarter cup I noted above).
Add all the ingredients to the blender and pulse, pulse, pulse, stopping to scrape down the sides of the blender and manually stir in between. It’s not necessary to get everything completely pureed because small chunks of rice, lentils, and carrots give the burger a nice texture. As the water and chia seeds have time to gel, the mixture will begin to hold together well.
Spray a baking sheet with non-stick spray, pre-heat the oven to 375, and let the mix sit for a few minutes. This lets the flavors all meld and gives the chia seeds enough time to act as a binding agent.
Form patties in your hands and plop them onto the baking sheet (the plopping action helps flatten them uniformly into burger shapes). This recipe yields 4 medium sized burgers.
Cook them for 30 minutes at 375.
After 18 minutes in the oven, I pulled them out to flip. As you can see, the outsides of the burgers were already getting golden and crispy.
After the remaining 12 minutes, I left them on the counter to cool (and photograph).
Have you ever seen such pretty pink patties!?!
One was a bit fatter than the rest (I guess I didn’t plop him as well), but the rest were the most gorgeous veggie burgers I’ve ever seen. Ok, I’m biased.
I’m really not one to toot my own horn, but these actually turned out PERFECT. Like, not even a single teeny tiny change to be made. 100% amazing. The flavors were clean but not bland, allowing this burger to be extremely versatile in it’s uses. On a salad, on a bun, in a wrap, on it’s own. All good options.
This may sound strange, but their aroma reminded me of a meat loaf…however, they tasted almost like a rice and tofu stir fry…in a patty form.
I love carrots in veggie burgers. And wild rice gives them such a chewy texture.
Mmmm… see how the inside texture is a mix of puree with some chunks? Heavenly.
Ok, let’s talk stats. This is just a rough estimation, but here’s the nutritional profile as calculated for one veggie burger.
Calories 170.9
Total Fat 4.1 g
Saturated Fat 0.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 2.5 g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.8 g
Cholesterol 0.0 mg
Sodium 387.6 mg
Potassium 374.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 24.5 g
Dietary Fiber 6.4 g
Sugars 1.4 g
Protein 10.0 g
- Vitamin A 101.4 %
- Vitamin B-12 0.0 %
- Vitamin B-6 11.7 %
- Vitamin C 7.1 %
- Vitamin D 0.0 %
- Vitamin E 0.7 %
- Calcium 5.9 %
- Copper 11.0 %
- Folate 24.4 %
- Iron 15.3 %
- Magnesium 13.7 %
- Manganese 31.3 %
- Niacin 7.2 %
- Pantothenic Acid 4.0 %
- Phosphorus 17.6 %
- Riboflavin 5.9 %
- Selenium 8.1 %
- Thiamin 8.1 %
- Zinc 10.0 %
Healthy, hearty, yummy, yes please! Make these!!!
That is the prettiest veggie burger I’ve ever seen!
Those look amazing!!! So pretty!
Tofu and rice stir fry tasting?! SOLD!
I love that these are pink! Totally going to have to try them 🙂
Can’t wait to try these! They look amazing. 🙂
oh these look awesome elise! i love that they have so many things in them – carrots, lentils, rice, tofu! so awesome, like a little package of health! and i love that the patties are pink =)
YUM! I’m always looking for a new veggie burger recipe. I can’t wait to try this one!
they look awesome, elise! i’m gonna make these but they might not be pink…
Mmm…these burgers look absolutely amazing! Did you come up with that recipe all by yourself?! You’re like a vegan cooking whizz, lol! 🙂 I will definitely be bookmarking these to make in the future at our next BBQ bash…thank you so much for sharing the recipe! (Who doesn’t love a pink burger, eh?) Take care! xyx
yummm! these look seriously awesome. I love the ingredients…and the protein content! and of course the color 😉
These look ahhhhhmazing! Usually when people post veggie burger creations my instant reaction is ummmm, no…but I am definitely making these veggie plops!
Oh, my, I cannot wait to try these burgers!
So sad I won’t be seeing you in L.A. 🙁
These sound delicious! I will definitely have to give them a whirl.
I used this recipe as inspiration this weekend. I subbed quinoa for wild rice, acorn squash puree for the carrots and water, and instead of ketchup/mustard, i added panang curry paste and 1T coconut butter. So yum. Next time I will add some oats to make them a little less wet, but these were deeeelicious.
I love anyway to get more wild rice into my life- love this idea! Have you ever looked at veganepicurean.com? She has posted some great patties before and always uses about 2tbs of wheat gluetento make them stay together really well…havent tried myself yet tho
I would love to make these this week but I don’t have chia seeds. Do you think if I used flax seeds that would work okay?
I made these tonight using flax seeds instead of chia seeds and they were absolutely perfect. I love Trader Joe’s’ organic tofu burgers but these blew them out of the water. These will be my go-to veggie burger from now on, thanks for the great recipe!!!
im so glad! sorry i couldnt get back to you sooner, but it seems you learned the flax would be a nice sub. 🙂
Thanks for this! I altered it a bit ( I used fresh onion and garlic plus I added a bit of black pepper) and it was really awesome! Thank you once again!
nice! glad you enjoyed it 🙂
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WOw! Awesome recipe!
I have some tofu questions (Im a tofu-newbie):
Is the nutritional info for tofu regarding the weight that is taken out of the package (the unpressed, water-filled tofu) or after the water has been squeezed out?
For what reasons would a person use unpressed tofu and for what reasons would someone use pressed tofu?
Is the nutrition different too (ie, is there more protein in the unpressed vs pressed)?
Thanks!
i think the weight is just the tofu (not the water).
regarding pressing tofu or not: i press my tofu whenever i make it to eat solo (like baked tofu). but if im using it as an ingredient in something (casserole, lasagna, stir fry, etc.) its less important because the extra water will just cook off. mostly its just for maximizing flavor when you are cooking tofu on its own – itll absorb more flavor that way.
i always drain the liquid. but i dont always press it.
i dont think theres any difference in the nutritional info. the stats listed on the back are for the tofu alone.
Thanks SO much!
Dumb questions #2: whats the diff between draining and pressing tofu? (yes, I am a tofu-tard….feel free to slap me upside the head, lol)
draining = draining the water out
pressing = putting pressure atop the tofu for extended time to get all the water out.
you can use the search on my site or google for more info.
I am anxious to try this recipe. I do have a concern. It looks like you are baking these on Al Foil. Is that right? I was under the impression that aluminum can migrate into the food during the cooking and most people trying to avoid alzheimers disease do not want to injest aluminum.
just use a greased pan, silpat mat, or parchment paper. all will work.
This looks amazing! I’ve been looking for veggie burger recipes, and have tried a few, but they never seem to work out for me like in the recipes. My problem is, I think, that my mix always ends up being too dry. This one looks so delicious, I will definitely attempt to make these veggie burgers!
Do you think it would be okay with soft tofu and brown or basmati rice? Thanks!
oh man, this was from a long time ago – my hunch is yes, but i can’t remember much about recipe i made so long ago. let me know if you try it.