Our Best Veggie Burger Recipes

Vegan chef Chloe Coscarelli is famous for her deliciously charred veggie burgers. For a “special sauce,” she swaps out mayo for silken-tofu mayonnaise to make a tangy-sweet vegan take on Thousand Island dressing.

Most veggie burgers are a pale imitation of the all-beef original, but even with ordinary black beans in place of Rancho Gordo Midnight beans, these robust patties with roasted red pepper spread are moist and delicious. The spread doubles as a fantastic dipping sauce for French fries.

Eating vegan for a month led Richard Blais to examine his pantry more closely. He discovered that ground porcini mushrooms add a meaty flavor to dishes like his veggie burger.

This veggie-packed burger is made with chickpeas, artichokes, olives, asparagus and quinoa, then topped with melted cheese and marinated mushrooms.

The red lentils in these spicy, Indian-inspired vegetarian burgers don’t need to be soaked and cook superquickly. What’s more, they are rich in B vitamins, fiber and folate, which help fight heart disease and birth defects.

Another approach to veggie burgers uses the natural nutty sweetness of brown rice in the patty.

Banish all thoughts of gluey morning oatmeal. These crisp oat cakes may change the way you think about the grain. The batter is sticky; so it’s easiest to form the cakes right in the pan rather than by hand.

One school of thought says cooked mushrooms are more nutritious than raw ones, so F&W’s Grace Parisi developed this vegetarian entrée of grilled mushrooms filled with smoky chiles.

This tasty riff on a falafel sandwich uses black beans and quinoa in place of chickpeas.

For this fantastic vegetarian spin on a burger, grilled tofu gets marinated in a smoky spice paste, then topped with barbecue mayo.

Sweet corn kernels take two different forms in these crispy cakes. Half the corn is pureed into the batter; the other half is sautéed with shiitake and onion to give the fritters crunch.

Chef Edward Lee takes a different tack to the traditional veggie burger. Rather than creating a patty, Lee layers roasted vegetables and tops it off with melted cheese.