Makes 4 big burgers
Time: 1 hour 15 minutes || Active time: 30 minutes
You know the song, two all-beet patties, special sauce, lettuce, “cheeze”…har har.
Well, everyone loves burgers and this is a fine, upstanding, burger-citizen made with some of my favorite ingredients. Brown rice, lentils and beets! They all combine to form the perfect storm of vegan burgerness.
It’s not that they taste exactly like hamburgers or anything, but they do taste exactly like awesome veggie burgers. Rice provides awesome texture, to give you a substantial bite. Lentils are my go-to ground meat so they were a natural addition. And beets are the veggie burger hotness right now! I’ve tried beet burgers at many a restaurant, and I’ve been itching to come up with my own recipe. They give the burger an intense (vaguely disturbing) meat-like appearance, but they also add a lot of flavor, earthy and slightly sweet. Just something that takes your VB to the next level.
I like to make these burgers BIG. Ya’ know, dinner sized. In reading the Wikipedia about the history of the Quarter Pounder (or Royale With Cheese, for you Pulp Fiction fans), the inventor of the burger says he “felt there was a void in our menu vis-à-vis the adult who wanted a higher ratio of beet to bun.” OK, he said meat not beet, but whatever. And I have to agree. There’s a certain satisfaction to eating your way around the burger before digging in to a full-on bun bite.
To make these more fast-foody, top with shredded lettuce, sliced dill pickles, finely diced onion and ketchup. I would add a layer of avocado instead of a vegan cheese, but that’s just me. They really don’t even need it.
One very important part of this recipe is the cooking method. You want to get the burger charred. Not burnt, but charred, which really just means, uh, burnt only in some places. The best way to achieve this is with a very hot cast iron pan. Other pans may react different to high heat, and may not give you that perfect char. So if you’re not using a cast iron pan, the next best thing would be to transfer them to a baking pan after cooking, brush with oil and stick them under the broiler for a few minutes.
Recipe notes: If you’d like to make these gluten-free, just use gluten-free breadcrumbs – ground up gluten-free pretzels would be ideal. And if you’d like to bake them instead, do so at 375 F, 8 to 10 minutes each side, then stick under the broiler to brown them. If you’d like to use a different nut butter, I would recommend cashew or sunbutter. I think PB will be too strong, but who knows? I use a food processor to make these happen quickly, so you’ll have to do some finagling if you don’t have one. And one last tip: I keep a package of frozen brown rice handy at all times. It’s perfect for occasions like this when you just need a little bit for an ingredient.
And don’t forget the fries! Garlic Curry Fries are perfect with these. OK, it’s burgertime!
1 1/4 cups cooked, cooled brown rice (see recipe notes above)
1 cup cooked brown or green lentils, cooled, drained well
1 cup shredded beets
1/2 teaspoon salt
Fresh black pepper
1 teaspoon thyme, rubbed between your fingers
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel (or finely crushed fennel seed)
1 teaspoon dry mustard
3 tablespoons very finely chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons smooth almond butter
1/2 cup very fine breadcrumbs
Olive oil for the pan
Peel beets and shred with the shredder attachment of your food processor, then set aside. Change the attachment to a metal blade. Pulse the brown rice, shredded beets and lentils about 15 to 20 times, until the mixture comes together, but still has texture. It should look a lot like ground meat:
Now transfer to a mixing bowl and add all the remaining ingredients. Use your hands to mix very well. Everything should be well incorporated, so get in there and take your time, it could take a minute or two.
Place the mixture in the fridge for a half hour to chill.
Preheat a cast iron pan over medium-high. Now form the patties. Each patty will be a heaping 1/2 cup of mixture. To get perfectly shaped patties, use a 3 1/2 inch cookie cutter or ring mold (I have pics of how to do it here.) Otherwise, just shape them into burgers with your hands.
Pour a very thin layer of oil into the pan and cook patties for about 12 minutes, flipping occasionally. Do two at a time if you’re pan isn’t big enough. Drizzle in a little more oil or use a bottle of organic cooking spray as needed. Burgers should be charred at the edges and heated through.
Serve immediately. But they taste pretty great heated up as well, so if you want to cook them in advance, refrigerate, then gently heat in the pan later on, then that is cool, too.
Didn’t have thyme or fennel, but holycow these are the best veggie burgers ever.
I hadn’t thought to add beets. Thanks for the idea and recipe!
I made these last night because I just so happened to have all the ingredients on hand. I used lentils from a really thick lentil soup, panko for the breadcrumbs and almond powder I had purchased at an Indian market. They came out absolutely delicious and looked exactly like your photos! I’m an RD/nutrition therapist and have referred dozens of clients to your books (esp Veganomicon and Appetite for Reduction) and blog. THANK YOU!!!
Made these for dinner last night. Fabulous! Blogged about them here:
http://fullplateplanet.wordpress.com/
These were epic! I made littler burgers and got 6 out of this recipe. I used pretzle buns, put daiya cheddar on the bottom, veganaise on the top, and salted and peppered sliced tomatoes and homemade roasted red peppers. I made the fries to go with as recommended but made them cajun fries and I tell ya, it was delicious.
It has been a VERY long and VERY stressful week in my neck of the woods and so I am so grateful that there are people like you who can give me access to a simple, easy, yet delicious meal that can seriously make my entire freaking day after going through all kinds of crazy, stressy stuff at work. You are a lifesaver, Isa! Love ya!
Aww, glad I could help you unwind!
Delicious. Didn’t have fennel so I used a touch of celery seed. I used gluten-free bread crumbs and sunbutter. I, like Allison, got six out of the recipe. 🙂 My 4 year old was not into them but he tried – mainly because I told him they contained lentils which he loves, beets he does not. Finally, took the suggestion of avocado and added sauteed mushrooms. Thank you for another fabulous recipe and good reason to finally use my new food processor.
Making them tonight. Love the recipes on this site.
One silly question – to freeze should these be cooked first, or just shaped into raw patties? Does it make a difference?
My daughter made these. They were so delicious and flavorful. Better than any beef burger I had in my life. Glad we are vegans now.
Yep,,,these were as good as the picture(love). I topped with onion sprouts, fried onion/mushrooms a tomato, mustard and nayonnaise…looking forward to leftovers already…
I made these tonight and they were devoured by my family. This one is going into the regular rotation. Thanks Isa!
This was the first thing I have made from your blog…. and they are delicious. Love the texture, the taste and the look!
I made the beet burgers, and my husband decided to make a pesto sauce. I have to say the pesto and burger in a bun (with lettuce, pickle, tomato) was purely awesome! There’s a suggestion for something even more different! I will definitely make these and eat them this way again!
These were amazing!!! My husband loved them!!! I shouldn’t be surprised though since every recipe I’ve tried of yours has been amazing!
My son ate these without complaining. So, not that you weren’t before (we have an Isa Chandra section in our cookbook library), you are now officially our hero!!
The patties i shaped with my burger press crumbled in the pan, but the hand shaped ones came out beautifully! Initially, I wasn’t sure about the beet thing as I’m not a fan, but as my 16 yr old daughter said, “let’s try it, all of her recipes always turn out great!”. She was right as always.
Ooh a tasty looking veggie burger :-). I like meat but this could easily tempt me to the veggie side!
Seriously, the best veggie burgers we’ve made so far! And that’s saying something, because me husband is on a quest to try all the veggie burger recipes in existence!!
Whoa, that’s a high compliment, thank you!
This recipe looks like the veggie burger at Hillstone restaurants, which is THE best (even NYtimes said so http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/dining/23meatless.html?pagewanted=all). But of course they can only serve it with a bun that has an egg glaze, damn them!
Excited to try these as my new option : )
These were fantastic! Thanks for a delicious and fool-proof burger recipe, Isa! They held together like a charm, shaping them was easy-peasy, and they tasted fantastic with suggested burger fillings. Also made curry garlic fries as suggested, which were delicious. =)
I loved these burgers and my carnivore boyfriend loved them as well. I doubled the recipe and got a week’s worth of lunch to take to work (although I ate most of them over the weekend). About to dive into one now. One question: does anyone have an estimated calorie/fat count on this? I could figure it out but I thought maybe someone already has?
Is this correct calorie/fat count? 4 burgers are about 850 calories and 25 g fat – 1 burger = 210 calorie and 6.25 g fat? Sounds low?
Doesn’t sound off to me. Beets, lentils, brown rice, almond butter for fat. Why do you think it would be more fat and calories?
I had some major failures with this recipe. I made the rice and lentils a few days ago, so they were definitely cool. I cooled the mixture 30 minutes in the fridge, so that was cool. I followed the recipe exactly as written. But for some reason, I have a powder that will not stick together. I did my best to squeeze it into patties to bake in the oven, hoping that they would somehow firm up, but they didn’t. Could my problem have been the variety of beet I used? (Candy Cane/Chioggia Beets – I didn’t know they weren’t regular red beets until I peeled them.) Could it have been my almond butter? (I used the “grind-your-own-almond-butter” kind from the grocery store.) Could my rice and/or lentils have been too undercooked?
They taste okay, but I need to eat them in a bowl with a spoon. I can’t put them on a bun, and I can’t even eat them with a fork. Any ideas what I could have done wrong? I’m want to try again, but I don’t know what to do differently to make them burgers instead of powder.
Made these last night and they were incredible! Thank you so much for all of your fabulous recipes.
What a great way to use some of my favorite seasonal root vegetables! I’ve been on a serious beet kick lately: roasted, juiced, and now… burgered!
I love using burger as a verb.
I made these and they were AWESOME and inspiring!! It was my first time making vegan patties from scratch!
I made these with panko crumbs and tahini. I mixed together the ingredients and let it sit overnight and made the burgers the next day. They held together very well and I also got 6 burgers from the recipe. They were delicious and it does have that “raw meat” look. I ate them plain,no bun.
I put in the major ingredients into a calorie counter and if you are making 4 burgers, each is 207 kcals which is awesome! Can’t wait to make these with avocado slices and whole wheat sandwich thins. I love how much more food you can eat when you eat vegan!! No way a meat burger can even come close to being less than 400 kcal.
I am also chuckling at the Pulp Fiction reference (one of my all time favorite movies). Royale with cheese….what do they call a whopper? I don’t know I didn’t go to Burger King…
Has anyone tried freezing these? I’d love to make a big batch but there’s only one of me, so having some in cold storage would be a nice thing.
Any way canned beets could work?? if so, i could make them pronto!
These were soooo good! I’ve never made a veggie patty from scratch before, & I don’t love beets, but even with those 2 strikes against me-these ROCKED! I too subbed in some tahini for almond butter since I didn’t feel like making any. Also, didn’t have any GF pretzels so I used TJ’s low fat white corn tortilla chips(which have some rice flour in them) & processed them first. That may be why they didn’t stick together as well, but I kinda liked the corny flavor it added. I’ll try it the right way next time. I froze two un-charred ones, I’ll report back on how they thaw. Thanks again for all your vegan awesomeness!!! 🙂
Amazing. Declared in our not-at-all-vegan house as the best dinner we’ve had at home in months.
I stuck some patties in the fridge, and plan to make a pita pocket with leftover fries for lunch tomorrow.
how many does it make?
DANG. These were DELICIOUS!! Definitely the best vegan burger I’ve made so far – my non-vegan neighbor fell in love with them too. Thank you!!
xo
cortnie
Dare I say ABSOLUTELY DE-FREAKIN’-LISH-US!!!! I’m now forever grateful that your mom fell in love with Beet Burgers at Northstar, cuz I’m in love with these!!!
Last night when I was preparing these there were all sorts of chuckles about ” all-beet burgers” from all my dinner guests. But it was I who laughed when everyone reached for seconds….and boo-hooed because there were no leftovers for lunch today! Such a great recipe.
making these tonight and i have 2 questions:
i don’t have almond (or others) butter in the house and you mention pb might be a bit too much. i’d like to use tahini so should i just use the same measurement?
do these hold well frozen? when it comes to homemade burgers, we usually just cook them up, dust with flour, wrapped individually and throw in the freezer.
think these will rock with the oven-baked onion rings.
(btw, i have all of your books and appetite for reduction is the best cookbook we’ve ever owned…vegan brunch also gets used once a week!)
thanks for your help!
rachel
Tahini works, and yes, you can freeze em exactly how you say. Check out the comments because I believe these things were discussed. Thanks for the love, and enjoy!
I can’t wait to try making these!! YUM!
Now, for a taste treat delight…….a leftover Beetburger, and some slices of leftover Porcini Crusted Tofu…all warmed up in a toasted onion roll with veganaise and any other delights you’re craving like radish sprouts, tomato slices, etc. and it’s a divine lunch.
I’ve never gotten tofu, but that recipe is bangin’…please more yumminess like that for tofu…please?
Er, why would I want to char my food? I thought charred food was very unhealthy, or is that only if it’s meat?
Thanks!
I’ve never thought of using beets in veggie burgers. Interesting! It looks a lot like meat too haha.
I made these one night with a little cumin and the fries, but cajun not curry and they were SPECTACULAR! Even my “completely against veganism” boyfriend raved about them!
WOW! These were so so so good! I topped mine with sauteed onions and a sprinkle of Daiya and served with some smoked paprika and garlic roasted potatoes. It reminded me of stuffing on a bun… Yummy! Keep the great recipes coming!
I’ve made three batches of these since you posted and definitely have the ingredients for a fourth, and i’m single. And i want to eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner but i reserve them for the latter two. ANYWAY, the last double batch i made were really crumbly and when i bake them/serve them they’re crumbly too. Am i doing something wrong or is there a way to make them stick together more???? I actually made a vegan “special sauce” and eat them with pickles and onions like the reminiscent “two all beef patties”. Absolutely love them, and all of your books and recipes.
Uh-may-zing. Currently on our third batch (this time with added chipotle powder). Love eating them raw with a dollop of mustard – hits all those old burger-eating flavor notes perfectly. Thank you!
These are truly phenomenal. Both my husband and I couldn’t stop “mmmm”ing during dinner. SO GOOD. I wouldn’t change a thing about them!