Homemade vegan burgers
Sometimes it can be quite tricky to make a proper vegan burger at home. Should you buy meatfree products from the store? Should you try making my veggie burger? What to use for making a patty? Why does it break apart and does not hold together as the meat patties do?
For an easy and fast burger, you can always use NATURLI’ meat-free products. They will taste fantastic and hold together just the same as regular meat patties. But if you wish to try out your skills in the kitchen and make your homemade veggie burger, then you have to pay attention to a few details when combining ingredients.
How to make vegan burger not to fall apart?
When creating a base for vegan burgers, you can use a range of ingredients such as mushrooms, beans, and legumes, tofu, and seitan. These ingredients will make for a healthy meal, packed with flavour and necessary nutrients.
But the most important part of making your vegan patties, so they do not fall apart when you are trying to fry them is to use binders. Patties made from meat and eggs have a lot of sticky saturated fats which help them hold together, but since you will be using veggies it’s important to use something which would create the right texture and not let them break easily.
Best binders for veggie patties
Egg replacement
Eggs usually help the patty hold together because they have saturated fats. To make the burger vegan, we have to find a good substitute for the egg.
One of the options is “flax egg” which is ground flax seed combined with warm water. It becomes in a gel consistency. A similar ingredient can be chia seeds and agar because when mixed with liquid, they tend to thicken up.
Sticky binders
Besides eggs, other sticky ingredients will help you hold the vegan burger patty together. Some of them are wet, so it’s recommended to keep track of how you are using them. Mashed potatoes, beans, and lentils are sticky, but so are nut butter, tahini, tomato paste, mustard, and barbecue sauce. Some ingredients get sticky when they get wet such as breadcrumbs, flour, oats, rice, quinoa, barley, ground nuts and seeds, spices, and cornstarch. Do not use too much of this, because it can end up being gooey.
Vegetables
Raw vegetables hold a lot of water, which will get released during cooking. It can also happen when using tofu and beans. You can avoid making your vegan burger turning into mush with simple steps. If it’s shredded onion, carrot or zucchini try to squeeze out as much water as possible before adding to the burger mix. You can cook some of the veggies and beans, but make sure they are cooled down.
Vegan burger patties can be cooked in the oven, pan, or grill. It all lays in your preferences. If you wanna make sure that the patty will not break apart, just simply put it in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until it turns crispier on the outside.
There is so much more information on how to achieve the best veggie patty for your vegan burger, so make sure to check out these articles as well: One Green planet and Simply Recipes.
Naturli burger recipes
But if you’re looking for something very simple, fast, and super delicious – try NATURLI’ meat-free products! We have Minced All Star and The Burger All Star!
To get more inspired about what kind of burgers can you make, follow these links to best vegan burger recipes:
