This is the best whole food plant-based burger recipe I’ve ever made. They are amazing in every aspect: taste, texture, ingredients, and appearance. These vegan burgers are not trying to mimic the taste of a meat burger, but are loaded with flavour. Often times people think vegan food is bland, luckily we know this isn’t true. All the best flavours out there come from herbs and spices, aka plants! There is the option of making these burgers even more spicy, with extra chili powder, if you like the heat.
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These whole food plant-based burgers also have a great texture. They aren’t super chewy, but hold up when eaten. Try not to over-blend the mixture in your food processor to keep some of the texture of the ingredients so the burgers don’t come out mushy.
Ingredients for a Plant Based Whole Foods Burger Recipe
The ingredient list for these whole food plant-based burgers is fantastic. They are some of the healthiest burgers around! It uses four (of six) food groups for a healthy plant-based diet. This means you can check off the box for a serving of whole grains, legumes, vegetables, and spices. I’ve kept these plant-based burgers oil free as well, but you can certainly add some. If you skip oil, try adding some fat to the meal with fresh avocado or a tahini sauce!
I use salt when cooking and like to use an iodized sea salt. If you avoid salt for any reason, the recipe will work but additional spices may be helpful to get the best flavour.
This whole food plant-based burger recipe is great to make at the end of the week. If you’re like me, you might have some leftover rice, sweet potato, and other vegetables in the fridge needing to be used. This is the perfect opportunity to use up those ingredients and create a tasty meal!
Top the healthy vegan burger with your favourite vegetables and condiments. Green onion adds great flavour and I like to add some sort of leafy green for crunch and nutrition! I also highly recommend topping your burger with some avocado for healthy fats.
Do you have a favourite burger topping? Let me know in the comments below!
The Best Whole Food Plant Based Burgers
Equipment
- Food processor
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- Baking tray
- Silicone baking mat
Ingredients
- 1 ½ C sweet potato cooked
- 1 ½ C brown rice cooked
- 1 ½ C black beans I use canned, drained and rinsed (or freshly cooked black beans)
- ½ C onion
- 2 C mushrooms (cremini works well)
- 1 tsp salt (or to your taste)
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- 1/8– ¼ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp chili powder (more if you like things spicy)
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Instructions
- Cook the brown rice according to package directions, or use leftover cooked brown rice. Using fresh rice often increases moisture content so the burgers may need to be cooked longer.
- Dice and steam the sweet potato until it is fork tender, or use leftover cooked sweet potato.
- Preheat the oven to 375 °F.
- Place the onion and mushrooms in a food processor and pulse a couple of times, until the onion and mushrooms are chopped.
- Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until the mixture comes together; scrape down the sides of the food processor as needed.
- Form the mixture into burger patties. This recipe makes 6 burgers, about ½ C of mixture per burger.
- Place patties onto a baking sheet lined with parchment.
- Bake 12 minutes; flip and bake for another 10 - 12 minutes. Be careful when flipping as the burgers will be quite soft while they bake.
- Take the burgers out of the oven and let them rest for 10-15 minutes to cool down. The patties will firm up during this time; if you don’t let them rest they may fall apart.
Vegan Pumpkin Pasta Sauce (Served with Penne, Broccoli and Chickpeas)
Delicious! I do not have a food processor. I chopped the veggies pretty fine and squished squished squished! I got 8 1/2 cup burgers and they were delicious ! My carnivore hubby loved them. I did add about 1/2 smoked chipotle powder, because I’m a bit obsessed with it right now. We had Oil free sweet Potato fries, corn on the cob and watermelon. Supper fit for a queen.
Hi Kathy, I’m so happy you enjoyed the recipe! Sounds like a delicious meal 🙂
I love this recipe and make it regularly. So tasty!
Thank you so much! Glad you like it – it’s one of my favourites too 🙂
Have you tried freezing these? Just finished baking the batch. Look and smell great. I will come back with a review later.
Yes you can freeze them for up to 3 months! Any longer and they might get freezer burn. To reheat just bake in the oven from frozen until hot in the middle.
Hi they sound great! Do you have to use nutritional yeast? I’ve never heard of it before and wouldn’t know where to find it? On amazon it’s pretty pricey.
I’m not sure where you live but nutritional yeast is delicious if you can find some! It’s often less expensive at bulk food stores if there’s any around to check out. You can definitely make these burgers without it but it does add a nice flavour (and nutrition boost).
Wondering if there’s a way to make this without a food dehydrator?
Hi Kris! Thanks for the comment. I’m guessing you meant without a food processor? You could chop the onion and mushroom really fine (as if it had been processed) and mash that together with the rice and sweet potato. I’ve never done this so can’t guarantee it will work; you may find the texture is more coarse and the patties may not stick together as well. The next time I make this recipe I’ll give this a try because lot’s of people don’t have a food processor and it would be nice to have that as an option if it works! If you give this a try I’d love to hear how it turns out.
These are amazing! I substituted tofu for the mushrooms since I am not a mushroom fan and it worked perfectly. Even my meat loving boyfriend loved these, he asks me to make them all the time!
Awesome! So glad to hear you both enjoyed. And that sounds like a great substitution; I might try it myself sometime 🙂