ultimate veggie burgers.

In search of the ultimate veggie burger, I happened to catch Simon Rimmer rustling up a pretty delicious offering on Sunday Brunch the other weekend. If you saw it too, you might remember him saying that he doesn't put a vegetarian burger option on the menu until it's absolutely perfect. So it had to be a good recipe, right? 

I really wanted to make a proper dirty looking burger where the patties were actually made up of a yummy veg combination. There's nothing quite like your five a day smothered in cheese and mayo...

Shopping list
(Makes eight patties)
♥ One white onion, peeled, sliced
♥ 300g firm silken tofu
♥ Two cooked beetroots (not in vinegar)
♥ 125g oyster mushrooms
♥ 200g kidney beans
♥ One grated carrot,
♥ One tsp smoked paprika
♥ Two garlic cloves
♥ One tsp chopped fresh thyme
♥ Salt and pepper
♥ Brioche buns
♥ Gherkins
♥ Cheese slices

♥ Mayo  
♥ Wooden skewers
Based on Simon Rimmer's recipe on BBC Food.

A classic ingredient pic... not taken one in a while.

I was also beyond overjoyed that Sainsbury's now do brioche burger buns. Yes yes yes. (Though yes I do need to try making my own...)

Begin by lighting frying the oyster mushrooms and sliced white onion on a low heat for around 10 minutes.

Slice, grate and roughly chop up the remaining ingredients so they are easier to blend.

Whizz up the uncooked ingredients, then lastly add in the onions and mushrooms. Just pulse a couple of times here and keep them chunky. In the original recipe, these parts are just chopped, not blended, possibly yielding a thicker mixture.

Make into chunky patty shapes.

Shallow fry for five minutes per side. Again the original recipe suggested a shorter time than this and could be due to my smoother mixture.

Arrange in your brioche buns; layering is key!

Got a little snap happy with that one. As you can see I doubled up with some blasphemous cheese singles inbetween. I love a proper posh cheeseboard - but on a burger i'd take these over any cheese. Any day.

So what do you think? Are they filthy enough to be giving up your pulled pork and steak burgers just once?


  1. These do look pretty good. I like the sound of beetroot and smoked paprika together to give an earthy smoked flavour.

    If only more chefs put more thought into making their veggie burgers just right!

  2. Oh man these looks so good! You have quite a good selection of veggie recipes, I'm impressed. It's hard to find imaginative meat free recipes.

  3. Hi Emily! Great post. I also saw the show a while ago and have been meaning to try this. I used your idea for blending the mixture - thanks for that. Here's my version in case you're curious how I got on: http://rootsandtoots.com/2015/01/24/the-ultimate-veggie-burger

    Love Leah from Roots and Toots x