Homemade Veggie Burger
Joseph ErdosThere are numerous varieties of veggie and meatless burgers available in supermarkets. Some are good, some are bad, and others are plain awful. Making your own veggie burger is also an option. Homemade is always better than store-bought, but creating a healthy and flavorful veggie burger at home is a challenge, one which I recently decided to tackle.

My coworkers gave me the challenge of coming up with a veggie burger recipe that vegetarians and even meat-eaters might like. Plus it had to be worthy enough for the grill. I wanted to come up with a recipe for a burger that looked like a meat patty, had the color of a grilled burger, and had an umami taste. This is the kind of veggie burger a meat-eater might eat and even like. With this veggie burger recipe, you'll also impress your vegetarian friends at your next backyard barbecue.

I further challenged myself to create a recipe that would work with a variety of dietary restrictions or food allergies. These burgers are vegan, gluten free, nut free, dairy free, egg free, and almost soy free. I use miso paste to give the burgers an umami flavor, but if you're allergic to soy, you can use vegemite, a savory spread made from yeast. Smoked paprika adds a flavor akin to barbecued meat, and some dried herbs and spices add additional flavor.

The base of the burgers includes mushrooms, kidney beans, and three grains in the form of cooked millet, quinoa flakes, and cornmeal. Garbanzo flour and potato starch keep the burgers from falling apart. The patties are baked first, which makes them much easier to handle for grilling, broiling, or pan-frying. Make the full recipe and freeze the burgers you don't immediately need. This way you'll always have veggie burgers on hand when your vegetarian friends stop by.

Click here to get the recipe for Joe's Veggie Burgers