Veggie Burgers
We’ve experimented with loads of different recipes for veggie burgers and this is our favourite. Plenty of flavour, great texture and the beetroot gives the whole thing a pleasingly meaty look. Try our special burger buns made with potato dough too. They’re brilliant, though we say it ourselves.

Veggie Burgers 📷 Andrew Hayes-Watson
Info
PT61M- Serves
- Serves 8
- Prep time
- 20 minutes (+ chilling time)
- Cooking time
- 30 minutes
- Calories
- 412 per serving
Tags
Ingredients
For the burgers
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 2 x 400g cans of black beans, roughly mashed
- 100g cooked brown rice
- 2 small cooked beetroots, coarsely grated
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 1 tsp mushroom ketchup
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 50g fine breadcrumbs
- sea salt and black pepper
To cook and serve
- low-cal oil spray
- 8 slices of reduced-fat hard cheese (optional)
- 8 burger buns
- lettuce leaves
- 2 tomatoes, sliced
- 1 red onion, sliced
- gherkins, sliced
Potato Bread Burger Buns - optional
- 375g floury potatoes
- 7g sachet of fast-acting yeast
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 75ml semi-skimmed milk
- 1 egg
- 300g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
Method
Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and cook until it’s very soft and lightly caramelised. Add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes, then take the pan off the heat, tip the onion and garlic into a bowl and leave them to cool.
Add the remaining burger ingredients to the cooled onion and garlic. Season well with salt and pepper, then put the mixture in the fridge to chill for a couple of hours. Shape the mixture into 8 patties weighing about 100g each, then put them in the fridge again until you are ready to cook. You can also freeze the burgers at this stage: open freeze them until firm, then transfer them to a freezer-proof container.
When you are ready to cook the burgers, preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. Spray a baking tray with low-cal oil. Arrange the burgers on the baking tray, spray them with a little low-cal oil, then bake them for 20 minutes. If using cheese, add it for the last 3–4 minutes of the cooking time.
Lightly toast the burger buns, then layer up the burgers with the salad ingredients and any condiments you like.
You could also add smoked tofu to your burgers instead of cheese. It’s best to marinate and grill the tofu.
Check out our video on YouTube - https://fb.watch/t8_WJ9qZGU/
Potato Bread Burger Buns
First make some mash. Peel the potatoes and cut them into chunks of about 3cm. Put them in a large saucepan, cover them with cold water and bring them to the boil. Cook for 10–15 minutes or until very tender. Drain the potatoes in a colander, tip them back into the saucepan and leave them to dry out for a while – the drier they are the better. Mash the potatoes until smooth – don’t add any butter or milk. Leave the mash to cool to room temperature.
Put the mash in a large bowl and sprinkle over the yeast and sugar. Mix briefly so the yeast isn’t all on the surface of the potato, then add the salt. Warm the milk to blood temperature, then whisk it with the egg in a bowl. Gradually mix this into the potato, then mix in the flour until you have a fairly tacky dough.
Turn the dough out on to a floured work surface and knead for a few minutes until it’s soft and pliable. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover it with a damp tea towel and leave it somewhere warm to rise for about an hour.
When the dough has doubled in size, knock it back, turn it out on to the work surface again and cut it into 8 equal-sized pieces. Knead these separately and form them into rounds. Place them on a baking tray, fairly well spaced apart, then cover again and leave to rise for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C/Gas 6. After half an hour, the buns should have risen well. Put them in the oven and bake for 15–20 minutes, until they are lightly golden and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Turn the buns out on to a rack and cover them with a tea towel to stop the crust firming up too much. These are great with the burgers here.
Comments
200 calories per bun
Prep: 20 minutes (plus cooling and rising time)
Cooking time: about 35 minutes
Make 8