Gardein’s Ultimate Beefless Burger

There are so many choices these days when it comes to plant-based burgers, it’s never been easier to go meatless during grilling season.

One of my current favorites is Gardein’s Ultimate Beefless Burger. It tastes great! It’s savory and kind of beefy, and it also has a “meaty” texture which I enjoy. I love it with tomato, onion and arugula. This was yummy and very filling. Also easy to prepare. Plant-based burgers or veggie burgers have come a long way over the past 2 decades. I remember when I first went vegan how bland most veggie burgers were, and there was little choice. Now there’s a plethora of options.

The Beyond burger, another one of my favorites, tastes beefy to the point that some non-vegans are fooled into thinking it is beef and some vegans find the beefiness disturbing or unpleasant. I think the Gardein burger is nearly as good as the Beyond burger, which is typically pricier.

What is your favorite plant-based burger? Or do you prefer to make your own? If you prefer making your own, please share your favorite recipe!

Homemade kidney bean veggie burgers

I was inspired to make this after seeing this fantastic kidney bean burger recipe over at Oh.She.Cooks.. This is one of the best vegan blogs out there, full of many delicious and nutritious vegan recipes. If you are interested in going vegan, and even if you are not, be sure to visit this place for new ideas.

I’ve long wanted to make vegan veggie burgers from scratch. Although there are many brands of vegan burgers out there, they often have ingredients the health-conscious are trying to avoid. Usually it is too much sugar, or too much salt, or unhealthy fats, or some strange mystery ingredients. Or the protein content isn’t high enough. Besides this, nothing beats eating fresh by making something from scratch when you have the time.

I didn’t follow the recipe at Oh.She.Cooks. exactly, but the key ingredient in this is smashed kidney beans. I used canned kidney beans, but washed and strained them thoroughly to remove salt and contaminants.

Smash them as thoroughly or as unthoroughly as you want. I also added chopped onions(you can add any vegetables you want), bread crumbs, garlic powder, red pepper powder, black pepper, olive oil, and a tiny bit of salt.

Form into patties. I cooked them in olive oil in the pan for 10 minutes on each side. I added some lettuce and radicchio to the sandwich and it tasted great. It came out better than expected. The main problem was that the patties were kind of crumbly, but other than that not bad for the first time. This was a great vegan high protein meal for someone recovering from joggling for 21.7 miles in the nasty heat yesterday.