Why is it the meatiest vegan beef burger? Because it has a chewy, ground beef-like texture (thank you TVP), and it does not taste like veggies at all. It holds together during grilling and frying, even if you make thin patties. It is juicy and moist (not mushy) on the inside, but has a crispy crust on the outside. Did I mention it is also gluten-free!
If you haven’t heard about TVP (textured vegetable protein) before, you would be amazed by this ingredient. It is the best ground beef substitute ever. We use it to make the meatiest TVP meatballs, TVP taco meat, vegan lentil lasagna, or vegan moussaka.
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Why is it the best TVP burger?
This is the first question you would ask, right? How would it taste like? Your answer is probably pretty specific. You want it to taste like a real beef burger.
If you want a veggie burger, you would have searched for a veggie burger recipe. But you want the meatiest vegan beef burger recipe, the one that is the closest in taste and in texture, right?
But how to do it? I found this article on Eater about what makes the perfect beef burger. Several chefs have weighed in and said:
- crisp crust
- juicy, moist inside
- shouldn’t fall apart
- thinner patty
- seasoned only with salt and pepper
- low fat meat (less than 20% fat content)
How do you interpret the above and make sure a vegan beef patty meets these expectations? A meatless alternative should…
- have a chewy, ground beef-like texture
- not taste like veggies
- hold together during grilling or frying
- be easy to make
- need high-protein ingredients
- not have fake meat substitutes
And this is exactly what you will get if you try our TVP burger recipe.
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Ingredients
The main ingredient is TVP* (textured vegetable protein). What is TVP? It is actually only soy flour, no other ingredients. They add water to it to make a paste, then it is pressure cooked in a sense, then dehydrated. The chewy texture is spot on due to the TVP chunks. This is the best plant-based alternative by far. And no, you don’t need vital wheat gluten to achieve that! So what else do you need to make high-protein TVP burgers?
- Onion
- Garlic
- Black beans
- Tomato puree
- Rice flour – hence it is gluten-free, but you can use all-purpose flour
- Tapioca starch – or any other tapioca flour substitute
- Seasoning – smoked sweet paprika, Worcestershire sauce (we like to use this vegan and gluten-free brand), dried oregano, dried basil, ground cumin, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt, and black pepper
- Optional spices – you can add liquid smoke for a charred finish, or chili powder if you like things spicy.
🛒 You can find detailed measurements for all ingredients in the printable version of the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Instructions
Turning TVP into vegan meat
- Boil water in a kettle and add veggie stock or bring vegetable broth to boil.
- Take a heat-resisting bowl or saucepan and soak TVP* in the hot veggie broth for 10 minutes.
- When the time is up, squeeze the liquid out. As a result, you need to have moist, soft “minced meat” like in the below photo.
Precooking onion and garlic
- While you wait for the TVP to get ready, peel and chop onion and garlic.
- Take a frying pan, or we often use our UnoCasa cast-iron skillet, and preheat it to medium heat.
- Add a dash of olive oil and the finely chopped onion and garlic.
- Cook onion and garlic until tender, but opaque, yellow and not caramelized.
Mixing
- Add black beans, sauteed onion and garlic, canned drained black beans, tomato paste, and all spices (smoked sweet paprika, Worcestershire sauce (vegan), dried oregano, dried basil, ground cumin, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and black pepper) to a food processor.
- Blend them until you get a chunky texture.
- Then add soaked TVP and pulse for a couple of times.
- Pulse a couple of times. You don’t want to lose TVP’s ground beef texture, but you need to chop them a bit to make sure the burger patties hold together. See the consistency in the below photo.
Making TVP burger patties
- Take a mixing bowl and add the chopped mixture from the food processor with the rice flour and the tapioca starch. Mix with a spatula.
- Take 2-3 Tbsp of mixture and roll a ball with your hands. Then flatten the ball between your palms. We went as thin as 0.5 inches (approx. 1 cm).
- Take a non-stick frying pan, or a cast-iron skillet, and heat it over low/medium heat with some oil.
- Fry both sides for 5 minutes.
Let’s build your vegan Big Mac burger!
Here is the best part. You can build your own meatless burger with your favorite toppings, or you can try this Big Mac-inspired combination.
- We started with a toasted burger bun (cut into three horizontally).
- First, we spread a generous layer of vegan Big Mac sauce on it.
- Then, we added green leaf lettuce because the ruffles looked so pretty.
- Next up, sliced vegan cheese.
- Here comes the star of this recipe, the TVP burger patty.
- Topped it with sliced raw onions.
- Second part of the toasted bun.
- Again vegan Big Mac Sauce, lettuce, and sliced vegan cheese.
- Then we added a couple of sweet pickle slices.
- Here comes another TVP burger patty and sliced raw onions on top.
- Cover it with the top of the bun.
Cooking tips
- Size matters – The frying time will depend on the thickness of the patty. Thicker patties will require longer cooking time, while thinner ones will be done faster and have less chance of being mushy on the inside.
- Pulse, don’t blend – To maintain the texture of the patty, it’s important to only pulse the mixture in the food processor. Over-blending or mixing the ingredients will destroy that and create a too soft, puree-like consistency inside.
Variations
- Pan-frying vs oven – We always opt for frying burger patties in the pan with a bit of oil. That is the only sure way to keep the patties juicy and crispy. Everything we test any recipes in the oven, the end result is always drier and less crispy. The only way I can imagine voting for the oven if for any reason you want to avoid oil completely.
- Adjust the spiciness – We didn’t use hot spices, as we prefer to add fire through sauces. Add Frank’s Hot sauce, sriracha, or harissa paste when you build your TVP burger.
Serving ideas
- French fries, sweet potato wedges, or roasted potatoes.
- Roasted cauliflower
- Grilled vegetable kabobs
- Rice, quinoa, or riced sweet potatoes
- For a lighter option, a light green salad, an easy vegan coleslaw, or vegan tzatziki.
More TVP recipes
Start with checking out these must-try TVP recipes or choose from the below list:
More vegan burger recipes
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Meaty Vegan TVP Burger (Big Mac Style)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1+½ cup TVP (Soy) -> What is TVP?
- 1 cup Black beans
- 4 cup Veggie broth
- 1 Onion (small)
- 3-4 cloves Garlic
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
- 3 Tbsp Olive oil
- 1 Tbsp Tomato paste
- 2 tsp Sweet smoked paprika powder
- 1+½ tsp Basil dried
- 1+½ tsp Oregano dried
- 1 tsp Ground cumin seeds
- 1+½ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Black pepper
- ½ cup White rice flour
- 4 Tbsp Tapioca starch -> tapioca starch substitutes
Instructions
Soaking TVP
- Boil water in a kettle and add veggie stock or bring veggie broth to boil. Take a heat-resisting bowl or saucepan and soak TVP in the hot veggie broth for 10 minutes.
- When the time is up, squeeze the liquid out with your hands. As a result, you need to have moist, soft “minced meat”.
Pre-cooking onion and garlic
- While you wait for the TVP to get ready, peel and chop onion and garlic. Take a frying pan or skillet and pre-heat to medium heat. Add a dash of olive oil (1 Tbsp) and the finely chopped onion and garlic. Cook onion and garlic until tender, but opaque, yellow and not caramelized.
Mixing
- Add sauteed onion and garlic, canned drained black beans, tomato paste, and all spices (smoked sweet paprika, Worcestershire sauce (vegan and gluten-free), dried oregano, dried basil, ground cumin, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and black pepper) to a food processor and blend until chunky.
- Then add soaked TVP and pulse for a couple of times. You don’t want to lose the ground beef-like texture the TVP has, but you need to chop them a bit to make sure the burger patties hold together.
Forming and frying
- Take a mixing bowl and add the chopped mixture from the food processor. Add rice flour and tapioca starch and mix with a spatula.
- Take 2-3 Tbsp of mixture and roll a ball with your hands. Flatten it out between your palms. We went as thin as 0.5 inch (approx. 1 cm).
- Take a non-stick frying pan or skillet. Heat over low/medium heat with a bit of olive oil. Cook both sides for 5 minutes.
Notes
Let’s build a Big Mac Style Burger!
- We started off with a toasted bun (cut into 3 horizontally).
- First, we spread a generous layer of vegan Big Mac sauce on it.
- Then, we added green leaf lettuce because the ruffles look so pretty.
- Next up, sliced vegan cheese.
- Now, here comes the star of this recipe, the vegan burger patty.
- Topped it with sliced raw onions.
- Second part of the toasted bun.
- Again vegan Big Mac Sauce, lettuce, and sliced vegan cheese.
- Then we added a couple of sweet pickle slices.
- Here comes another burger patty and sliced raw onions on top.
- Cover it with the top of the bun.
Sissy
I changed the vegetable broth to 1 1/2 cups, add more if necessary for the TVP to absorb. I got a few plastic place mats from my dollar store and cut disks to the size of my little burger press. Then I used an ice cream scoop to standardize the burgers. Placed a disk on the bottom of the press, take a scoop of the burger and another disk on top. Place the stack of burgers in a container or bag then freeze them.
Makes around 10 burgers.
Sissy
Then fry them as needed. 🙂
Heidi
These Burgers look awesome! I was wondering if there is a good substitute for the white rice flour in this recipe?
Emese
You can use all-purpose flour if you don’t need to eat gluten-free. If you do, I recommend using oat flour or buckwheat flour.
Vikesh harrie
My search for the best burger is over…this recipe is just wow to power of infinity. Made thicker patties and they survived the BBQ and cooked through wonderfully. Thank you so much for this, plant based burgers have become very expensive and this save me a wack of cash .
Jess
Also, do they work as meatballs in pasta?
Nandor
Yes, absolutely.
Jess
Thank you for posting this!
How long would these last in the freezer if I formed them without pan frying them?
Nandor
For 3-4 months I think would be no problem. Although I always recommend freezing them after pan-frying since raw dough and mixtures tend to get moister after thawing compared to how they were before. If you do try that, you may need to dust it with some flour before pan-frying or something like that. Let me know if you do try it.
Leah
Can you make the patty mixture in advance and refrigerate? Wanting to have it for dinner tomorrow night:)
My Pure Plants
Yes, it should work.
Gabriel
Hey there!
I made this recipe this past weekend. Taste wise, it was delicious! However, it didn’t hold much its shape. I wanted to use it for bbq, but putting it directly in the grill was a disaster (I even tried to freeze it first). Gently cooking it on a frying pan was the only way.
Jules
Thank you for the great recipe. Burgers were awesome, I think I didnt blend the TVP enough, they seemed a little chewy for me (I have issues with textures) But I made another batch and blended the TVP (after soaking) by itself until it looked like tuna, and that seemed to do the trick. Now I am making another batch but making ginger sesame Thai burgers which we are having tonight, they smell awesome. Cant wait for dinner.
My Pure Plants
Hi Jules, we are so happy you liked our recipe.
Iko
Hello!
I’m from Indonesia and it’s quite hard to find canned black beans.
Can I use raw black beans instead? How much should I use? And should I boiled them first with salt, perhaps? Sorry, I’ve never tried canned black beans so I thought it would be a lil bit salty?
Looking forward to make this recipe ☺
Thanks for your help!
My Pure Plants
You can use other beans. Red kidney beans might be quite similar. You can also cook the raw black beans in salted water yes.
john
NEVER cook beans in salted water, beans need a basic solution to soften, if you cook in salt, it will take three times longer to cook , always always always add salt after cooking beans, and add a little teaspoon of sodium bicarbonate to your beans to cook them fast.
Kathy
Just made my first batch today…. They’re for my husband who is looking for a delicious burger but trying to stay away from beyond burgers….. we shall see as he is the true test!
My Pure Plants
Definitely let us know how it goes.
Kathy
My hubby liked them and actually asked me to make a second batch but he added chipotle seasoning! He likes them spicey!!!
Tasha
This is by far my favourite vegan burger. So tasty! Can these be frozen and do you think they’ll stay firm when cooked from frozen?
My Pure Plants
I haven’t tried freezing them. They should work I see no ingredients that would be a problem. Let me know if you try freezing them.
Fleet Hamilton
The recipe says add black beans, then drained canned black beans. I’m guessing it’s 1C canned black beans?
My Pure Plants
Yes, it is 1 cup canned black beans.
BK
I loved this recipe but man does your website make it difficult to make it. I can’t use your site on my iPhone at all, it freezes and stops scrolling, it must be some script you’re pulling into the site. It becomes completely unusable. I had to copy and paste the text into a note so I could see it on my phone. Please fix this.
My Pure Plants
Hi, we are so happy you liked our recipe. We will check the issue you are explaining with our technical support.