As part of my new Martha on Demand initiative, I recently asked readers of this blog to tell me what Martha recipes they would like me to test out for them. There was an overwhelming number of people who asked for veggie burgers. Stephanie in particular requested the veggie burgers in the July issue of Everyday Food and others chimed in saying any veggie burger recipe would be great. Thanks to all of you who requested it, I gave this recipe a try.
Things did not start off well in the grocery store! I could not find bulgur. I ended up buying a tabbouleh mix, which has bulgur and then spices in an envelope inside. You start by soaking 1/2 cup bulgur in 1 cup boiling water for 30 min. Then you drain it. Coarsely chop 1 can of drained and rinsed pinto beans and add to the bulgur. Shred 2 carrots and add that and an egg. Also add 1 thinly sliced scallion and salt and pepper and 1/2 cup grated Swiss cheese.
The recipe says to measure 1/2 cup of the mix as one burger and smush it with a spatula to the right thickness. It was supposed to make 4 burgers, but I ended up with 5. You cook them in a pan with a little olive oil. My mix was really kind of mushy and didn’t hold together too well. The recipe says to cook 3 min per side. Mine took about 20 min before they were cooked through, but I had them all in one large pan so the heat was not very direct. I did successfully transfer most of it to buns. The recipe says to put avocado and bean sprouts on the bun. I used Miracle Whip and avocado.
They looked pretty decent – nicely browned. They tasted really bland though. There’s nothing in them to give them any flavor. It just tasted like plain beans. At the very least this needed onion or garlic and some other seasonings – herbs of some kind. I don’t think I would make this again. It was a lot of work with not much taste, unfortunately! A big disappointment. My kids hated it, but they aren’t veggie burger fans in general. I love Gardenburgers, but this didn’t measure up at all.
I’ll be making some of the other Martha on Demand requests made on the other thread in my continuing Martha on Demand series, but if you have any requests, go ahead and post them here. I’m always open to suggestions and it’s great when people post specific Martha recipes they want me to try.
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What is “cooked thru” for a veggie burger? The egg? I think I would have given up long before 20 min. (one of those electric griddles would have been perfect for this, don’t you think? I may need to get one of those…) What disappointing results…does this make you wonder if they are testing the recipes in the Everyday Food kithen? Like you, I love the original veggie burger…now I wonder if I could reproduce it…
It was cooked on the outside, but the inside just looked raw and wasn’t sticking together as much as the outside. I wanted it to be a uniform color throughout. Maybe I should have pressed them thinner – but they were falling apart as it was so I didn’t want to chance going thinner.
Martha on Demand is going to be alot of fun to read. Thanks for being our guinea pig 🙂 Yup, these didn’t sound like they’d taste good. I love garden burgers too and would love to find a close match to that recipe.
Well, darn. I’m sorry you had to waste good ingredients on this, but really appreciate you trying the recipe and reporting on the results. It sounds like your results were similar to what I find with lots of homemade veggie burger recipes- mushy and hard to “cook through.” The search goes on…or maybe it shouldn’t. Maybe I should just stick to the store-bought ones!
Thanks for trying it!
I must be a real exception to the rule because we do not eat burgers anymore at our house, veggie or otherwise. I like the idea of making one though and regret it did not work out the way you had hoped. Does Martha make any suggestions on alternatives to the traditional bun? Or, would that not qualify as a burger?
In the turkey burger recipe that was this week’s Martha Mondays project, the recipe said to use bread instead of a bun. I don’t make a lot of burgers either and if I do, I use only organic beef or organic turkey.
Thank you for the request! I was happy to try it! I am almost afraid to read the ingredients on the Gardenburger package to see what they use.
I haven’t had very good luck making veggie burgers either…
I don’t know if I’d try this; sounds like a lot of work for little results. But I do love veggie burgers – so would love to know if anyone has found a recipe that is foolproof!
This is definitely not it!
thanks for trying this out. a while back I had tried a recipe withe the main ingredients of steel cut oats and mushrooms, and had a similar result as to texture. you have me thinking, though — what if you baked them? think there would be any improvement?
Boca burger is a favorite here, their main ingredient soybeans I believe. I used to make Nature’s Burgers burgers from a dry mix, too, soy and nutritional yeast were prominent in that.
Baking is a good idea. And mushrooms would definitely help in terms of giving it some flavor. I’m going to have to read the packages to figure out what is in Gardenburgers.
What a bummer! I have tons of bulgur, so I might try this recipe anyway and work in more seasonings so it’s not as bland. Thanks for testing it out!
I like gardenburgers too. This one doesn’t even look good in the photo, but thanks for trying it so I don’t have to! 🙂
Not a Martha recipe, but after reading this and thinking about what ingredients I had at home, I modified a veggie burger recipe I found on Cooks – I think? It was black beans, garlic, cumin, egg, salt, pepper, and two pieces whole wheat bread as filler – I mixed it together with a hand blender, cooked in olive oil on stove….it turned out really good – I thought.
Thanks! It sounds like it definitely had more flavor than this one.
thanks for giving this a whirl for those of us who requested a veg burger recipe — and thanks for being so honest about the less-than-stellar results. onward!
I love this Martha on Demand idea! Actually, it sounds like a great idea for her network. You should pitch a TV show idea to them.