The number of people looking for healthy food has surged, regardless of whether they eat out or cook in homes. With this, the popularity of veggie burgers has also risen and the dilemma of crumbling vegetable burger patties has gripped a good number of people. Veggie burgers are healthy, sure, but what are we supposed to do to prevent them from falling apart, especially during the flipping stage? Take note of these tips when cooking your own:
Mind your vegetables, especially the raw ones. Know your vegetables, since a good number of them are essentially water vessels. Mushrooms, zucchini, squash, eggplants, and the local turnip might turn your efforts into a gooey mess. Cook them first and check the moisture level before you press that button on your food processor. Also, a word of note, since tofu seems to be a popular ingredient for veggie burgers, it’s been suggested that tofu be drained of excess water and browned to release the remaining moisture. After that, you purée it to achieve some sort of texture. In any case, make sure your tofu is drained of water and just patting them dry won’t do the trick.
Your binders are crucial. In most cases, burger patties usually have eggs added in as it’s the most popular ingredient that ties all of them together. Breadcrumbs and oats may be an alternative option when trying to omit eggs. J. Kenji López-Alt, managing director of Serious Eats, points out that cooking your mixture as soon as the breadcrumbs have been added in retains the texture. The breadcrumbs might absorb too much water when left for too long.
Cook your grains, if there are any. These add texture to your vegetable burgers. While you just take out the water from your vegetables and other watery ingredients, you need to cook your grains, unless you want to end up with a charred yet undercooked patty.
Add some beans while you’re at it because beans provide texture to patties, too. Roughly have a go at it with your food processor. López-Alt mentioned that underprocessing will make it fall apart and overdoing it will make it mushy.
To cook them, opt for oiling your grill as veggie burgers don’t possess that much fat juice as compared to a regular meat patty. But, if you’re looking into a truly healthy option, you might want to try your hands at baking your patties.
On a general note, mind your proportions since too much of one thing may end up doing good than bad. Or it may be vice-versa. As with many art and life lessons, cooking is a trial and error process and sometimes the recipes just won’t work. While these tips may not entirely be foolproof, they will still provide you with some insights as to how you’d be able to make your vegetable patties stick. Just do it over and over again until you get it right because good, healthy food is what you need and deserve.
