Vegetarian Burgers by Bharti Kirchner

Vegetarian Burgers
The Healthy, Delicious Way to Eat America's Favorite Food
by Bharti Kirchner

I always had trouble making a decent veggie burger from scratch. Until I got this book, I'd tried one good recipe and tons of mediocre ones, so when my mom found this one at a thrift store, I was immediately intrigued – especially after a cursory glance through the book showed that all of the burgers are either vegan or can be made vegan.

This cookbook has a chapter devoted to each of five different types of burgers; grain and bean, vegetable, nut and seed, tofu, and stuffed burgers. Additionally, there's a chapter for side-dishes and one for condiments. Overall, the recipes look creative and they seem to draw inspiration from lots of different cultures, all united under one theme – they all have ingredients that can be thrown into a food processor and made into a burger.

Here are the recipes I tried:

Earthy Burgers with Buttery Beans - Kirchner describes them as follows; “These robust burgers composed of earthy kasha, buttery lima beans, and rich-tasting walnuts have a smooth, delicate texture.” I found them to be easy to make, and despite the delicate texture, they are hardy enough to hold their shape in a bun. The flavour is great; tasty enough that I could eat them plain, but unobtrusive enough that I can happily bury them in condiments without feeling like the flavours are clashing. They even taste good cold! I like how they're not super-fragile or gooey like other veggie burger recipes I've tried in my life. I also like how they got me to eat kasha and lima beans. Very sneaky.

Three-pepper-saute – Well, that's weird, the recipe actually calls for 4 peppers, but I'm not going to quibble since I guess I was only supposed to use three colours of peppers. Ultimately, I used red, green, yellow, and orange bell peppers. This simple dish was really fresh and vibrant looking, and was great as a side-dish and as a burger topping.

Wine-glazed mushrooms – This is a simple dish of chopped scallions and mushrooms glazed with Japanese rice wine. I had to substitute with some ordinary white wine, but I'm assuming it would have turned out just as deliciously either way. Great burger topping.

Saffron Rice Pilaf – Described in the book as “a fragrant combination of basmati rice, saffron, cinnamon, and cardamom.” This is very mildly spiced with little bursts of sweetness from golden raisins. I don't think I'd eat a bowl of it straight up, but it was the perfect foil to the spicy curry my mother made for dinner last night.

Tahini mustard – I made a half-batch of this since I'm the only one here who eats mustard. I really like the ingenious combination of Dijon mustard, tahini, garlic, and lime. I'm looking forward to eating another veggie burger with this. I might turn what's left over into a marinade for tofu!

Caramelized onion – I'd never caramelized an onion before, but it turned out to be super easy, if a little time-consuming. I'm glad I took the time to do it, though, because the onions were great on the veggie burgers and also on baked potatoes.

Recipes: All good. 5 out of 5 stars.

Extras: The book is lacking photos and nutritional information, but the book and each chapter has an introduction, each burger comes with serving suggestions, and there is a nice glossary to explain any “weird” ingredients you may encounter. The introduction gives a lot of useful information about various aspects of veggie burger preparation.
3 out of 5 stars.

Final grade: 8/10

Would I recommend someone to buy it? Yes! Eat veggie burgers and be happy!