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Homemade veggie burgers that taste delicious and are made traditionally with no soy or MSG that can serve as a budget-friendly replacement for meat occasionally.
Back in my lowfat eating days in the 1990s, I used to eat a lot of veggie burgers to limit the amount of red meat in my diet. Thankfully, those days are but a distant memory!
I now know, of course, that grassfed beef is one of the healthiest meats you can possibly consume and I usually eat it several times a week. Saturated fat is not the villain of heart and health that the conventional medical establishment makes it out to be.
Rather, saturated fat is good for you, is no danger to cardiovascular health and should be consumed liberally in the diet!
Despite my regular consumption of grassfed burgers, I must admit that I still have a bit of a penchant for a good quality veggie burger.
I don’t ever buy them at the store, however, as processed veggie burgers are typically made with soy as the meat replacement and MSG is used to give the tasteless burgers a synthetic meaty flavor.
Soy and MSG together are a powerful one-two punch to the hormone system and are guaranteed to mess things up in a hurry.
It will probably give you a nasty headache too!
Therefore, when you get a hankering for veggie burgers, avoid the seitan and products containing it and make some yourself.
The good news is that you can make a bunch of them at one time. Then, freeze what you don’t use right away so that you have some handy for quick meals when necessary.
No Soy or MSG!
Below is the recipe I use for homemade veggie burgers which is based on the Middle Eastern recipe known as falafel or chickpea patties. You will love it! It was inspired by Nourishing Traditions Cookbook. (1)
Sprouting or soaking legumes like chickpeas before cooking greatly improves their digestibility, so this is the traditional method I recommend.
Please do not use the chickpea cooking water though as practiced by some espousing a plant-based diet. It is laced with anti-nutrients and quite damaging to health. It can even encourage the development of leaky gut.
If the real food budget is tight, homemade veggie burgers can be frequently used as a meat replacement with no compromise to health if and only if liberal amounts of homemade broth/stock and organ meats are being consumed on a regular basis.
In other words, nose to tail eating as was practiced by healthy traditional societies is what is necessary if muscle meat is limited either due to lifestyle or budget. (2)
Healthy Veggie Burgers
Homemade veggie burgers that actually taste good and are made traditionally with no soy or MSG that can serve as a budget friendly replacement for meat on a regular basis.
Ingredients
- 2 cups dried chickpeas preferably heirloom and organic
- 1/4 cup expeller pressed coconut oil or lard
- filtered water
- 4 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 egg beaten
- 1/2 cup parsley finely chopped, preferably organic
- 2 small onions finely chopped, preferably organic
- 4 cloves garlic minced, preferably organic
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
- sourdough burger buns optional
Instructions
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Place dried chickpeas in a large pot and cover with boiling water. Stir in lemon juice, cover and leave on the counter for 12 hours or overnight. Drain, cover the chickpeas with more boiling water, and stir in 2 more Tbsp lemon juice. Leave on the counter for another 12 hours. Drain and rinse chickpeas.
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Process soaked chickpeas in batches depending on the size of your food processor with the beaten egg, onion, parsley, garlic, and spices until a coarse paste is formed that holds together.
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Cover and refrigerate chickpea paste for at least 1 hour.
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Serve veggie burgers on sourdough buns with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, and homemade sauces of choice.
(1) Nourishing Traditions, p. 506
(2) Meat, Organs, Bones and Skin
my son is severely allergic to soy, that makes me afraid of chikpeas
if you don’t have access or affordable access to grassfed, is it better to go without meat? or limit?
If, for a small amount, you were going to freeze some, would you do the ckickpeas still whole, soaked and ready to process, or already processed and pattied? Many thanks gor your great ideas!
Hi Sarah,
I am confused about the cup of coconut oil in the ingredient list. Do you mix the oil in with the rest of the ingredients, or is this oil just to be used for the cooking?
Thank you! Loving your blog btw.
I checked the recipe in Nourishing Traditions. The patties are cooked in the oil….. it doesn’t go in the mix.
I made these burgers this week. I thought they were easy to make, tasted fantastic, and I will definitely make them again. However, either my chickpeas didn’t get soft enough or my food processor isn’t powerful enough. They were a little crunchy and wouldn’t hold together even after I added an egg. Mine turned into something more like veggie nuggets. Next time, I’ll cook the chickpeas after I soak them so the mixture becomes more like a paste and will form a burger. Also, I didn’t have any parsley on hand so I used cilantro and they tasted really, really good.
I tried these tonight and the flavor was delicious and my two preschool aged kids loved them. But, they did seem to be a little crunchy- I’m wondering if I read your recipe correctly in that you do NOT cook the chickpeas before grinding up and if that is correct how fine of a powder should I grind them to be? I’m thinking mine were a little too chunky. Thanks!
Hi, I realize this is a post on another subject, but I have a burning question and don’t know who to ask. 🙂 I’ve noticed you write about former vegetarians and vegans, so I am asking you 🙂 and thanks in advance for answer!
I have been eating SAD diet for many years and been plaques by recurrent respiratory viruses, chronic fatigue, over weight, etc. After my sister-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer 2 years ago, I found lots of info on how people eliminated cancer and other diseases by eating raw vegan diet. I decided to give it a try and went head on. For 4 months on the raw vegan diet I felt terrific. I lost 20 lbs, i felt light, could go run after dinner but most importantly I stopped picking up every cold virus that was around. However, after 4 months I started to have perimenopausal symptoms such as prolonged menstruation, and quickly developed anemia. At that time, I did some more search and found WAPF site. They have great info but don’t answer questions. 🙁 For over a year I’ve been trying to eat WAPF style, except that I eat almost no grains, and gluten-free for sure. I make sure to eat beef liver twice a week, take fermented cod liver oil, eat eggs every day. And I must say, I am not feeling well at all. Not only I gained all the weight back, I also started to get sick all the time again. Acne, herpes, respiratory diseases, extra weight, constipation, GERD, and my perimenopause symptoms did not get better. What am I doing wrong? I am very tempted to go back to raw vegan diet but what to do with anemia? Please help. Thank you!
I suspect Sarah’s answer might be GAPS diet. Sounds like you benefited from the detox of a vegan diet but your gut needs to heal from all the damage over the years. Also, make sure the quality of the animal products you eat is top notch. Buy from local farmers who let their animals roam on a lot of pasture. (of course for beef only grass fed and finished) While you research GAPS, maybe try being an ovo lacto pesco (is that what it’s called?) vegetarian for a while? Look into amish farm co-ops (or local farms, or buy raw european cheeses from the market) where you can get raw grass fed dairy products, seek out fresh local eggs with a deep orange yolk (which happens when the chickens eat lots of grass and bugs and not much grain), and eat a little wild fish if you want (keep taking the FCLO). That could help you for the time being. You could also try incorporating more fresh coconut into your diet which is filling and very health giving. Eat a variety of fresh foods that you buy from the farmers market because they are so much more nutritious and delicious, grow some herbs at home and throw them in your dishes. Switch to sea salts. Find a spring near you for water. (findaspring.com) How much sugar are you eating and are you still buying packaged foods? I recently added oats back into my diet after trying out grain free. I don’t think it is making me bloat like many grains do.. OH and ferment, ferment, ferment! Get those probiotics, they will do wonders! You might start taking a therapeutic strength probiotic as well. Always properly prepare your foods and avoid eating out. I think you will see improvement with these tips, there is just too much to go into. Good luck! Listen to your body. Seriously though, GAPS will probably do wonders for you. It will heal your body and there is no way you could be anemic on it.
I was a fan of a certain brand of walnut burgers until I read the label and, lo and behold, canola oil. If you want something done right… might have to try this.
Hi Sarah, I forgot to ask–I have several boxes of Falafel mix at home. Obviously, I would assume that the chickpeas have not been soaked. Would it be worth trying to soak the mix overnight with amount of water listed on the package and some lemon juice to get the same effect of soaking the whole chickpeas, etc.
thanks,
Joyce
Hi Sarah,
This sounds great! Is there any way to print out recipes from your blog that will just print the recipe and not all the rest of the stuff? thanks, Joyce