Low Carb Veggie Burger

A plant-based low carb veggie burger recipe that's packed with the umami flavor of mushrooms and edamame and holds up nicely to your favorite burger buns. No crumbly burgers here! 100% vegan, gluten free and keto friendly and they freeze well, too!

How to Make a Low Carb Veggie Burger

Making a quality veggie burger requires three things:

• A plant based protein that gives weight and texture to the burger.
• Lots of flavor-filled goodies loaded with savory umami.
• A binder that helps the burger hold its form. It's a bummer to have a crumbly burger. We need something that stands up to that bun!

For this recipe, the primary protein is shelled edamame. The flavor-filled umami goodies are button mushrooms, sauteed onions, tomato paste and mustard. And the binder is a combination of almond flour and psyllium husk.

Psyllium works as a binder

Now, before you run off and think I've flipped my lid with the psyllium husk, it's easy to buy on Amazon AND is my favorite thing to use in gluten free baking. It replicates that magical chewy thing that gluten does.

Like in a great pizza crust, or sourdough bread, the little bit of "chew factor" is thanks to gluten. Psyllium husk behaves similarly when cooked and since I wanted to make this a gluten-free veggie burger I used psyllium husk along with almond flour to help hold these babies together. Plus, psyllium is linked to a ton of different health benefits!

And yes, if you clicked through to check it out on Amazon, a big container isn't cheap, but, a little goes a long way. This recipe only calls for 1 Tbs and the whole 12 oz container will last you a long time. You can use it in recipes like this Seed Bread or Low Carb Buns.

Start with the Edamame

First off, make sure you get the shelled edamame. You're not looking for the kind in pods like they serve at the Japanese restaurants. You want the kind that are just the beans.

Per the instructions on the recipe card, you'll blend the defrosted edamame with chia seeds (yay for Omega 3 fatty acids!), tomato paste, mustard, liquid aminos (or soy sauce or tamari...pick your poison based on your dietary requirements) and water in a food processor.

Mustard-wise, I have made this recipe with both regular yellow mustard and fancy deli style mustard. Both were good. Both mustards worked great. Pick the mustard that makes you happy.

The consistency of this mixture is important for the success of your veggie burgers. It needs to be soft and slightly tacky, but not thin or overly sticky and also not too thick and chunky. Your climate will very much impact how much water to add, so start with the prescribed ⅓ cup and increase the water by the tablespoon full until you get to something like this:

Practice Your Knife Skills

Another key to this recipe is in finely dicing, nearly mincing, the onion, mushrooms and zucchini that get folded into the edamame base mixture. They'll be a little too bulky when you go to form your patties and they won't hold together quite as nicely if they aren't small enough.

If knife skills aren't your thing, you can certainly do a few quick pulses of the mushrooms, onion and zucchini in the food processor by themselves instead. Just make sure to rough chop them first so that they get uniformly diced.

They should look like this:

Once you combine the edamame base with the sauteed diced veggies, almond flour and psyllium husk, the mixture to form your patties will look like this:

How to get uniform veggie burger patties

I like to use a cafeteria-style scoop to measure out my patties. It helps to start the forming process and it ensures all of the patties are the same size.

This recipe makes six four-ounce patties. I like to sprinkle them with a little seasoned salt before baking, just like my Mom did with burgers when I was growing up.

Here they are before heading to the oven:

Here they are after being baked for 40 minutes. I flip them at the 20-minute mark to ensure even cooking on both sides.

Freezing Veggie Burgers

Veggie burgers do great in the freezer. I personally like to make a double or triple batch of this recipe and package up a dozen of them for the freezer. Having some on hand makes it easier on those nights when you're asking, "what the heck should I make for dinner?"

I pack them in an airtight freezer bag and they last in the freezer up to six months.

When I'm ready to cook one from frozen, I wrap it in a paper towel and microwave on "defrost" or at 50% power for 2 minutes. Then, I heat a skillet or pan on the stove-top over medium heat and crisp it up cooking 3 minutes per side until it's reheated and crispy on the outside.

The freezer instructions are listed below on the recipe card.

Use veggie burgers for things other than burgers

I also like to make these patties multipurpose. They do wonderfully crumbled up for things like tacos or in a breakfast scramble. I heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat and add in chopped up pieces of the veggie burger to warm them up and get a little extra crisp on them.

These burger also make a regular appearance at our Taco Tuesdays.

More Veggie Recipes

• Easy Peanut Noodles
• Healthy Homemade Granola
• Baby Spinach and Mandarin Orange Salad
• Creamy Mashed Cauliflower

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