This blog began as a side project to Veggie Burgers Every Which Way. There are several veggie burger recipes—new recipes, recipes from the book, and recipes in development that later went into the book. My second book is Vegetarian Entrees that Won’t Leave You Hungry, and the scope of this blog has therefore broadened to include not only veggie burger related recipes and news.
Bio:
Lukas Volger is the author of the cookbooks Veggie Burgers Every Which Way, which was also published in the UK and Australia, and Vegetarian Entrees that Won’t Leave You Hungry. His accessible, whole-foods based approach to vegetarian cuisine has been featured in national and local print, radio, TV, and online media. He’s appeared on the Splendid Table, has been featured on the New York Times “Diner’s Journal,” as well as recently in Martha Rose Shulman’s New York Times “Recipes for Health” column. He teaches cooking classes and does demonstrations across the country; he recently taught at Seattle’s Book Larder, demonstrated his veggie burgers at the American Librarian Association Annual Conference, and continues to appear at food festivals. He maintains a blog, Lukasvolger.com, where he develops recipes and writes about other vegetarian food matters, and works periodically as a caterer and personal chef. Previously, he worked for many years at food establishments in New York City and in his native Idaho as a baker, caterer, prep cook, server, and occasional dishwasher. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Contact:
Email: veggieburgermadness [at] gmail [dot] com.
(Please note: I don’t do sponsored posts or product reviews.)
Twitter: @LukasVolger
Facebook: Lukas Volger’s Veggie Madness Facebook Page
Tumblr: Veggie Burger Madness, Cont., where you can submit and scope out the dozens of great veggie burgers served at restaurants across the country (and world!)
Hi – I’m a food developer usually working in third world countries. A few years back I got an assignment for “veggie burgers” coming out of Chile. The only problem was the “protein” as you defined it on the show today was plums. About $10m, a murdered consultant, and no sales later – the launch was a total disaster. If you are interested on a what not-to-do story about veggie burgers, drop me a line. Best, Matt
Fascinating! Who knew veggie burgers would have any such history. I’m also intrigued by a prune veggie burger; never considered that.
I think Hillstone’s/Houston’s uses prunes in their awesome veggie burgers – which are very similar to your beet/brown rice/black bean burgers. Sometimes I think it’s prunes, sometimes figs. I added prunes and bbq sauce to your recipe and it came out great. Even works on the bbq.
I had heard that before. I also read somewhere that they keep the burgers marinating in some kind of delicious barbecue sauce, and then baste it as it’s cooking. Endless riddle of the Hillstone/Houston’s VB….
…actually – it was dried plums — prunes. Nasty.
Oh, no! I am worried because I just made the whole wheat buns from the cookbook……..and when I tasted the dough I became very concerned that there is a serious typo in the book. The dough was so salty! The recipe calls for FOUR TEASPOONS of salt. Help! I don’t think I will be able to salvage this dough.
Amy, this is an error we’re fixing in future editions. The salt quantity should be 2-3/4 teaspoons! I’ve just responded to your email as well.
Hi there,
I bought your book today and tried the red lentil and celery root burger. Mind you, I am a seasoned vegan home cook and have made numerous vegan burgers and they never stick together. Again, this one didn’t either- it totally fell apart in fact when pierced with a fork. I’m wholly disappointed and hoped you could offer some tips…
Thanks,
Esen
Hi Esen,
I’m sorry to hear about your disappointment! That burger is indeed one of the more delicate ones. What I do recommend is giving it a good sear in the frying pan, so that it has a strong crust. I wanted that burger to be vegan and had played around with potato and egg replacer as binders, but found that they disrupted the flavor far too much for my taste. If you want to give them another go, you might try cooking half of a waxy potato, like Yukon Gold, with the celery root; just know that you’ll be tasting some potato in there, though—you might like it more than I do.
Best wishes,
Lukas
Aloha Lukas,
Your the very best at what you do, specializing in creating
exciting comfort food for all people that want great new
foods that done harm the planet.
The Tofu And Chard Burger is the winner of “The World’s Most Extraordinary Burger.”
I lived in The Bronx and moved to Portland, Oregon so we almost traded places and I know we have much more
in common. Most of my life has been directly working
with food at restaurants, Continental Airlines in their
Inflight Kitchen and Inflight Service and created the nations first multiple restaurants delivery service first
in Los Angeles and other cities.
Please read the following, http://www.dignityanddining.org
Google: Truly Reforming Law Enforcement
Lukas and your readers may contact me at the following
to hold further conversations that are constructive.
Future success,
Jerry Atlansky
Portland, Oregon
jmatlansky@gmail.com 24/354
Hi Lukas,
I am a fellow New Yorker and just wondering whether or not you have come up with the veggie burger recipe from Houston’s restaurant (now Hillstone I believe)? It is really an awesome burger. If you haven’t tried it I encourage you to do so : )
Thank you.
I have had that one and I like it a lot! I have seen some recipes floating around online—I know that it has beets in it, and that they store the veggie burgers in barbecue sauce, which is why the sweet-smokey flavor is so strong. But I haven’t come up with an approximation of my own… Not yet, at least.
Hi,
After listening to an interview you did, I think on the Splendid Table podcast, I just got your book and so many recipes look great. I was wondering if you have the Nutritional Information for any of the burgers? In particular, fat, carbs, fiber and protein. Thanks!
Unfortunately I don’t, Lynda. I’m sorry about that…
As a followup I have to say your veggie burger cookbook rules – one of the my favorite cookbooks right now. I highly recommend it to friends. I have tried a bunch of the recipes and they’ve all been great. Just made the Armenian Lentil burgers and they’re the best lentil-based burgers I’ve tasted, even considering that I replaced the eggs with Ener-G. You can really tell you put a lot of time and though into developing and testing the recipes (although I generally find that the recipes make more burgers than you estimate, which is a good thing). Thanks for your hard work!
Thanks, Paul! And sorry if you’re finding quantities to be off. Sometimes I wish I could go through the whole book one more time just to double check on things like that–there are so many more elements than I could have ever anticipated when I started the book.
Hi Lukas
I’ve been a vegetarian for around 35 years now and am always on the lookout for more good recipes. Just borrowed your ‘Burger’ book from my local Library and will be ordering my own copy asap. I live in rural Tasmania which is just about as far as you can get (in every way!) from New York so sometimes ingredients can be a problem, but I don’t think most of the ones in your book will be too hard to find. Round these parts if you ask for the ‘vegetarian option’ you are likely to be offered a meat pie with the meat scraped out, so thanks for the recipes!
Cheers, Paula
Hi Paula, that sounds dismal! Thanks for your note. I’m thrilled to hear that you found the book and that you like it.
Hi, Lukas. Just wanted to drop you a line and let you know how happy I am that your new book is out. I preordered from Amazon, and just received it earlier this week. I think I’ve purchased six or seven of your burger books – I just kept finding people who loved the burgers, so I gave the books away as gifts. Really looking forward to trying some of the new recipes. Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much, Tamara—I’m really thrilled to hear this!
Hey, I linked to your garam masala toast on my blog. Hope you don’t mind. You inspired it, so I wanted to make sure you got credit!
Your Amazing Lucas – - – -
We all loved your recipe for the oven baked french fries, they were just plain rollin. Everyone enjoyed them, and wanted the recipe from me. Naturally I told them to look up your website as well as telling them the basics.
Question – Have you ever come up with a good ‘Sweet Potato’ french fry recipe? We’ve tried deep frying them of coarse, as well as baking them. They taste good, however all we ever seem to come up with are (limp sticks) of sweet potato. Couldn’t find anything on your site about sweet potatos at all. Down here in the Deep of the South of South Louisiana, we love our baked sweet potatos and know how to cook them as a whole potato. Just no one seems to know how to cook crispy sweet potato fries.
Any ideas of how to make them crispy and still retain their naturally wonderful flavor?
Thanks a much for all the fantastic spins you put on vegetables!!!
Thanks and glad to hear, Eric. I do have a recipe for Sweet Potato Fries in Veggie Burgers Every Which Way. Because they don’t have the same starch content you don’t have to rinse them—and in fact, I find they work best if you toss them in a little bit of potato or corn starch along with the oil, salt, at spices, which gives them an extra crispy skin. Then it’s the same method: high heat, stir frequently, eat hot!
Hi Lukas. My wife and I are both vegans. I’m on a restrictive diet that is also oil-free and nut- and seed-free (except for flax seeds). We recently got your book, “Veggie Burgers Every Which Way” and look forward to a summer filled with grilling veggie burgers in our backyard. My question is how can I best replace the oil and eggs that is in many of your recipes and still have them hold together while we are grilling. Really beautiful photos! Very nicely done book.
Hi, and thanks so much. For eliminating oil, I’ve found that most burgers can be baked, skipping the pan-searing step, to great results. And I assume that if you’ve eliminated oil, you’re already water-sauteing your vegetables. Eggs can be tricky, but there are a few suggestions I outline in the book: boiled or steamed potato works really well and is one of my favorites, and in some instances the flax-seed egg substitute works, and then, more recently, you may want to check out the kimchi burger I just posted on this site, where the binder is primarily rice flour and water. I also have a post on this subject a few pages back: http://lukasvolger.com/2010/03/25/curried-eggplant-and-tomato-burgers-revisited-egg-substitutes/ Enjoy!
Lukas, I love your veggie burger book. I did a variation on your Spinach/Chickpea Burger. Check it out. It turned out quite well. Thanks for the tip. http://wp.me/p1mm6H-eg
Thanks so much!