This 1 Ingredient Ensures You'll Never Make a Dry, Crumbly Veggie Burger Again (2024)

Kelli Foster

Kelli FosterSenior Contributing Food Editor

Kelli is a Senior Contributing Food Editor for Kitchn. She's a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and author of the cookbooks, Plant-Based Buddha Bowls, The Probiotic Kitchen, Buddha Bowls, and Everyday Freekeh Meals. She lives in New Jersey.

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updated Jun 3, 2019

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This 1 Ingredient Ensures You'll Never Make a Dry, Crumbly Veggie Burger Again (1)

You don’t need more than salt and pepper when forming ground beef burger patties, but when it comes to making veggie burgers, you’ll need an ingredient that serves as a binder. The binder holds the patties together and keeps them from falling apart as they cook, and can also add extra flavor to your burger.

Common veggie burger binders include eggs, flax egg, wheat germ, breadcrumbs, oats, miso paste, or even water. But I recently discovered a burger binder (that also doubles as a prime topping!) that’s the best choice of them all.

Mashed Avocado Makes the Best Veggie Burger Binder

As it turns out, avocado is so much more than just a topping for your burgers. When I saw it used as a binder in our new black bean burger recipe (one of the best veggie burgers I’ve ever made, by the way), my first thought was Why didn’t I think of this sooner?

Not only does creamy mashed avocado add the moisture the patties need, but it also adds a dose of healthy fat that makes the burgers more satiating. Avocado is also a great choice for vegan burgers, when using an egg as a binder isn’t an option, as well as gluten-free burgers. And because of its mild flavor, you won’t actually taste the avocado, you’ll simply be taking advantage of its great binding abilities. I highly recommend using the other half of the avocado to spread onto your burger buns.

How to Use Avocado as a Burger Binder

Even if it’s not called for in the recipe, you can swap in avocado as your burger binder. Plan to omit other moisture-rich binders, such as egg, flax egg, sauce, miso paste, or yogurt, and replace with an equal amount of avocado (typically about half a large avocado).

Since you’ll mash the avocado before mixing it with the rest of the burger ingredients, you’ll want to start with a soft, ripe avocado (save the firm avocados for pickling or fries). As a rule of thumb, the mixture for veggie burger patties shouldn’t feel too dry or too wet. It should be cohesive so that when shaped, it easily sticks together.

Use Mashed Avocado as a Binder in These Burgers

This 1 Ingredient Ensures You'll Never Make a Dry, Crumbly Veggie Burger Again (2024)

FAQs

This 1 Ingredient Ensures You'll Never Make a Dry, Crumbly Veggie Burger Again? ›

Common binding agents include flax eggs (a mixture of ground flaxseed and water), chia seeds, mashed potatoes, tapioca flour, or even your favorite nut butter. These ingredients help hold everything together and prevent your burger from crumbling.

What can I use to bind a veggie burger? ›

Common veggie burger binders include eggs, flax egg, wheat germ, breadcrumbs, oats, miso paste, or even water.

What is a good binder for black bean burgers? ›

Hearty chopped cashews add textural variation, while panko bread crumbs help bind the patties without turning them mushy.

How to make bean burgers less mushy? ›

Dry Your Black Beans

The flip side, however, is that black bean burgers can also be mushy due to added moisture. In order to avoid this issue, you should dry out your black beans in the oven until they are slightly crunchy (about 15-20 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees F) and then proceed with the rest of the recipe.

What is the binding agent for veggie burgers? ›

Common binding agents include flax eggs (a mixture of ground flaxseed and water), chia seeds, mashed potatoes, tapioca flour, or even your favorite nut butter. These ingredients help hold everything together and prevent your burger from crumbling.

How do you keep veggie burgers from being mushy? ›

But through my Made by Lukas veggie burger business, I spent many, many hours cooking off free veggie burger samples for shoppers in frigid dairy departments of grocery stores, where I learned that one way to solve for mushy veggie burgers is to just cook them bit longer, and slower, on sightly lower heat, and to even ...

What is a good vegan binder? ›

Vegan Binders for Baking

Chia seeds are a popular vegan egg substitute for baking. To replace one large egg in a recipe, simply combine one tablespoon of chia seeds with two and a half tablespoons of water. Let the mixture sit until it forms a jello-like texture. That's it!

What is the best ingredient to bind burgers? ›

Using of egg to bind a burger is the most common and simple process. Start by adding one egg to the mixture for every pound of ground beef. You can use the whole egg or just the egg white based on your needs.

What is a good binding agent for burgers? ›

One of the most common substitutes is breadcrumbs, but sometimes the breadcrumbs can fall off when the burgers are cooking if there are too many or they are too dry. Other popular substitutions for eggs include cornstarch, flour, ketchup, porridge oats, cracker crumbs, and ground flaxseed.

How to add moisture to veggie burgers? ›

Slice up some onions and (optional) beets thinly. The onions help to keep the burgers moist and add steam and flavour during cooking. If you don't like onions, try sliced mushrooms.

Why is my veggie burger soft? ›

Raw vegetables, while delicious, hold a lot of water. And when added to veggie burgers, these vegetables release all that moisture during cooking, which can make for an especially mushy burger.

What to season veggie burgers with? ›

Smoked paprika and sriracha make these burgers smoky and spicy. Finely chopped garlic and shallots add depth of flavor. Crushed walnuts give them a meaty bite. Short grain brown rice, panko bread crumbs, and ground flaxseed help these burgers hold together.

What can I put in my burgers so they don't fall apart? ›

Add 1 egg yolk per pound of hamburger. It won't add appreciably to the fat content and will bind the meat beautifully. The other thing you can do is add canned, drained, crushed black beans or chickpeas to the hamburger. The starch from the beans will bind the meat together and add an interesting taste.

How do you keep burgers from crumbling? ›

watch the edges, and don't flip them until the edges are browning. also pay attention to the way you shape your burgers. if they're much thicker in the middle than they are on the edges, the middle will still be loose while the edges of the burger are firm. and then you have the fall-apart thing happening.

What helps burgers stay together? ›

There are a few ingredients you can add to burgers to help hold them together, such as eggs, breadcrumbs, grated cheese, or even cooked grains like quinoa or rice. These ingredients act as binders and help keep the burger patties intact while cooking.

What is a binding agent for burgers other than egg? ›

No, eggs are not necessary for binding burger patties, though they are commonly used for binding them. However, you can use other binding agents such as breadcrumbs, cracker crumbs, potato starch, flour, and porridge oats to bind burger patties according to your preferences.

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