These Vegan Brown Rice Burgers are my favorite homemade burger.
I developed this recipe after Thanksgiving one year. Consuming all that rich holiday food led my family to crave a healthy, filling meal that wouldn’t feel heavy.
But we also didn’t want to sacrifice flavor or texture. These vegan burgers checked off all our requirements.
Vegan Brown Rice Burgers
The brown rice brings these burgers protein and fiber. The cashews add more protein and a nice bite. The caramelized onion and herbs add flavor.
And the breadcrumbs give these burgers a crisp texture after frying that I can’t get enough of.
Yes, I Fry Them
Yes, these burgers are fried.
Not deep-fried, just lightly pan-fried.
It’s no reason to discount them as unhealthy.
At least in my book: consuming sugar, carbs, fat, and fried foods in moderation, even every day, ultimately wards off the desire to binge eat any of these things.
Which is unhealthy.
Make Vegan Brown Rice Burgers!
Enjoy these burgers with a salad like this one, or splurge a little bit and serve them with fries. Either way, these vegan burgers are a delicious meal that’s sure to be a hit.
A Few Things!
Be sure to use brown rice that’s at least slightly cooled. If you mix the brown rice and the other burger “dough” components together while the brown rice is still hot, the individual rice grains will lose too much of their shape and clump together.
Let the brown rice cool for at least 15 minutes before compiling the burger dough. Or, make the brown rice the morning or night before you plan to make the burgers.
My favorite spatula [aff. link] is perfect for flipping these burgers. It’s technically a cookie spatula, but I love the smaller size. You can also find this spatula in my Amazon store here.
Vegan Brown Rice Burgers with Herbed Aioli
Ingredients
For the rice:
- 4 ½ cups cooked brown rice, I recommend using brown basmati rice (in my rice cooker, 1 ½ cups dry brown basmati rice + 3 cups water makes 4 ½ cups cooked rice)
For the onion:
- 1 red onion
- ½ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
For the seasonings:
- ½ cup parsley, minced
- ¼ cup cilantro, minced
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp pepper
Everything else:
- 1 cup milk of choice
- 1 flaxseed egg, (2 Tbsp flaxseed meal + 3 Tbsp water)
- 2 cups plain bread crumbs
- 1 cup cashew pieces
Recommended condiments:
- Arugula
- Sliced tomato
- Sandwich sprouts
- Cheddar, freshly sliced or vegan cheddar
For the herbed aioli
- ½ cup Vegenaise or mayonnaise
- 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp cilantro, minced
- ⅛ pepper
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ⅛ tsp sea salt
- ¼ tsp lemon juice
Instructions
Prepare the brown rice
- If you haven't already, cook the brown rice. After cooking, allow the rice to cool for at least 15 minutes. This will help keep the rice from getting clumpy when we add in the other burger components.
Cook the onion
- Add the onion, salt, pepper, and olive oil to a skillet. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, then turn the heat down to medium low. Cook for 10 minutes.
- Now turn the heat down to low, and let the onion caramelize on low heat while you prepare the other ingredients. Now is a good time to chop the herbs and make the flaxseed egg.
Make the flaxseed egg
- In a small bowl, whisk together the water and flaxseed meal. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes until it gets goopy. Flaxseed egg is done.
Make the burger “dough”
- To a large mixing bowl, add the cooled rice, onion, cilantro, parsley, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, and cashew pieces. Stir to incorporate.
- Now add the flaxseed egg and milk. Mix with your hands and/or a spatula until a sturdy dough forms.
- Put the dough in the refrigerator. Let the dough cool in the refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
Make the herbed aioli
- While you refrigerate the dough, make the aioli. Simply whisk all the aioli ingredients together in a small bowl. Keep the aioli in the refrigerator until you're ready to compile the burgers.
Form the patties
- Take the dough out of the refrigerator. Form the dough into burger patties that are 2 ½ by 2 ½ inches. You will end up with about 10 patties of this size.
Fry the patties
- Heat a few Tbsp of olive oil over medium heat in the same skillet you cooked the onion in. Place a few burger patties in the skillet. I prefer to cook 3 patties at a time.
- Fry the patties until the side that is face down in the skillet gets crispy and browned, about 4-5 minutes. Then flip, and let the other side of the burger get crispy and browned in the skillet, about another 4-5 minutes.
- Remove the burger patties from the skillet, and place them on a plate lined with a paper towel to remove excess oil.
- Repeat this process until you've fried all the patties.
Compile burgers
- Take your burger bun or bread, and toast it, if desired. Next, spread the herbed aioli on the bun/bread according to preference. I recommend putting the aioli on both the top and bottom pieces of the bun/bread.
- Add the burger patty and condiments to the bun as desired. I recommend layering arugula, sandwich sprouts, tomatoes, and thinly sliced cheddar (omit the cheddar to keep this burger vegan).
Serve and enjoy!
- Serve this hearty burger with a salad like this one, or with fries.
8 Responses
What an interesting mix of ingredients! I’m intrigued by your aioli. I make one using silken tofu as the base, and I think it could easily be adapted to use your flavorings. Thanks!
Thanks Jeff! Ohh that sounds amazing, Silken Tofu is such a wonderful and versatile ingredient! I absolutely love it! I can totally see how it would make an excellent aioli.
I’d have never thought of using brown rice to make a burger Shannon, but I absolutely love the idea! I’m also now looking forward to your homemade fries recipe that accompany these brown rice burgers. My Lynne is practically vegetarian so I can’t wait to try out this whole dish on her!
Thank you Neil! Brown rice gives such a great heartiness to veggie burgers, I absolutely LOVE it as the base ingredient! The week got away from me, but I plan to put the fires up next week, they are super easy! That is awesome that your wife enjoys eating vegetarian! It’s a great way to eat. ❤️ I hope she’ll enjoy the burger and fries! Hope you both have a lovely weekend!
These patties and aioli are sooooo incredible. I’ve made this recipe twice now. The second time, I doubled the recipe for the patties and froze several for easy, quick meals. The texture and flavor packed into these patties has made them a personal and family favorite!
Thank you so so much! That’s great to know that these patties freeze well too, I’ll have to try that. 😃
So good! I made a double recipe (using Trader Joe’s three color freezer rice) and popped the leftovers in the freezer. Now a zap in the microwave and toasting of bread or buns and walah! A filling meal. My latest combination was toasted hamburger bun with mascarpone spread on one bun topped with stone ground mustard and the other bun spread with cherry preserves. Popped the microwaved rice burger and some sprouts in between and…HEAVEN! The texture. The flavor. And filling. Love these enough to write this long review.
Those sound like great additions! So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe, thanks for commenting!