Meat Optional: Vegetarian Burger Recipes

We're really looking forward to warmer weather so we can fire up the grill. Whether you're celebrating Mother's Day, Memorial Day, or the end of April showers, a barbecue is ideal.

Alongside the ribs, chicken, and hearty hamburgers (May is National Hamburger Month, after all), make sure to have something for the herbivores at the party. These vegetarian burger recipes will be a welcome addition to your menu.

Vegetarian Burger Recipes: Tips and Tricks and Helpful Hints

One of the biggest complaints about veggie burgers is that they fall apart. Even if you get them on and off the grill safely, they may still turn to mush before you get a chance to eat them.

Hold your burgers together better by using a binder. Eggs are great at binding, but you have a few other options too. Beans and oats will work, and so will flax seeds. Combine ground flax seeds with warm water and mix it into the rest of your burger ingredients.

Excess moisture is also a culprit. Cook vegetables to dry them out before adding them to the mix. It can also help to drain them or squeeze out remaining water.

Better yet, use moisture to your advantage by adding sticky ingredients that will absorb moisture and adhere to the other ingredients. The best recipes strike a balance between wet and dry. Just like when you're mixing dough for baking, pay attention to the texture and consistency.

Finally, you can start with ready-made vegetarian burgers, thanks to a growing selection at the grocery store. Check out this exhaustive analysis of plant-based meat substitutes from Traeger Grills.

Vegetarian Burger Recipes: Easy Grillable Veggie Burgers

Start with these burgers from Minimalist Baker. This recipe is the easiest one we found, with lots of positive feedback from readers who tried it.

It's a simple blend of some standard veggie burger ingredients (black beans, brown rice, sautéed onions, and bread crumbs) with ones to bind and add flavor (barbecue sauce, ground walnuts, and coconut or organic brown sugar). You'll need a food processor to blend the walnuts and spices together, but the rest of the ingredients come together with a mixing bowl and a wooden spoon.

Vegetarian Burger Recipes: Really Awesome Black Bean Burgers

These burgers from The Food Lab at Serious Eats are also surprisingly simple. We're confident they will be amazing because Serious Eats doesn't publish anything that isn't amazing. Plus, once you see the ingredients, you'll know these aren't ordinary veggie burgers.

Sure, they've got black beans. But you'll roast these beans in the oven, which helps remove moisture and add texture. Cashews and panko bread crumbs act as binders. The incredible flavor of these black bean veggie burgers comes from poblano pepper, chipotle chile, sautéed onions, and feta cheese.

Be sure you have a large baking sheet to hold all those beans in a single layer for roasting. Then get out your food processor to chop the cashews and blend the beans and cheese together.

Vegetarian Burger Recipes: Best Ever Veggie Burger

This burger recipe comes from The Kitchn, but it's inspired by veggie burgers from a café in Columbus, Ohio. These burgers require a lot of work, and the prep time -- both active and inactive -- stretches for hours. In fact, the author recommends letting the mix sit overnight before cooking. But the feedback on these burgers convinced us they're worth the effort.

The earthy, smoky flavors in this burger come from the ingredients and the way they're cooked prior to mixing. Roasted beets, deeply sautéed onions, and smoked paprika help add depth to standard veggie burger ingredients like black beans and brown rice.

Once again, you'll need a food processor. A box grater will make quick work of the beets, and a strainer or colander is essential for draining them.