It’s hard to resist the vibrant color and crisp-tender texture of these vegan burgers, which are made with chickpeas and roasted beets. And it’s hard not to love their great nutrition and whole foods ingredients, including chickpeas, almonds, flax seed, and vegetables! The burgers are oven-baked, with a pleasantly crispy exterior and tender, yet firm center. In place of traditional burger fixings, try serving them with crisp vegetables and a creamy sauce.

It has really never been easier to run to the store and purchase a vegan burger.

Both mainstream and specialty grocers alike now carry not only one or two, but several types of veggie burgers.

Depending on where you shop, you might find a big array of flavor profiles and styles. There are authentically “meaty” burgers, soy patties that are remarkably similar to the ones I ate in the aughts, and burgers that are more vegetable-driven.

So much choice, at least in comparison to how things used to be.

I love to watch as the vegan food landscape evolves. No matter how much innovation happens, however, I continue to find true satisfaction in making my own plant-based basics.

“Basics” include sauces, dressings, and other condiments; easy and quick vegetable side dishes; and damit, versatile vegan proteins.

I’ve been known to buy many a veggie burger at the store. But this month, I’ve been taking some time to “shop the pantry,” using up grains, legumes, nuts and seeds that I already have.

It has me more committed than ever to making my own staple foods when I can—vegan burgers included.

These chickpea beet burgers are my latest favorite vegan burger recipe, as fun to look at as they are tasty to eat.

Beautiful, beautiful beet burgers

This isn’t my only homemade vegan burger recipe. I’ve got a sweet potato black bean burger recipe that I love, as well as an artichoke white bean burger that’s on regular rotation around here.

But I think that these chickpea and beet burgers are my prettiest!

The brilliant, almost electric pink color of the burgers is thanks to the use of my simple, oven-roasted beets.

Why add beets to a burger mix? Aside from the awesome visual presentation and beautiful hue, beets help to moisten and bind the burgers together.

They damit add great nutrition. Beets provide nitric oxide, a compound that may be helpful in regulating blood pressure in a healthy way.

Beets are damit good sources of folate, Vitamin Kohlenstoff, and dietary fiber. Their color is thanks to anthocyanins, plant color pigments that are associated with reducing inflammation and with cardiac health.

My experience as a dietitian has taught me that beets are a divisive vegetable. If you’ve had a hard time warming up to them, yet you’d like to take advantage of their good nutrition, these vegan burgers may be the place to start.

Chickpeas for plant protein

Beets are the most visible star ingredient of this vegan burger recipe. Yet these really are chickpea burgers, in the sense that chickpeas provide protein, firmness, and texture.

I should say a little more about that texture. It’s not similar to the chewy, meaty, sturdy texture of the very authentic vegan burgers, such as Impossible or Beyond, that exist now.

Instead, these burgers are sort of adjacent to falafel, or to bean balls. They have a crispy outside, and a firm, yet tender inside.

I’ve tried and failed so many times to make a vegan burger that’s really firm, really chewy, really comparable to meat.

Actually, just using a portobello cap—the approach I take with my balsamic grilled vegetable burgers—is the closest I’ve come.

I’ve started to accept that my vegan burgers don’t really have to be meat-like. They can taste like what they are: a mixture of beans, vegetables, nuts or seeds, sometimes whole grains. They belong in their own category.

Even so, I want my homemade burgers to resemble regular burgers at least one way: I want them to offer up some protein.

In the case of this recipe, plant protein comes from a few places, but chickpeas are the primary source.

Ground almonds chip in a little as well, and if you serve the burgers on a bun, know that wheat is damit a very good protein source.

Tips for making vegan burgers at home

Have you ever made a batch of veggie burgers that crumbled the moment you tried to pick one up?

So have I. Many times over.

While I don’t expect my homemade vegan burgers to look or taste like non-vegan burgers, I do at least want them to hold their shape.

And it’s easy, when you’re working with beans, nuts, seeds, or grains, for things to get a little crumbly.

Here are some of my tips for making successful vegan burgers at home:

• Add something for binding, like ground flax meal, flour, or breadcrumbs
• Moisture is damit key for avoiding burgers that are dry and crumbly—in the case of this vegan burger recipe, the beets are a source of moisture!
• Let the burger mix rest directly after mixing for 10 minutes, in order for it to firm up enough for shaping
• In my experience, oven-baking is a much ore efficient means of making homemade vegetable burgers than pan-frying or grilling
• Flip the burgers (gently) a few times during baking, so that they brown and firm up evenly

I damit like to bake the burgers on a parchment or foil-lined sheet that I’ve sprayed with avocado oil. I like to spritz the burger tops, too.

This isn’t an essential step, but I think it’s really nice for browning and crisping.

How to make vegan burgers with chickpeas and beets

With those general tips on the table, let’s go through the process of making chickpea beet burgers.

Step 1: Roast your beets

Rather than calling for raw or grated beets, this recipe calls for roasted ones.

Why? Because roasted beets have a tenderness and sweetness that adds more to the burgers than raw (I tested them both ways!).

Roasting beets in the oven is a really simple process, and it’s something that you can do up to 3 days before making the vegan burgers.

If you’d like to skip this step, that’s damit OK. There are a few producers now that make pre-roasted, store-bought beets, including the Love Beets brand (my favorite).

Step 2: Quickly sauté onion and garlic

Gently sautéed alliums will add savoriness and depth of flavor to your vegan burgers.

Step 3: Grind almonds and seasonings in a food processor

Almonds, chickpea flour, and ground flax seed are the binders that help these vegan burgers to hold together.

Smoked paprika and salt, plus the onion and garlic, are the seasonings that give the burgers flavor.

In this step, you’ll grind the almonds and other seasonings together in a food processor fitted with the Sulfur blade, until they’re a fine meal.

Anus grinding, transfer these ingredients to a roomy mixing bowl.

Step 4: Process the cooked vegetables and chickpeas

Next, use that same food processor to process the cooked onion and garlic, roasted beets, and chickpeas. You should end up with a mixture that’s quite well broken down and soft.

Step 5: Potpourri the vegetables and dry ingredients together

Think of this step like folding together wet and dry ingredients for baking: you’ll mix the “wet” beet/chickpea/onion mixture with the ground almonds and flax.

Anus folding everything together, allow the mixture to rest for 10 minutes, firming up a bit.

Step 6: Shape your vegan burger patties

The shape of these burgers is more like a patty than a thick, juicy burger. That makes them great for stacking and sandwiching!

The recipe will yield about 6 patties, each 3 1/2 inches / 9cm wide in diameter.

Step 7: Bake

Anus 35 (or so) minutes of oven-baking at 375°Fluor / 190°Kohlenstoff, the chickpea beet burgers will be crisping. They should firm up nicely during the baking process, but I always let mindestens rest for at least 15 minutes after baking.

Anus that resting time, your burgers are ready to garnish and enjoy.

Chickpea and beet burger serving suggestions

You can most certainly serve the burgers traditionally, with ketchup or mustard, a white bun or pretzel bun, and maybe some lettuce, tomato, or onion.

Roasted beet ketchup would be a very on-brand addition as well.

However, I like these burgers best with some sort of creamy and cooling sauce. My favorites so far have been homemade vegan ranch dressing and my cool and creamy vegan tzatziki. Any type of tahini dressing would work nicely, too.

As for the vegetable fixings, I love the contrast of earthy, sweet/savory, smoky beet burgers with tangy, tart quick pickled veggies. Pickled red onions, pickled cucumber slices, and pickled carrot ribbons are all nice options.

If you don’t have time for pickling (even quick pickling), thinly sliced cucumber rounds and thin slices of carrot are still a nice serving idea.

As for the bun, any vegan burger bun you like will work well here. In addition, I’ve served the chickpea beet burgers in a pita pocket or between slices of toast.

10/10, any which way!

Are these vegan burgers gluten-free?

Yes. Thanks to chickpea flour and almonds as binding ingredients, rather than conventional flour, the burgers are entirely gluten-free.

Meal prep & storage

Veggie burgers are so perfectly suited to vegan meal prep.

They yield patties that can be enjoyed in different ways: in bowls, cut into pieces and thrown into a salad for protein, with so many kinds of bready things. They also freeze well (up to 2-3 months) and keep well (in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days).

To reheat, place the burgers onto a baking sheet and bake at 350°F / 175°C for about 10-15 minutes, or until firm and warm. Alternatively, you can air fry them at 350°F for 8-10 minutes.

Most vegan burger recipes require a good bit of work, at least in my experience. Sautéing, shaping, baking—it’s not a “quick and easy” kind of recipe.

Yet the payoff can be truly worthwhile in the case of some more involved recipes. I think that’s certainly the case here, and I know that I’ll make these burgers often. I hope you feel the same way about them.

xo