Are Veggie Burgers Obsolete? Far From It, Says Lukas Volger

Yet plant-based meat companies continued to gain money from venture capital, partner with fast-food chains and expand into supermarkets and big-box stores. It looked like they might do to ground meat and sausages what plant-based milks have now managed to accomplish in coffee shops and home refrigerators: a coup. Food magazines and television began to treat these products as the future of food, a way to combat the evils of climate change and factory farming. The narrative seemed to regard the success of faux meat, especially the burgers, as inevitable, suggesting that the only way to decrease meat consumption would be to replace meat with something that looked and acted just like it.

The fake-meat story, though, isn’t one of endless success. In late 2022 and early 2023, headlines at the Washington Post and New York Times talked of struggle: Beyond Meat, which is publicly traded, saw a stock decrease of 83 percent and laid off 200 people, around 19 percent of its employees. Consumer food analysts noted a drop in the volume of sales in the category as a whole. The reasons for the flip in the zeitgeist are many, attributable to the higher cost compared to meat, the realization that these ultra-processed meat substitutes aren’t nutritionally sound and the novelty simply wearing off.

Now we are seeing the return of the veggie burger made from plants: Shake Shack is introducing the Veggie Shack, with a patty that includes mushrooms, sweet potatoes and farro; the Times chronicled the best options in Los Angeles (falafel burgers, nut loaf) and Eater rounded up even more across the U.S. Now, in what seems like a sure sign that the tide has turned, Volger’s book is being released as a second edition.

The new book wasn’t pegged to the resurgence of the vegetable-based veggie burger. The 2010 edition was Volger’s first cookbook; he went on to publish three more vegetarian books, including 2022’s “Snacks for Dinner.” But “Veggie Burgers Every Which Way” continued to sell, and a couple of years ago, The Experiment reached out about doing a refresh. “The publisher saw veggie burgers as timeless,” Volger explains, and the re-release is coincidentally, if aptly, timed.

Made by Lukas — packaged in plastic buckets in the supermarket refrigerator section, and meant to be used as one would ground meat — proved difficult to scale up as a fragile product with a short shelf life. Though Volger did incorporate lessons from the experience into the book (chiefly, he realized the burgers don’t necessarily need to be finished in the oven) he has come to believe that the best way to get his ideas across is through recipes, not a company, and by letting home cooks experiment and learn for themselves how they most enjoy their veggie burgers.

“What these burgers have in common,” he writes in the introduction, “is that they are all unique expressions of the colors, textures, and tastes of the assorted fresh ingredients from which they are prepared — and that they started out as seeds in the ground.” There’s a pointed focus on using a “whole foods” approach, meaning ingredients in minimally processed form, and highlighting their flavors and textures; this focus on “unique expression” over what one might imagine a “veggie burger” looks like — say, a gray-brown mash of grain with a touch of visible pea, carrot and black bean offering the only color — brings out the possibility of the concept rather than focusing solely on what is being replaced. He notes that while frozen veggie burgers have long been served as a “peace offering” at cookouts, the vegetarian or vegan option should no longer be an afterthought, but instead the main event.

“Veggie Burgers Every Which Way” is a collection of recipes, but it’s also a sturdy foundation for figuring out how to make veggie burgers work with whatever beans, vegetables, grains or proteins are available. The “easy bean burger,” the first recipe in the book, requires ten pantry-friendly ingredients and doesn’t specify which kind of bean, meaning it’ll work with whatever you’ve got in canned or dry form. Volger shares principles for those who might want to go their own way entirely: how to figure out what a vegetable needs, whether that’s pre-cooking or being shredded on a box grater; how to use up fresh herbs that might go bad; guides to using tofu, tempeh and seitan; recipes for various buns, like whole wheat or pretzel; and a whole rundown of bun alternatives that still provide good flavor and texture. As Volger writes, one of the biggest changes he made to the second edition was to cut back on using egg as a binder, which makes the new book of major appeal to vegan cooks and anyone looking to use eggs more mindfully. There is also a guide for egg and breadcrumb replacement for those who want to forego those ingredients.

As one gets deeper into the book, the choices become more considered and compelling, like the curried eggplant and tomato, carrot-parsnip with almond and even a beet tartare — not precisely a burger, but certainly meat-inspired. But there are also the expected varieties, because who can write a book like this without a beet burger, a portobello burger or one that combines chipotle and black beans? These are the go-to veggie burgers one would find at a vegetarian restaurant, and through Volger’s recipes, they can become home staples as well.

For the last chapters, Volger runs down classic sides and toppings and some that are perhaps more surprising. Red cabbage slaw and roasted corn salad are summer necessities, but rutabaga fries are an autumnal possibility. Frizzled shallots and various pickles are there to provide crunch and acidity, and there’s also a guide to herbaceous and spicy yogurt sauces. Volger once again proves a masterful instructor on how to make the most of pantry ingredients and herbs that have overstayed their welcome.

While major corporations and hip restaurants alike are signaling a return to the veggie burger, “Veggie Burgers Every Which Way” shows just how versatile the concept can be — and that it has the power to shift perceptions. A burger doesn’t always have to be something that oozes, whether that’s the meat of a cow or the heme of a soy-based processed patty. As Volger learned from Made by Lukas, ready-made mix at the grocery store isn’t necessarily made to individual tastes or with the best-quality ingredients; the math simply doesn’t work out. But veggie burgers at home can be a diverse, cost-effective and easy way to add more grains, legumes and plants to your diet. Volger shows the way.