These Homemade Veggie Burgers with mushrooms, beans, barley, and walnuts have the most satisfying, hearty, and crave-able flavors and textures! You can bake the patties for an oil-free version or pan-sear them in oil for a meaty, charred exterior. You can also pre-cook these veggie burgers and toss 'em on the grill to reheat, making them a great vegan option for cookouts!
One thing I love about homemade veggie burgers is that the options are endless! There are so many potential protein, vegetable, grain, and seasoning combinations that it's almost impossible to run out of ideas.
For this recipe, I decided to go with a blend of pinto beans, mushrooms, walnuts, and barley, with savory thyme, smoky smoked paprika, and umami-packed vegan Worcestershire for a rich and satisfying meatless burger even your omnivore friends and family will love.
If you enjoy making vegan burgers from scratch, be sure to try my chickpea burgers, jackfruit burgers, and tempeh burgers next!
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Why You'll Love Mushroom Veggie Burgers
- Nutritious: With beans, mushrooms, walnuts, aromatics, and whole grain barley, this is a homemade veggie burger you can feel great about!
- Satisfying Texture & Flavor: They're loaded with umami and rich, savory flavors with a moist, but not mushy, texture that won't fall apart.
- Easy to Make: The veggie burger mixture comes together easily in a food processor, and they can be baked or pan-fried.
- Great for Meal Prep: Mushroom veggie burgers keep in the fridge for up to 5 days and are freezer-friendly for up to a month, making them ideal for lunch and dinner meal prep.
Ingredients & Substitutions
Here's a look at the main ingredients you'll need. See the recipe card below for the full list and measurements.
- Mushrooms: One of my favorite vegan ingredients for creating "meaty" and chewy texture and flavor. I used cremini mushrooms (aka baby bella), but feel free to use a mixture of button, shiitake, or portobello mushrooms if you prefer.
- Walnuts: Ground until coarsely crumbled, walnuts add richness and help thicken the burger mixture just like in my favorite chili recipe! Feel free to swap the walnuts for pecans, cashews, or sunflower seeds.
- Pinto Beans: Beans add protein, fiber, and complex carbs while also serving as a binder. You can use canned pinto beans or cook them from dried. If you don't have pinto beans on hand, you can use black beans, cannellini beans, or another type of bean. One reader reported that lentils also work! Stick with a firmer variety like brown or black lentils.
- Barley: Lends a chewy bite that works really well in these mushroom veggie burgers. You'll need to cook the barley in advance for this recipe. You can use regular pearled barley, which takes about 30 minutes, or quick-cooking barley, which only takes 10 minutes to prepare.
- Panko Bread Crumbs: These add texture and help bind the mushroom patties, so you have a burger that holds together well. Feel free to use whole-grain bread crumbs instead.
- Aromatics: A combination of onion and garlic add depth of flavor as well as moisture to the burger patties. I like white or yellow onion for this recipe.
- Flavor Enhancers & Seasonings: A combination of smoked paprika, thyme, nutritional yeast, vegan Worcestershire sauce, sea salt, and black pepper work together to give these veggie burgers irresistible flavor. If you can't find vegan Worcestershire, use 1 tablespoon of soy sauce or tamari along with 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar instead.
How to Make Mushroom Burgers
First, preheat the oven to 400° F, and lining a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Next, preheat a sauté pan over medium-low heat. Cook the onion and mushrooms until the liquid has released from the mushrooms, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, thyme, and smoked paprika and cook for a few more minutes.
Add the walnuts to the bowl of a large food processor and pulse until they are coarsely crumbled. Add the sauteed mushroom mixture and remaining ingredients.
Process just until everything is well-incorporated. It's fine to have some small pieces of beans and mushrooms remaining. We don't want a perfectly smooth mixture.
Form the mixture into patties. If desired, brush the patties with some vegan Worcestershire and season with black pepper.
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Place the patties onto the prepared baking sheet, and bake for 30-35 minutes, flipping after 15 minutes.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve these tasty mushroom burgers on a bun with all your favorite toppings such as vegan cheese slices, oil-free vegan cheese sauce, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion, vegan mayo, BBQ sauce, ketchup, mustard, etc.
- Pickled onions or jalapenos are also great!
- These are perfect alongside your favorite side salads such as potato salad, kale salad, pasta salad, and macaroni salad.
- You'll also love them for lunch or a light dinner with a simple side of tortilla chips or kale chips.
Variations
- Gluten-free: For gluten-free veggie burgers, you can try cooked brown rice, quinoa, or buckwheat instead of barley, though I haven't tested these myself. However, one reader let us know that a combination of cooked quinoa and a flax egg worked well as a substitute. You'll also need to use gluten-free bread crumbs and gluten-free, vegan Worcestershire, such as The Wizard's. Or simply use 1 tablespoon GF tamari and 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar instead.
- Nut-free: Swap the walnuts for raw sunflower seeds to make these meatless burgers nut-free.
- Pan-seared: If you prefer to pan-sear these burgers instead of baking, preheat a cast-iron skillet over medium heat and add high-heat cooking oil. Place 2-3 burgers in the pan at a time, being sure to leave plenty of room for flipping. Cook for 4-5 minutes per side or until nicely charred and cooked through. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate to drain.
Equipment
To make mushroom burgers, you'll need a sauté pan, a large food processor and a baking sheet for the oven method or cast-iron skillet for the stovetop method.
FAQs
I don't recommend grilling the uncooked mushroom-barley patties, however, once they are cooked, feel free to grill the burgers for a few minutes to add char-grilled flavor. You can also reheat the refrigerated or frozen leftover burgers on the grill.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month. To freeze homemade veggie burgers, transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in the freezer for 1-2 hours. This helps prevent them from sticking together. Then place the semi-frozen burgers in an airtight container in the freezer. Thaw in the refrigerator before reheating in the oven or on the stovetop. The burgers can be reheated from frozen if grilling.
Helpful Tips
- When cooking the mushrooms, you want to make sure their moisture has released and evaporated before transferring them to the food processor. This may take longer than you expect, around 15 minutes. Otherwise, you might end up with too much moisture in the patties. If that does happen, add a bit more bread crumbs to the mixture to soak up the excess liquid.
- Using a scant ½ cup of mixture per patty will yield 8 burgers. Feel free to make them smaller or larger, but note that you may need to adjust the cooking time.
- The veggie burger patties can be made up to a day ahead if needed. After forming, place on a parchment-lined baking sheet or in a storage container with pieces of parchment between each one until ready to cook.
More Vegan Mushroom Recipes
I hope you enjoy these vegan mushroom burgers as much as we do! If you try the recipe I'd love to hear from you. Be sure to comment below and let us know!
Recipe
Mushroom Veggie Burgers
Equipment
- large saute pan - or skillet
- baking sheet - optional
Ingredients
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 16 ounces cremini (baby bella) mushrooms, sliced - or a blend of portobello, shiitake or cremini
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ cup raw walnut halves
- 1 ¼ cups cooked pearled barley - see Notes for subs
- 1 cup cooked pinto or black beans - rinsed and drained
- 1 Tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 2 Tablespoons vegan worcestershire sauce - see Notes
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Stirring occasionally, cook the onion and mushrooms until the liquid has been released from the mushrooms and mostly evaporated, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic, thyme, and smoked paprika, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes more. The mixture should look dry.
- Preheat the oven to 400° F, and line a baking sheet with parchment.
- In the bowl of a food processor pulse the walnuts until coarsely crumbled. Add the sauteed mushroom mixture, barley, beans, nutritional yeast, worcestershire, panko, salt and pepper, and process until incorporated. It's okay to still have small visible pieces of beans and mushrooms.
- Form into patties. Using a scant ½ cup of mixture per patty will yield 8 burgers. If desired, brush the patties with vegan worcestershire and sprinkle with black pepper.
- Place veggie burgers on the baking sheet, and bake 30 to 35 minutes, flipping at the 15-minute mark. They should be firm and golden brown.
- For pan-seared veggie burgers: Preheat a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoon of high-heat cooking oil. Place 2 to 3 burgers in the pan, leaving plenty of room to flip. Cook for about 5 minutes per side or until nicely charred. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.
Notes
Estimated Nutrition (per serving)
Nutrition information is an estimate and will vary depending on the exact amounts and specific products and ingredients used.
Felice
Hello. Can I make these burgers without cooking the onions and mushrooms?
Lori Rasmussen
Hi Felice - Cooking the onion and mushrooms first allows the onions to soften and the moisture in the mushrooms to release and evaporate. So if you didn't cook them first that moisture would come out in the patties during cooking and may make them mushy or not hold together as well.
Lee Kaplan
I have been wanting to make these burgers for the past week, but…I have gone to the two local grocery stores, Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and our health food coop. Not one of them has either vegan panko or vegan Worcestershire sauce. Aarrgghh!
I’ll keep looking.
Lori Rasmussen
Hi Lee - that's frustrating, isn't it? Also it's strange that WF didn't have either - they used to! Anyway, I'd say give it a go with regular or whole-grain breadcrumbs. And for the worcestershire you could always DIY it. The flavor is primarily salty (soy sauce) with a hint of sweetness from molasses and tang from vinegar. I think doing a combination of soy sauce and balsamic vinegar would even be great! Hope that helps!
Ann Iseda
I'm pretty sure you can make substitutions. I made this recipe with rice instead of barley and chickpea flour instead of panko. I also used lentils instead of pinto beans. It came out great!
Monica Berto
Thank you! I followed the recipe but omitted the beans as didn't have any ready and added quite a bit of peanut butter and soy sauce...amazing! So deliciously tasty.