How Guy Fieri Makes His Veggie Burgers Totally One-Of-A-Kind

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Guy Fieri has offered plenty of cooking tips that can change your kitchen game. Though the Mayor of Flavortown might be known for heat and meat, the man has also put together some mean veggie options. Inspired by his late sister's preferences for vegetarian and vegan meals, Fieri got to work perfecting a meatless burger that debuted on his show "Guy's Big Bite". Boasting 21 ingredients, the burger was a stunner, and a true one-of-a-kind. Grains, spices, veggies, and herbs are mixed together to create Fieri's elaborate recipe, and all ingredients are incorporated with a precise method of preparation and assembly.

Instead of opting for one kind of bean, Fieri compiles a mixture of drained black and white beans and chickpeas to combine with vegetables to form patties. For binders, Fieri uses rolled oats, seasoned bread crumbs, and flax eggs. Vegetables include diced red onion, red bell peppers, jalapeños, garlic, and sauteed diced artichoke, which provide gentle sweetness and earthy layers to the burger's texture and taste. He also adds in black olives. Fieri further enhances flavors by sweating the vegetables and adding garlic only at the end of the process so that no pieces are burned. Hungarian paprika, chili powder, red chili flakes, celery salt, minced fresh parsley, sage, cumin, and dried oregano add even more depth of flavor to these burgers. Fieri emphasizes using fresh spices in order to coax out the most pungent flavors, and grinding spices together so that waves of flavors are equally distributed. 

Once cooked, Fieri tops the veggie burgers with his go-to "LTOP" — lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and pickles — and adds a sprinkle of fried onions for crunch. The pile is crowned with Fieri's vegan version of Donkey Sauce and a cheese sauce made with cashews and nutritional yeast. Fieri's Donkey Sauce (available online) – is a flavor-punching combination of mayo, mustard, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper – that deserves a place on any quality burger. You can create your own vegan version by using plant-based mayo and homemade vegan Worcestershire sauce or a bought version.

Though Fieri's vegetarian burger recipe has been around for over a decade, the meal has been repeated and enhanced by cooks. For those attempting to replicate the recipe at home, Fieri suggests adding panko crumbs to mixtures that are too wet to form into patties — however the beauty of the recipe is its moistness, so don't overdry it. And for overly bulky combinations, add vegetable stock to thin out ingredients. Fieri has also been known to tailor his veggie burgers by incorporating brown rice and quinoa to the patty mixtures. In under an hour, you can plate 12 sliders, though most of your time will be spent on prep work. The actual cooking time of these meatless burgers hangs around 10 minutes.