These Southwestern Veggie Burgers are made with zucchini and sweet potato and happen to be bean-free, soy-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, egg-free, and grain-free–making them the perfect allergy-friendly Veggie Burger.
If you are looking for more Vegan Recipes, check out Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili, Lentil Tacos, and Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers.
This recipe for Veggie burgers is unlike any veggie burger you have had before.
Instead of being made with oats, beans, breadcrumbs, or soy, they happen to be
- Bean-Free
- Vegan
- Gluten-Free
- Made with ACTUAL vegetables!
And the taste is incredible. Savory, spicy and filling–just perfect. They are made with sweet potatoes, zucchini, green chiles, and Tex Mex seasoning, which makes these veggie burgers incredibly flavorful and filled with nutrients.
How to Prepare Veggie Burgers
While these veggie burgers are much more fragile because they do no have added stabilizers like breadcrumbs or eggs, they will hold together perfectly with a few tips.
Tip #1: Get Rid of Excess Moisture
These veggie burgers are made with zucchini, which naturally has a lot of water content. Excess water will make these veggie burgers soggy and not stick together.
To get rid of the excess water in the zucchini, place shredded zucchini in a clean kitchen towel and wring out all the excess moisture.
The canned green chiles also have moisture, so be sure to drain off the liquid using a small strainer.
Tip #2: Use Sweet Potato
Not only does sweet potato add great flavor and nutrients, but sweet potato puree also works as a perfect egg-free binder and helps to hold these veggie burgers together.
You can use bake 1 large sweet potato (or 2 smaller sweet potatoes) at 400 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until tender or prepare Instant Pot Sweet potatoes and then use the flesh of the sweet potato and mash-up until smooth.
Tip #3: Measure Correctly
Be sure to measure your shredded zucchini AFTER removing excess moisture for an accurate measurement. It is also important to and sweet potato puree AFTER mashing up the sweet potato.
Tip #4 Freeze Burgers before Baking
Once you shape your burgers, I STRONGLY suggest that you pop them into the freezer for 30 minutes. This helps the burgers to hold their shape better.
Reviews on Veggie Burgers
I mentioned I love, I mean LOVE, these Veggie Packed Burgers, but what about my kids? Or the bigger critic—my Midwestern meat-loving husband?
- My son loves these veggie burgers, if I serve with cheese and on a bun.
- My daughter thinks they are a bit spicy, but when paired with mild cheddar and served on a bun, she does enjoy them.
- My husband actually REALLY likes these burgers. Especially if I serve them with cheese, pico and lettuce, and tomatoes.
Bottom line, give these Veggie Burgers a try. Serve them on a bun, in a lettuce wrap, over a salad, in a tortilla with sour cream. I bet you will enjoy them!
More Vegan Recipes
- Lentil Sloppy Joes
- Vegan Tex Mex Stuffed Peppers
- Easy Lentil Tacos with Avocado Cream
- Vegan Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos
Vegan Veggie Burgers
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup ground flax seed
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1 cup sweet potato puree about 1 large sweet potato
- 1 cup zucchini shredded, and drained well
- 4.5 ounce can diced green chilies drained well
- 2 teaspoons chili powder I used chipotle chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 8 slices Montery Jack cheese optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large sheet tray with parchment paper or a silpat and gently spray with nonstick spray or very lightly brush with olive oil.
- Mix together the flax seed and 2 tablespoons water and let sit while preparing zucchini and sweet potato.
- In food processor, shred zucchini. Place zucchini in clean kitchen towel, and gently squeeze out any excess moisture. Return zucchini to food processor.
- Add in the sweet potato puree, drained green chilies, flaxseed mixture, and spices into the food processor and pulse until just combined.
- Scoop out about 1/3 cup of mixture onto prepared sheet tray. Pat down into burger patties.
- Place pan with veggie burgers into FREEZER for 30 minutes to set up.
- Bake for 30 minutes on first side and VERY carefully flip and cook for additional 10-15 minutes, or until browned.
- If serving with cheese, place a slice of cheese on each patty and return to the oven until cheese is just melted.
Equipment Needed
Notes
- To decrease on the spiciness of these Southwestern Sweet Potato Burgers, cut the chili powder to 1 teaspoon.
- Be sure to get rid of any excess moisture in the zucchini by placing shredded zucchini in a clean kitchen towel and wringing out all the excess moisture.
- Measure out your zucchini after wringing out your moisture.
- Be sure to shape your burgers BEFORE baking--so they bake up into perfect patty forms.
- It is extremely important to bake these vegan veggie burgers on a silpat OR parchment paper so they do not stick to the baking sheet.
- If you find the veggie burger mixture too wet, you can add in 1-3 more tablespoons of flax seed.
- To freeze leftover veggie burgers, allow burgers to cool fully. Lay on parchment paper lined sheet tray in the freezer and freeze until solid. Transfer to freezer safe container or bag and store in freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat by heating frozen burgers in oven at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
Nutrition
This recipe has been modified since so many people have been had issues with these burgers turning soggy to give more tips to allow these Vegan Burgers to turn out well. EXACT amounts have been added instead of 1 sweet potato and 1-2 small zucchini, the flaxseed has been soaked in water first as well to give these grain-free burgers more binding. Also, the step to freeze the burgers before baking helps tremendously! These gluten-free, grain-free burgers are still incredibly fragile, but they should retain their shape if the recipe followed.
I made these tonight for my wife (meat eater) and my 22 year old daughter (vegan) (can’t eat beans)
Difinatly the best veggie burger I’ve made, boiled the sweet potato and omitted the extra 2 T of water… Will be keeping this recipe, thank you for sharing this one… outstanding 😁
YAY! I love hearing that you were able to enjoy this!
We have been eating these alot this last month, especially my daughter, because of her restricted diet and I love that they freeze so well, an update though, I have been peeling the sweet potato, shredding along with the zucchini and just adding it raw…it’s been working great. I am getting ready to try replacing the zucchini with cauliflower rice, I’ll let you know if it doesn’t work, otherwise, thanks again for this wonderful recipe, you are truly a God send 🙏🙏🙏
So glad this has been a go-to recipe. I understand how hard restricted diets are and I am happy to help!
Hi! I am intolerant to zucchini. Any possible substitutions.
Hi AJ! I would use either yellow squash or eggplant.
So I was experimenting and replaced the zucchini with 10 oz of cauliflower rice as well as shredding a raw sweet potato and adding that instead of a cooked potato….. Absolutely wonderful.
So glad you enjoyed and thank you for sharing your modifications!
Made this for kiddo’s school lunch and he loved it!
I love hearing that Abeer! Thank you!
Veggie burgers kind of have my heart too, and they’re more sustainable. tysm
Totally more sustainable!
I think the steps are out of order a little. Gonna try tonight.
You were right Nick, one of the steps was out of order. Sorry about that, all is fixed now with a few more tips throughout the post. Enjoy!
Flavor is terrific, but these were an epic fail. There’s nothing to hold the patties together, so they just all blobbed into one big mess on the baking sheet. I scraped the blob into a big bowl, added a whole cup of buckwheat flour, and then molded them into nuggets so that we could eat. I followed the recipe to the letter. How did they go so wrong?
Kelley, I am so sorry you had an issue with the patties staying together. Let me help you trouble shoot.
Did you make sure you got all the water out of the zucchini?
Did you bake on parchment paper or a silpat?
Did you flip the burgers half-way through?
Let me know if you did all those things, so I can further update this recipe for better tips to make these turn out (because they are always a success when I make them–and I want you all to enjoy that!)
Wow! these sound amazing!
Thank Michaela! We love them!
I did a double take because these look like a real burger! Love the flax seed in this. 😀
Ha ha! Loved that these fooled you for a minute!
I’m normally a red-meat kind of girl… but I would TOTALLY try this! Looks absolutely delicious!!
Well my red meat hubbie loved these!
Hey Kristen, these burger look great!!! I love that your kids are such adventurous eaters! I have a few adventurous eaters here, and a few not so adventurous. Thanks for another great veggie burger recipe!
Allie, they have not always been adventurous–but as they have gotten older they are braver!