I just mixed up my second batch for the season of my hamburgers. My husband and my girls love these burgers. They are moist and juicy and flavorful. Since they are so popular with my family, I thought it was only right that I teach more people how to make them.

Soak
1 1/2 C textured vegetable protein
in
1 C boiling water.
While it sits for a minute, prepare two cookie sheets by covering with cling wrap. Add to the rehydrated TVP:
1/2 C ketchup or your favorite barbecue sauce,
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs (from about 4 slices bread)
2 T mustard,
2 T worcestershire sauce,
2 tsp garlic powder and
1 tsp pepper.
Mix well. Add
1 medium onion, very finely diced,
6 egg whites (or 3 eggs) and
4 pounds lean ground beef.
Mix well. Shape into patties and place in a single layer on cookie sheets. Freeze flat until solid, then store in a large container or in bread bags. I think you can cook these patties from frozen, but I usually defrost them a bit first.

This recipe makes about 24 burgers, about the size of a 1/4 pound burger. I got the beef for $2/lb, so it costs me about 40 cents per burger.

I tried putting the ingredients into fitday to get an idea about the nutrient contents. It seems to be about 200 calories (10 g fat, 6.5 g carbs, 18 g protein) per burger. Regular 1/4 pound burgers would have about 325 calories and 20 g fat, 10 g carbs, 23 g protein.

Bread, whole wheat, 100% 4 large slice 315 5 59 12
Textured vegetable protein, dry 1.5 cup, NFS 336 1 39 48
Tomato catsup 0.5 cup 125 0 33 2
Worcestershire sauce 2 tablespoon 23 0 6 0
Spices, pepper, black 1 teaspoon 5 0 1 0
Spices, garlic powder 2 teaspoon 19 0 4 1
Onions, mature, raw1 medium (2-1/2" dia) 42 0 9 1
Egg, white only, cooked 6 white 99 0 22 1
Ground beef, lean, cooked 64 oz, raw (yield after cooking) 3798 258 0 345
Total Calories 4760 265 154 431

They look great almost like mini meat loafs. Where do you get the textured protein?

I buy my TVP from the natural food store in town. It looks like ground beef to me, other than the very light color. You can get it at a bulk food store as well.

A couple of years ago, I put several large handfuls of carrots into the meat mix for my hamburgers. I thought they were wonderful, but I made the mistake of serving them to my brother-in-law, who will never let me live it down. In my family, I am undisputed queen of wacky health food. But my husband swears these burgers taste normal, whereas he's reserving judgment on the carrot burgers. :d_tongue:

Constructging this recipe as we speak! It looks good, most of the seasonings I already put on my burgers.

Curious about the TVP though. The store I shop at had some soy-meat subs that have that as an ingredient, but I was expecting like a brick of tofu or something similar..


Edit: Holy CRAP thse may be the most tastiest burgers i've ever tasted. I made up two big patties and cooked 'em on the stovetop like hamburger steaks and sprinkled a bit of good quality bleu cheese on top....MMM. The rest are freezin; these will DEFINITELY be a meal of choice on days i dont feel like cookin.

Curious about the TVP though. The store I shop at had some soy-meat subs that have that as an ingredient, but I was expecting like a brick of tofu or something similar..


It should look like coarse bread crumbs in the store.

That looks very good, although i've got an aversion to texturised vegetable protein from all the bits in things like Pot Noodles and Instant noodles of various types...
I'll give it ago though, cheaper and probably much healthier than Aberdeen Angus steak beefburgers on a lean grillin machine...
We'll have to see whether it tastes better :P

The beef burgers I love making are ones with peanut butter. It is, as you can imagine not the most fat free thing in the world, but when I want to eat beef, damn!! Essentially its just extra lean (or lean if you don't mind the *additional* fat) ground beef, peanut butter, salt, pepper, and some breadcrumbs for consistency. The trick is *lots* of peanut butter. Ends up juicy, sweet, with that delicious hint of peanut butter, which works REALLY well with the beef. And theres lots of healthy fats :P I wouldn't advise eating these when on a cutting diet though.

If you don't like TVP, try using carrots instead (but leave out the water). Burgers are supposed to be good with cherries or blueberries in them as well. (tried it with cherries and didn't care for it) I've never heard of the peanut butter version.

Sadness! I'm almost through my first batch of these burgers :( They are AWESOME though as a no effort dinner