The 5 Best Veggie Burgers You Can Buy, Based on Our Taste Test
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Veggie burgers get a bad rap. Back in the day, they were considered dry, flavorless, edible hockey pucks, especially by carnivores. But it’s 2023, and these humble meatless patties have come a long way since then. And with plant-based eating on the rise, beef devotees are finally branching out.
With so many options on the market, it can be tough deciding which to try first. To save you the trouble, we tested 14 types of veggie burgers from a slew of popular brands to find out which are worth the buy. Read on for the five best veggie burgers you can find at the supermarket.
The Best Veggie Burgers at a Glance
Scroll down for in-depth reviews of each.
How We Chose the Best Veggie Burgers
A good veggie burger should be moist on the inside and browned or slightly crisp on the outside. It should have good flavor and seasoning, whether it’s designed to taste like beef or not. It should stay intact through cooking, flipping and eating—not crumble. The texture should be consistently tender instead of feeling like a bunch of individual veggies.
We cooked all the veggie burgers from frozen in a lightly oiled skillet, flipping occasionally until browned on both sides. Then, we tasted them and ranked them on five factors:
- Value: Is the veggie burger worth what it costs given the ingredients and taste?
- Quality: Is the veggie burger made with authentic ingredients? Is it full of fillers or preservatives?
- Sturdiness: Does the veggie burger crumble or fall apart while you cook or eat it?
- Flavor: Is the veggie burger tasty and well seasoned?
- Texture: Is the veggie burger moist or excessively dry?
The 5 Best Veggie Burgers
- Value: 18/20
- Quality: 19/20
- Sturdiness: 20/20
- Flavor: 20/20
- Texture: 20/20
TOTAL: 97/100
Let us be the first to say that the hype is warranted when it comes to Beyond’s uncanny meatless patties. Imperfect and lumpy like thick ground beef burgers, these came complete with paper separators, little chunks of “fat” and a natural red coloring that makes them feel like the real deal. (They sizzle in the pan like real meat, too.) While the patties’ color got to be kind of unsettling after being cooked because it stayed mostly pink, the exterior got a drool-worthy crust.
These burgers truly taste like beef—savory, fatty and almost buttery—despite being made largely from pea protein, along with canola and coconut oils, rice protein and a small amount of beet juice and pomegranate concentrate for color. It also contains methyl cellulose, a compound derived of cellulose (that’s the main component of plant cell walls) that’s used as a thickener or emulsifier. The veggie burgers are free of gluten and soy and contain 20 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber per patty.
- Value: 20/20
- Quality: 18/20
- Sturdiness: 20/20
- Flavor: 19/20
- Texture: 19/20
TOTAL: 96/100
If you’re only dabbling in a plant-based lifestyle, these veggie burgers from Boca are right for you. Since they contain real cheddar cheese, they’re uniquely vegetarian—not vegan. But they’re still free of meat, made mainly from soy protein concentrate. The patties bubble on the pan like real burgers (the fat from the cheese probably helps) and brown pretty well. Their flavor is eerily similar to a beef burger, and they’re moist and juicy throughout.
That being said, we felt they could use a bit more salt and seasoning. Nevertheless, with each 87-cent patty clocking in at 28 grams of protein and 9 grams of fiber, they’re among the most filling (and cheapest) of the lot.
- Value: 19/20
- Quality: 19/20
- Sturdiness: 19/20
- Flavor: 18/20
- Texture: 17/20
TOTAL: 92/100
Are you a sucker for Southwestern flavors? Look no further than this gem from MorningStar Farms. The patties are well seasoned and smell just as zesty and flavorful as they taste. The patties bubble and brown pretty well and cook in a flash due to their thinness. Our main critique is their texture, since they contain whole beans and corn kernels. Nevertheless, this didn’t make them crumbly or flimsy at all. Made from cooked black beans, brown rice, corn, onions, wheat gluten, bulgur, egg whites for binding, tomatoes, green chiles, jalapeños and garlic powder, the patties have a slight kick to them and contain 9 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber each.
- Value: 18/20
- Quality: 20/20
- Sturdiness: 20/20
- Flavor: 18/20
- Texture: 18/20
TOTAL: 94/100
Amy’s is beloved by vegans and carnivores alike for the brand’s wide variety of organic meals. We found the California patties the tastiest of its veggie burger varieties; they’re a bit more flavorful than the Sonoma burgers, but just as moist and sturdy. They boast the shortest ingredient list of all the brands we tested: umami-rich mushrooms, bulgur wheat, onions, oats, omega 3-packed walnuts, wheat gluten, potatoes, oils and a few more veggies. So, if you’re wary of weird fillers and ingredients and not allergic to wheat, go with this simple choice. (Each patty contains 6 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber in case you need more convincing.)
- Value: 17/20
- Quality: 20/20
- Sturdiness: 20/20
- Flavor: 17/20
- Texture: 19/20
TOTAL: 93/100
This thick patty from Dr. Praeger’s may take the longest to cook at about 11 minutes per side, but we promise it’s worth the wait. The Perfect Burger looks like beef, courtesy of its pink color and asymmetrical shape. It may not brown as well as the other uncanny burger brands (like Impossible and Beyond) but it still looks and tastes pretty beefy, albeit a bit bland.
The burgers are both soy and gluten free, made from hydrated pea protein, sunflower oil, beets for color, sweet potato puree, butternut squash puree, carrot puree, methyl cellulose and oat fiber. They’re comparatively a bit pricy at about $3 per burger, but you’ll get your money’s worth since each serving contains 20 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber.
Honorable Mentions
The above veggie burgers are our top choices, but there are a few others that are still worth considering, even though they didn’t make the cut. Here they are, in alphabetical order:
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The PureWow100 is a scale our editors use to vet new products and services, so you know what’s worth the spend and what’s total hype. Learn more about our process here.
Taryn Pire is PureWow’s associate food editor. A former bartender and barista, she’s been writing about all things delicious since 2016, developing recipes, reviewing restaurants and investigating food trends at Food52, New Jersey Family Magazine and Taste Talks. When she isn’t testing TikTok’s latest viral recipe, she’s having popcorn for dinner and posting about it on Instagram @cookingwithpire.
Food Editor
Taryn Pire is PureWow’s food editor and has been writing about all things delicious since 2016. She’s developed recipes, reviewed restaurants and investigated food trends at...
