When ordering a veggie burger at a restaurant, are you really making the healthier choice? Even though today’s food engineering has made stampede-sized steps since the days of soy-based burgers, ingredients can vary so widely, that it pays to take a close look at what your veggie burger is actually made of. Do veggie burgers have any health-improving advantages over the more popular beefy-originals?
And that’s where we come in. In 2017 we’ve tried, tasted and tested 19 different vegetable-based burgers, and did all the homework for you. We’ve discarded the bland ones that tasted like wet cardboard, and incinerated the cheaters made from frozen soy patties…
Which 5 have made it to the Top of our Hit List (in NO particular order)?
L-Istazzjon
We’ve seen and tasted many Quinoa burgers, but this Sweet super-grain version from L-Istazzjon is the real deal! The patty is made from quinoa, sweet potato, chickpeas, lentils, curry, herbs and coconut oil. The burger has a few extra condiments: rucola, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, and cucumbers. All are raw, as the patty itself is the hero here. Everything is housed in a brioche bun, with a gluten free option available on request.
This Sweet Quinoa burger has managed to keep its head high among its beefy peers. If you love meat burgers and want to try 1 vegetable option in your life, make sure this is it! For the rest, this is a wheat-free vegetarian dream burger that should make you run out to Mdina and go try it now before others eat them all!
The Beer Cave
When we were told that there’s a green burger in Valletta, we assumed that the greens were inside the burger and not the colour of the burger itself! Chef Marco @ The Beer Cave has fine-tuned his own family recipe to create a green bun that has a mix of coloured seeds on top, to make it even more unique. Just like many veggie burgers we have come across, this one had no name, so we promptly re-baptising it as The Asparagus Burger!
The patty is a mash of chickpeas, marrow, carrots, spring onions, grated breadcrumbs, and asparagus. Asparagus, often considered as an aristocrat of the plant kingdom, is one of the main ingredients. On a gram per gram basis, the raw materials used here, are the most expensive we’ve seen in the local veggie burgers scene. There is no sauce in this burger, just the green bun, the asparagus patty, 2 slices of tomatoes and rucola.
We truly loved this Asparagus interpretation of the classic Veggie Burger, and so did 20,000+ of you, as this was one of the most checked-out Features in 2017.
Novi
Our search for the tastiest vegetarian burger in town, that one burger-unicorn that can turn the most ardent beef-eating person into a lover of greens, took us to Novi on the Gzira seafront. We went there because last summer, owner Chris came up with a new burger concoction. It’s a visceral vegetable burger, made from grilled, raw vegetables, with halloumi at heart. Halloumi is a fresh, semi-firm cheese, traditionally prepared from sheep’s milk in Cyprus. Why should someone make a vegetable burger based on Halloumi? It’s because Halloumi is a soft curd-like cheese free of rennet and safe for vegetarians who do not eat rennet. On top of the two hefty blocks of grilled Halloumi cheese goes raw baby spinach, 2 slices of grilled eggplant, 2 pieces of roasted red peppers and raw onions. All is topped with morsels of walnuts and honey-mustard sauce. All the vegetables are sourced locally, making this one a made-in-Malta guaranteed burger!
We’ve rarely seen more transparency than this one, when it comes to burger-making, as you can literally see the whole lot of vegetables it’s made of. During 2017 we’ve tested a number of other Halloumi based burgers, but this one has stirred a big fire in the tastebuds of not-a-few beef-eaters, according to your feedback.
Hugo
In its 2+ years since inception, Hugo’s Burger Bar has established itself as the new McDonald’s of Paceville. If you’re in the area and need a quick Burger fix, Hugo’s is the place to go. And that’s what we did!
Any lover of burgers and vegetables remembers how old school veggie burgers used to rely heavily on soy filling, but not this one. The patty is coated in a batter of panko breadcrumbs, which is lightly fried to make it look and taste crispy. The inside is filled with sweet potato, quinoa, black zucchini, sweet corn, carrots, spring onions, kidney beans, chick peas and coloured peppers. This seems like a whole garden full of fiber, whole grains and legumes inside! The vegetables are mashed and blended just enough to create a dough-like patty with a very uniform texture. Even though all the ingredients have been worked out in a patty, the burger still has a hint of the real vegetables inside with an appealing consistency and a hearty flavour. Both sides of the bun are covered with a Tzatziki dressing spread, made from yogurt, garlic, mint, and cucumber. We also get some raw mixed leaves and carrot strings on top.
Hugo’s made the right move when they added a veggie option to their menu, almost from the very start, as it provides a pit-stop to bean & zucchini lovers. If you’re on the go, then this burger is a sure-fire choice.
Grassy Hopper
Way back in 2013 there was a food truck at Ta’ Xbiex, promoting clean eating. Years later it turned into a green food Mecca in the center of Gzira, that nowadays feels like the original purveyors of Veggie Burgers in Malta, even if that is not historically correct. Their popular BBB (Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burger) is a perfect showcase of how comfort food should be full of nutrients, energy and body-positive properties.
The patty ingredients have been carefully chosen to provide high quality carbs and low GMI, without refined sugars and starches: black beans, sweet potato mash, a varied mix of seasonal vegetables like carrots, rice and buckwheat. The bun is baked locally from whole grains and is topped with a variety of crunchy seeds. The burger also has lettuce and slices of tomatoes, and mustard, and all these vegetables are sourced from organic or pesticide-free farmers.
Need we add more? Yes we do! You have the option to add Vegan Cheese to this burger, and if you do not, you’re going to regret it for the rest of your life, as this might be Grassy Hopper’s best kept secret. This nut-based cheese is produced in-house and is made from cashews and a selection of spices. Add it to your burger, and suddenly the BBB gains a whole new level of WOWness! If you’re a vegetarian you already know all this, but if you’re not and love the idea of a burger that might increase your life-span, go bite one now!
Those were the five veggie burgers made from vegetables, whole grains, legumes and all the good-for-you ingredients that provide fiber and a variety of vitamins and minerals, for increasing your life-span. And they pack less calories & fat than the meaty variants!
We will bring you more Veggie News in the weeks & months to come, as restaurants and burger joints up their game, and hopefully bring Veggie Burgers to a whole new level of tastefulness!