Great Vegan BBQ Without A Grill and Cheddar Stuffed Beet Burger Recipe

OK. So I am notorious for being overly enthusiastic about almost every vegan product, restaurant and cookbook I come across. Like, to a fault. I will find the good in everything. And most times, all the products I receive and places I eat at are WONDERFUL.

And you’ve probably heard it from me, many, many times, BUT…

…Great Vegan BBQ Without A Grill by the mother/daughter dream team over at Veganosity is the BEST vegan cookbook I have ever created recipes from. And yes, I still love all the classics that everyone says are the most amazing. Oh She Glows, Nom Yourself, Thug Kitchen. But EVERY. SINGLE. RECIPE in this BBQ book totally blew me away. I made meals that always intimated me, like homemade seitan and the gals who created this book, made it so approachable, so easy and so incredibly delicious. Usually I make one or two recipes from a book over the course of a few years and I made five of these recipes in a week! Every page was filled with an incredibly tasty, and ingredient -minimal instructions, so I was constantly wanting to make something more dishes!

This beautifully photographed and styled cookbook, is filled with dozens of mouth-watering (legit, there’s drool all over it now) faux meat recipes, that don’t call for processed, store bought fake chicken or beef. Everything is made from scratch, and uses things like beets, chickpeas, jackfruit, gluten or mushrooms to create carnivore-pleasing dishes. Full of things like ribs, pulled pork, loaded burgers, hearty sides and delicious sauces and spreads. My biggest challenge, of course, was what to make first. So I gave Steve options, handed that burden off to him, and let him decide. He opted for the cheddar stuffed beet burgers, which ended up being the greatest decision he’s ever made.

I assumed that maybe these wouldn’t turn out all that impressive. Veggie-based burgers are usually too mushy or too dry or don’t have enough flavor, when it comes to homemade versions, so even though these burgers looked GORGEOUS in the cookbook, I figured they wouldn’t taste all that great.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Their simple list of ingredients of mostly chickpeas, beets, breadcrumbs and spices, had me skeptical that they would be lackluster. But the beets not only gave them a beautiful, bright, meaty hue, but they gave them an earthy flavor, and a perfect texture when combined with the pulsed chickpeas and breadcrumbs. Add to that, some melty, rich Chao cheese, and we had ourselves the most exceptional burger I have ever made in my own kitchen. I was beyond impressed with every aspect of it, and obsessed over my pictures of this burger like it was my first-born child for the next few days.

It’s seriously that life-changing.

I have SO many recipes from this book to include, that I’m going to share this recipe now, because it’s my favorite, and then do one, maybe TWO more, for the other four recipes I really loved. Because you want to know how to easily make awesome seitan at home, right? RIGHT!

Make these burgers immediately and do yourself a massive favor and order a copy of this book as soon as humanly possible!

1 large beet

1 tsp avocado or coconut oil

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 breadcrumbs

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp all-purpose seasoning (recipe calls for Bragg’s Sprinkle Seasoning, but I always have the TJ’s AP seasoning on hand!)

1 can chickpeas

1/3 cup aquafaba from the chickpeas

1/2 cup shredded vegan cheese

1-2 tbsp avocado oil for cooking

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Coat beet in avocado oil and bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees
• Meanwhile, mix together flour, breadcrumbs, salt and all-purpose seasoning
• Once the beet is cooled, place the beet, chickpeas and aquafaba in a food processor and blend until creamy, but with some texture still
• Add the chickpea-beet mixture to breadcrumb mix and knead until well combined
• Once your dough is formed, press the mixture into thin patties, about 5 inches in diameter (mine made about six patties)
• Put about 2 tbsp of cheese into the center of the patty and fold over until the cheese is stuffed and covered in the middle
• Over medium heat in a frying pan cook the patties in avocado oil, about 8-10 minutes on each side until seared and browned
• Serve on buns with lettuce, tomato, avocado and ranch dressing!