Veggie burgers are very much in vogue.

No longer considered a weird, alternative food, veggie burgers – like other vegetarian staples such as almond milk and hummus – have a fast-growing mainstream fan base. Local chefs with house-made veggie burgers on the menu report that they’re often top sellers.

At The Liberal Cup in Hallowell, the veggie burger has lentils, black beans, carrot, potato, green onion and a secret spice blend. The restaurant sells about 200 of them a week. Courtesy of The Liberal Cup

The veggie burger at LFK in Portland is made from red lentils, leeks, roasted cashews, mushrooms and panko breadcrumbs. It is served on a pretzel bun from Rosemont Bakery with a side of vegan potato salad. Avery Yale Kamila photo

BEST VEGGIE BURGERS

I ASKED MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS where they go for delicious, house-made veggie burgers, and they generated an impressive list.

 

n Belfast Co-op, Belfast

n b.good, Portland (“Yummy with a variety of delicious fresh & local toppings to choose from.” — Rachael Weinstein Alfond. “Incredible veggie burger and awesome quinoa bowl.” — Tom Farmer)

n Cafe Nomad, Norway

n Elevation Burger, Portland

n Frontier, Brunswick

n Gather, Yarmouth

n Great Lost Bear, Portland (“Good taste and mouth feel.” — Mac McCabe)

n Gritty’s, Portland & Freeport (“It’s really tasty, hearty and they serve it with banana peppers.” — Claire Houston)

n LFK, Portland (“Amazing veggie burger. Pretzel bun. Vegan potato salad.” — Angela May Bell)

n Liberal Cup, Hallowell

n Little Lads Bakery, Portland

n Local Sprouts Cooperative Cafe, Portland (“The Moonburger is one of the best I’ve had. It tastes delish, and doesn’t fall apart.” — Donna Hickey)

n Lompoc Cafe and Brewpub, Bar Harbor

n Rudy’s, Cape Elizabeth (“Great quinoa burger.” — Robin Payton)

n Run of the Mill, Saco

n Scratch Baking Co., South Portland

n Sebago Brewing Company, Portland, Scarborough & Gorham

n Senator Inn, Augusta

n Silly’s, Portland

n Standard Gastropub, Bridgton (“A sweet potato and black bean burger that is pretty amazing!” — Heather Manchester)

n Taste of Maine, Woolwich

n The Family Dog, Orono

n The Good Table, Cape Elizabeth

n Thurston’s Wicked Good Burgers, Portland (“Excellent in-house veggie burger packed with chickpeas.” — Shana Genre)

n Wild Oats, Brunswick

— AVERY YALE KAMILA

SPICY AUTUMN VEGETABLE BURGER

This recipe comes from Mark Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food.” Using oil, not butter, makes the recipe vegan.

Serves 4 to 6, depending on the size burgers you make

2 cups cooked kale or other winter green, like collards, turnip or mustard greens, or broccoli raab (about 8 ounces raw)

2 cups cooked or canned cannellini or other beans, drained well

4 or 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil or butter

1 medium sweet potato (about 12 ounces), peeled and grated (about 1 cup)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs or panko

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

Pinch cayenne, or to taste

All-purpose flour, if needed

Squeeze all the water out of the cooked kale and finely chop the kale. Put the cannellini beans in a large bowl and mash roughly. Stir in the greens with a fork.

Put 2 tablespoons of the oil, or butter, in a deep skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot or the butter is melted, add the sweet potato and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until it begins to soften and color, about 5 minutes. Stir in the bread crumbs and remaining spices and cook and stir for another minute or so.

Stir the sweet potato mixture into the bean mixture with a fork, mixing until well blended. Let the mixture rest for a few minutes before shaping it into patties. If it seems too wet, stir in a little flour to help bind it. Taste and adjust the seasonings. (You can make the burger mixture up to several hours in advance. Cover tightly and refrigerate, then bring everything back to room temperature before cooking.) Wipe out the skillet.

Shape the mixture into 4 to 6 patties. Put 2 tablespoons of the remaining oil or butter in the skillet and turn the heat to medium. When the oil is hot or the butter is melted, carefully slide the burgers into the pan. Cook until nicely browned on one side, about 5 minutes; turn carefully and cook on the other side until firm and browned, adding the remaining butter or oil if necessary.

Serve on plates or on buns with the usual burger fixings.

At the Run of the Mill brew pub in Saco, executive chef Chris Loftus said the restaurant sells an average of 30 of its from-scratch veggie burgers each day. “It’s really popular,” Loftus said. “It seems to be getting more and more popular every year.”

Vegetarians certainly make up a portion of the restaurant’s veggie burger customers, but they’re not the only ones eating these plant-based patties. Even behind the closed doors of the kitchen, Loftus can tell not all the orders come from vegetarians, since some request bacon as a topping. In fact, he often tops the veggie burger with bacon, cheese and avocado and eats it himself.

Loftus isn’t tooting his own culinary horn, since the veggie burger he sells was developed by Kirk McLean, the chef at The Liberal Cup in Hallowell. The two restaurants have similar menus and the same owners. McLean said he sells about 200 veggie burgers a week, more the weekend of the recent Common Ground Country Fair.

“Hallowell is a hippie little town, and we sell a lot of veggie burgers,” said McLean, a self-proclaimed “meat guy.” “Some lunch shifts, it’s like ‘veggie burger, veggie burger, veggie burger.’ It amazes me how much it sells.”

At LFK in Portland’s Longfellow Square, head chef Christopher Neal sells 30 to 75 house-made veggie burgers each week.

“We like to cater to a vegetarian and vegan audience,” Neal said. “The veggie burger is very popular.”

Over the bridge in South Portland at Scratch, a small neighborhood bakery, savory eats manager Aaron Rose said the house-made veggie burger is “a good seller. In our hierarchy of seven sandwiches, it’s probably number 4.”

Adam Burk of Portland is a fan of veggie burgers, and reports he’s seen their quality improve as chefs “get more comfortable with veg options.” For him, “texture, stick-togetherness and flavor” are the hallmarks of a top-notch veggie burger. “My favorite veggie burgers might have a little crisp on the outside, and the variety of ingredients – beans, veg, grains – give texture.” Burk said. “I tend to like burgers that are a little spicy, too.”

When local restaurants want to add a veggie burger to the menu, the easiest solution is to turn to a commercial product. Maine even has its own ready-made frozen veggie burgers from Blue Mango. The burger was a popular item many years ago at the Blue Mango cafe on Spring Street in Portland. After the restaurant closed, its owners turned to making the restaurant’s popular veggie burger for the wholesale market.

The Blue Mango burger is featured on many local menus, but some chefs prefer to make their own.

McLean at The Liberal Cup said when the restaurant decided to add a veggie burger to the menu, “I went, ‘OK, maybe we’ll just buy something.’ We got a whole bunch of samples, and none of us were happy with them.”

So he started playing around with lentils, black beans and panko breadcrumbs until he developed a burger that passed muster with the staff. The burger also includes raw carrot and potato and green onions.

“The raw potato cooks, so you get a little bit of crunchiness but it’s still cooked,” McLean said. “We have a secret spice blend with this, but we’re never going to give that away.”

McLean deliberately made the burger vegan, rather than vegetarian (with cheese or eggs) because he wanted it to appeal to the widest possible audience.

“There’s no point in putting anything in there that’s going to shy anybody away,” McLean said.

Back at Scratch, Rose already had a vegan sandwich on the menu so his burger is not vegan. Since he’s not a fan of bean-based veggie burgers, Rose makes the burger from cracked wheat, oats, walnuts, mushrooms, eggs and vegetarian Parmesan cheese (most Parmesans aren’t vegetarian since they are made with animal-derived rennet).

“Personally I don’t like ones that are bean-based because of the texture,” said Rose. “A good veggie burger has to have some chew.”

Neal at LFK makes the restaurant’s veggie burger – using red lentils, leeks, roasted cashews and mushrooms – a couple times a week.

“It’s a multiple-stage process involving three burners, multiple pots and pans, roasting in the oven and a Cuisinart to blend,” Neal said. “It’s actually the most complex recipe we have.”

Like Neal, the other chefs I spoke with report that making veggie burgers from scratch takes a lot of time.

“It’s a constant prep item,” McLean at The Liberal Cup said. “But if that’s what people want, we’ll make it.”

Avery Yale Kamila is a freelance food writer who lives in Portland. She can be reached at

avery.kamila@gmail.com

Twitter: AveryYaleKamila