If you are at all concerned about your waistline, animal welfare, or the health of the planet, plant-based eating is the way to go. Fortunately, mainly eating plant-based is easy because you can find thousands of wholesome and delicious meatless recipes packed with nutritional goodness and flavor.

Eating plant-based no longer means feeling deprived because you’re missing out. And that is especially true when it comes to burgers. Although there are lots of premade “fake” meat and plant-based burger options in your grocery store’s freezer section, they often contain additives that aren’t always going to be that helpful to your health.

The vegetarian recipe below is a delicious and easy-to-make option that proves that a plant-based burger can be tasty and good for you simultaneously. This recipe replaces traditional ground beef with a medley of mushrooms, onions, beans, and seasoning.

It does have eggs and cheese for topping. You can make it a vegan version of this recipe by swapping the eggs with 1 1/2 teaspoons of egg replacement and Daiya shreds (or your favorite vegan cheese) instead of the dairy-based cheese we used.

These burgers are easy to make – just mix the ingredients, mash them together, grill, and serve. The patties cook up juicy and hold their shape, just like the beefy kind. Place them on a carb-smart bun, and top with traditional burger fixings, and you’ve got a delicious meatless burger that’s packed with nutrition and waist-slimming fiber.

Tip: I used one of my favorite kitchen tools, my William – Sonoma’s chopper to get perfectly diced mushrooms and onions.

Mushroom Bean Burger Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1/2 tablespoon cumin
• 10 ounces white mushrooms finely diced
• 2 eggs
• 1 can pinto beans, drained (or ½ can pinto beans and 1 can Trader Joe’s Greek Chickpeas, Parsley, and Cumin)
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
• Sea salt, to taste
• Black pepper, to taste
• 4 hamburger buns
  

Steps:

1. Add 1 teaspoon of olive oil to the pan. Sauté diced onions and garlic for 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat until the onion is translucent.

2. Add the mushrooms, green onions, and cumin. Cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add a bit of oil if needed. Set the cooked mushroom- onion mixture aside.

3. In a separate bowl, mash the beans with a potato masher or pulse in food processed until coarsely pasty. Beat the two eggs and add, mix until thoroughly combined.

Tip: If you like cumin – and who doesn’t – and you don’t mind paying a bit more for ingredients to get a more savory tasting burger, replace half the pinto beans with a can of Trader Joe’s Greek Chickpeas, Parsley and Cumin.

4. Combine the bean mixture with the mushroom-onion mixture. Add parsley, salt, and pepper. Mix with a large spoon until uniform.

5. Shape into 1 inch thick patties.

6. Heat remaining oil in a skillet or grill pan over medium heat. Cook patties for about 3 minutes on each side. Add cheese if you prefer – or Daiya shreds – and let melt. 

7. Place patties on burger buns, add fixings, and enjoy.

Nutrition Info: 

Serves: 4 | Serving Size: 1 Mushroom Burger with Bun |  Per Serving: 400 Calories, 16g Fat, 50g Carbohydrates, 9g Sugar, 10g Fiber,  17g Protein

A Mushroom a Day… 

Mushrooms offer a treasure trove of healthy nutritional goodness. They’re low in calories and carbs while providing your body with copper, iron, potassium, selenium, plus B, and D vitamins.

Some mushrooms – also called functional mushrooms – are true superfoods because they go beyond the nutrition they impart and provide documented benefits like improved cognitive ability, boosted immunity, more natural energy, and better sleep. Adaptogenic mushrooms help your body better cope with stress.

Taking a functional mushroom supplement like Stonehenge Health’s Dynamic Mushrooms is becoming more and more popular as a way to increase resiliency to stress and to support your body’s natural functions, cognitive clarity, immunity, relaxation, and balance.

Dynamic Mushrooms is a highly concentrated blend of Lion’s Mane, Reishi, Chaga, Shiitake, and Maitake extracts. Include it in your daily routine as part of an overall healthy lifestyle and to boost your ability to adapt to physical and mental stressors, as well as support your immune system and cognitive health.

Recipe inspired by Easy Mushroom Veggie Burgers Recipe – Food.com