The humble veggie burger has come a long way from its days as a frozen afterthought for non-meat eaters. While the arrival of Beyond Meat and Impossible patties聽brought veggie patties to the forefront in the late 2010s, the past five years have seen a growing appetite for simpler, whole-food ingredients. Today, chefs are no longer treating veggie patties as mere meat substitutes 鈥 they’re crafting them as standout dishes in their own right.
As a meat eater, I鈥檓 still inclined to try a house-made veggie burger 鈥 it鈥檚 a chance to taste a chef鈥檚 creativity at work. A veggie patty can be an endless mix of vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and mushrooms. Each restaurant has its own preferred blend and a secret trick to keep the patty from falling apart, achieving a bouncy, chewy texture that holds up in a toasted bun and under a heap of toppings. The Beyond Meat hype has since died down, the city has stepped up with a broader and more inventive range of veggie burgers.
An unexpected place for a house-made veggie patty is 聽(297 Port Union Rd. Unit 13), set in a small plaza in a residential corner of Port Union. This small takeout shop makes an Ultimate Veggie burger for $13 (with free fries Monday to Thursday). It’s made from soy crumbles reconstituted with vegan broth, sauteed mushrooms, roasted beets, miso paste, gluten-free Worcestershire and breadcrumbs 鈥 the shop caters to gluten-free, low-carb, and diabetic diets. Thanks to beet juice and a lightly charred crust, the patty resembles a medium-rare burger.
Rouge Kitchen co-owner Joanna Wilson prepares an Ultimate Veggie burger in her kitchen.
R.J. Johnston 海角社区官网Star“We used to have a Beyond Burger, but we were touting ourselves as a place that made things from scratch as much as possible,” says Joanna Wilson, who opened Rouge Kitchen with her husband, Jeff, in December 2018. “People were saying they were hoping to have something we made, so I decided to make my own so that people have to come to me if they like it. From start to finish, it’s an hour-and-a-half to make a batch. People can appreciate that if they have food sensitivities or health concerns, I can name the ingredients.”
Manita鈥檚 house-made veggie burger, made from mushrooms and walnuts, offers a dense, savoury alternative to meat and reflects a shift toward whole-food, chef-driven patties in Toronto鈥檚 restaurant scene.
Karon Liu/海角社区官网StarOn the higher end, sit-down restaurant聽聽serves a $31 veggie burger and fries made from oyster and maitake mushrooms and walnuts(the same price as their beef-and-bacon version). Originally opened in 2020 at 210 Ossington Ave., Manita has since expanded to a second location in the upscale Summerhill neighbourhood, opening in the former Rosedale Diner location last September at 1164 Yonge St. The patty, slightly charred with an earthy, umami-richness and sweet notes of caramelized onion, is topped with white onion, pickles, housemade ketchup and aioli, American cheddar and bibb lettuce in a soft, toasted sesame seed bun.
“It’s a lot more labour intensive than grinding your own meat,” says Manita co-owner Colin Tooke. “We roast the mushrooms with maple syrup and Aleppo pepper to give it a bit of smokiness, cook down some of the other mushrooms with onions, toast the walnuts, add a bit of potato starch as a binder, it takes a few hours to make.”
With rising ingredient costs, Tooke adds, 鈥渢o charge the price we needed to in order to pay people and offer everything when you鈥檙e a new restaurant, we needed a premium product.鈥
- Jessica Scott-Reid
It’s not just the independent restaurants embracing the veggie burger. McDonald’s Canada tested out its own version this past March with a fried patty reminiscent of a potato croquette with bits of broccoli, carrots and whole edamame after customer feedback indicated they wanted a more “veggie-first patty,” according to聽chef聽Jeff Anderson, the聽culinary innovation lead at McDonald鈥檚 Canada. The Golden Arches previously tried out a Beyond Burger in 2019 but it never went beyond the testing phase.
On a more local scale, Kupfert & Kim, a fast-casual spot with four downtown locations, won over diners with its vegan bowls and smoothies when it opened in 2013. Veggie burgers were added to the menu in 2017, including a black bean burger and a patty made of sunflower seeds. Eventually, the menu was streamlined to a single patty: a nutty walnut-and-lentil burger with quinoa, flax seeds, and aromatics like onion, paprika, and garlic.
The burger is featured on two dishes, one being the Guac Burger ($16.75). The patty has a falafel-like crust while inside the lentil and walnuts give a nutty, chewy crunch that’s contrasted by a mound of chopped tomatoes and a big plop of creamy guacamole on top. It’s served on a bed of brown rice (a bun is $2 extra) with a side salad and roasted sweet potato.聽
“It’s a lot of R&D,” says Kupfert and Kim co-owner Daniel Suss. “You have to solve the texture problem. It has to be the right density, not like a cookie that’s too crispy or brittle. You need a binding element whether it’s flax or lentils. We know beef sticks together and doesn’t need a lot of flavouring, but for veggie burgers you have to follow a specific recipe. If there’s too much onions, spices and herbs, it’ll cut into the binding ingredients.”
For Suss and the other restaurant owners, the veggie burger isn’t about duplicating meat, but a creative outlet for trying how far one can go with plant-based cooking.
“From day one it was all about not replacing meat,” says Suss. “We have a burger, but veggie burgers are in their own class.”聽
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