Veggie Burger of My Dreams

Truth be told: sometimes you just want a sloppy burger. I grew up on Gardenburgers. My dad would throw them on the grill with the family fare and place them on their own little separate plate when finished, secluded from the meat juice. On a bun with all the fixin's, they were divine.

I'm not a fan of all the store-bought varieties these days. They're either full of "textured soy protein," which I try to avoid. Or they're a pretty penny. I've been known to make some homemade veggie burgers. They're pretty good, but they always make me think of this Eddie Murphy sketch about the "welfare green pepper burger"...

A friend tipped me off that the famous Chicago Diner burgers are incredibly simple to make and use all whole-food ingredients. Plus, the recipe is readily available online! Though Vegetarian Times states that this serves eight, it makes exactly EIGHTEEN burgers for me. I bake them, freeze them on cookie sheets, store them in a freezer bag, and grill them as needed.

While store-bought burgers generally run about $3.99 for four, these are about five dollars of ingredients for eighteen burgers!