The ultimate air fryer veggie burgers. Juicy veggie burgers loaded with sweet potatoes, carrots, cauliflower, chickpeas and mozzarella cheese. They are so delicious you will not want to share them.
I must admit that I have a soft spot for veggie burgers. Especially when they are cooked in the air fryer.
Though when I am eating out I always HATE the veggie burgers that are on offer. They are always tiny, have too many beans in them and always feel like poor quality processed foods.
I remember going to a vegetarian buffet with Dominic about a year ago and having a terrible one. It was this tiny thing with too much sweetcorn in it and Dominic pointed out to me that it was so bad because it was a frozen veggie burger reheated.
He had a point.
And it got me focused on making some new veggie burgers for the air fryer, that I would want to eat time and time again.
My Perfect Veggie Burger In The Air Fryer
What I hate about veggie burgers is when people try to turn it into a meat burger with meat substitutes. I remember when I was a veggie in my teens, being served a veggie burger with quorn. It was disgusting!
It even put me off quorn for life and I haven’t touched it since. If you have not tried quorn before then it is a rubbery vegetarian version of chicken!
Instead what you want to achieve is a veggie burger that is loaded with your favourite vegetarian food instead.
My ideal Air Fryer Veggie Burger is one that has:
- Less pulses and is more focused on the vegetables. Its okay if you want a bean burger but a veggie burger should be loaded with lots of favourite vegetables. Plus, beans are often used to stop burgers from being soggy, but I have a solution for that!
- Less effort as a lot of burgers end up taking hours. There is no need to spend all afternoon in the kitchen to make a good veggie burger. Instead thanks to the air fryer and the Instant Pot you can make veggie burgers FAST.
- NOT soggy. The worst thing about veggie burgers is when they are soggy and fall apart as you try and eat them. Instead you want to have a firm burger that has a crispy edge like a hamburger does.
- Normal ingredients. Don’t you hate it when a veggie meal calls for lots of ingredients that you don’t have in? Well with my air fryer veggie burgers it’s all about 3 main vegetables, 1 pulse, breadcrumbs and cheese. All things that most of us have in our kitchen anyway.
- Choose your ingredients wisely. It is also important that you use vegetables that don’t carry a lot of water. Avoid courgette and pumpkin as these are extremely water based.
My ideal veggie burger is as simple as this:
- Stage 1 – Cook the vegetables in the Instant Pot until they are soft and soggy like when you make mash.
- Stage 2 – drain the liquid from them and then use a clean tea towel to remove even more moisture. Spend a couple of minutes doing this until your tea towel no longer has anything to ring out.
- Stage 3 – Add other ingredients to the Instant Pot. This includes chickpeas, breadcrumbs and cheese. Mix well and mash the chickpeas so that you don’t have chickpea lumps in your Instant Pot.
- Stage 4 – Make into veggie burger shapes. Roll in cheese for a cheesy crust.
- Stage 5 – Cook in the air fryer until you have lovely veggie burgers. Serve them warm and tuck in.
There really isn’t much effort to these veggie burgers, compared to other veggie burgers I have seen recently online. There is no cooking the vegetables for hours in the oven or adding cashew nuts.
Just simple delicious Air Fryer Veggie Burgers using popular vegetables along with some chickpeas, breadcrumbs and some cheese.
If you are vegan, the only vegetarian element that is NOT vegan is the cheese. You could of course substitute this for something else if you prefer. Or we also have some delicious lentil burgers on our blog!
I even got my meat-eating hubby and son loving these burgers. They didn’t even ask where the meat is, as that is normally top of their complaints!
More Burger Recipes In The Air Fryer
- Air Fryer
- Instant Pot
- Burger Press
- Clean Tea Towel
- 500 g Sweet Potato
- 800 g Cauliflower
- 190 g Carrots
- 1 Cup Chickpeas
- 2 Cups Wholemeal Breadcrumbs
- 1 Cup Grated Mozzarella Cheese
- 1 Tbsp Mixed Herbs
- 1 Tbsp Basil
- Salt & Pepper
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Peel and chop the vegetables and place them in the bottom of the Instant Pot inner pot. Add to the Instant Pot 1 cup of warm water. Place the lid on the Instant Pot, set the valve to sealing and cook for 10 minutes on manual.
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Drain the vegetables and using a tea towel squeeze out the excess moisture so that the vegetables are quite dry.
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Add the chickpeas and mash the vegetables together.
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Add the breadcrumbs and mix well.
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Add the seasonings and make into veggie burger shapes.
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Roll in the grated cheese so that it is fully covered in cheese.
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Place the veggie burgers in the air fryer and cook for 10 minutes at 180c/360f. Follow this up with a further 5 minutes at 200c/400f to get that crusty veggie burger texture.
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Serve warm in bread buns or with a salad (or both).
This recipe made 6 large veggie burgers. When you are chopping up vegetables, because they reduce in size, its hard to get it exactly right for 4 medium burgers. But they can be frozen, and you can easily make 8 small to medium veggie burgers on the measurements above.
To give you exact amounts I weighed out the vegetables above. But you can of course just use 4 large carrots, 1 medium cauliflower and 4 medium sweet potatoes. 10 minutes on manual in the Instant Pot may seem a lot BUT there is a lot of vegetables, it will take a while to get them to pressure and you want them really soggy when cooked. It also took me 13 minutes before the vegetables went to pressure.
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