Veggie Burgers Every Which Way

I don't eat meat, and so have tried a whole lot of veggie burgers over the years. If you're in the same position you'll know that choices are limited (think pretend meat Quorn, nut burgers or those weird mashed-potato-diced-veg concoctions!), so I thought this book was worth a try. So far I've only tried two of the burgers - Easy Bean and Baked Felafel - plus the wholemeal burger buns, pickled onion rings and some of the sauces but everything I've eaten has been delicious. I even really enjoyed the 'Rutabaga Fries' (that's swede chips to you and me). The buns are the tastiest burger buns I've made - and I bake a lot. The suggestions for accompaniments are really tasty and compliment the burgers brilliantly. My favourite recipe so far is for the felafel burgers, which deliver all the taste and texture of those yummy fried goodies, but in a baked burger with loads less fat. I'm really looking forward to working my way through the rest of the recipes.

With an abundance of tasty ready-made veggie burgers available, why bother to make your own? This fun recipe collection answers that question perfectly. Burgers make good use of leftovers, you have total control of the freshness and quality of the ingredients, and you can adapt them to suit a gluten-free or vegan dietas you like. Lukas has included his "secret recipes" for making your own buns, the perfect French fries and an ample suplly of relishes and sauces. These recipes would be fun for children so might best appeal to parents who enjoy getting their kids involved in cooking. The straightforward methods and the universal appeal of the burger make this book ideal for families.

I have been making my own meat-free burgers for over ten years now, and, whilst I have a great many (50+) vegetarian/vegan cookbooks, recipes for veggie burgers are fairly hard to come by. Very quickly, I had tried every recipe in my posession, and wanted to try something new. I saw this, and several other veggie burger cookbooks on Amazon, and chose to buy this one as it was the cheapest, and I was prompted by the positive reviews customers had given it. This is the sort of cookbook that makes you want to try the recipes it contains; it is well-illustrated, and the title of many of the recipes sound interesting, which always wins me over!! However, I was disappointed with a few things; first, the book is American. I suspected that it would be (a bit too specialised for the UK market!!), and US cup measurements are not a problem for me, but there are a number of ingredients mentioned that I doubt very much one can purchase in the UK; vital wheat gluten, anyone? Secondly, I am a vegan, and was surprised by how many of the recipes in this book are not vegan; most contain eggs (some also include cheese). To be fair, the author does suggest vegan alternatives for eggs to bind the mixture together. However, as a well-experienced veggie burger chef, I knew that generally the egg can be omitted, with no detrimental effect on the burgers. I have so far only made one of the recipes from this book (Tuscan Bean Burgers - minus egg!), and the taste was very nice. However, the recommended quantities would yield very small burgers, so I doubled them. Looking through the recipes, many of them sound a bit "stingy", so they would all need to be multiplied. Similarly, the author suggests frying a number of the burgers; I personally have never had sucess with this (veggie burgers have an unfortunate tendency to disintegrate!), so I would recommend baking them. Overall, this is an attractive book that I would recommend to any vegetarian/vegan, but with the proviso that the recipes are used more as an inspiration and a rough guide, rather than being followed to the letter.

Having cooked burgers from two of the recipes in this book I was disappointed that both have led to binned food. What a waste. I am slightly undecided as to whether to persevere with other recipes in the book or not, but will amost certainly revert to the use of tried & tested recipies by other writers.