Gordon Ramsay Viva Vegan Burger

The Gordon Ramsay Viva Vegan Burger is the plant-based burger on the Gordon Ramsay Burger menu, and this vegan burger recipe makes it at home with a patty you build yourself: mushrooms, black beans, quinoa and oats, spiced with smoked paprika and cumin, then topped the way the restaurant tops it with roasted tomatoes, butter lettuce, avocado and eggless garlic mayo. Every part of it is vegan, bun and mayo included. The whole game is getting a soft, wet mix of vegetables to hold its shape and take on a proper brown crust, and that comes down to water: cook it out, bind what's left, and chill before the pan.

What's on Gordon Ramsay's Viva Vegan Burger

Gordon Ramsay's Viva Vegan Burger is a spiced plant-based patty on a vegan bun with roasted tomatoes, butter lettuce, avocado and eggless garlic mayo, according to the Gordon Ramsay Burger menu in Las Vegas, which tags it both vegetarian and vegan. The Chicago and Boston restaurants serve the same build under the plainer name Vegan Burger, with Bibb lettuce, which is a type of butter lettuce. There's no cheese, no bacon and no sauce beyond the garlic mayo, so the patty carries the burger.

The menu doesn't say what the patty is made of or who makes it, so this page gives you two routes. The homemade spiced patty below is the main event, and if you'd rather buy one, there's a store-bought option further down with what to look for on the label.

Cook the Water Out Before You Shape the Patty

The first rule of any vegan burger recipe is to drive off moisture before the mix becomes a patty. Mushrooms, onions and beans all hold a lot of water, and a patty full of water can't brown: as long as the surface is wet, it stays at 212°F (100°C), the boiling point of water, while browning only starts around 284°F (140°C). A wet patty steams gray, turns mushy in the middle and falls apart when you flip it.

So cook the chopped mushrooms first, over high heat in a single layer with a tablespoon of oil. They'll release their liquid and the pan will hiss, which is the water leaving, the same thing Ramsay listens for when he fries mushrooms for his breakfast toast. Keep going until the hiss dies down and the pieces shrink and turn deep golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. The Mushroom Council gives the same advice for a golden sauté: high heat, a single layer, small batches. That browning is the Maillard reaction, and it peaks in flavor around 320°F (160°C), which is where the savory, meaty taste of this patty comes from. Add the onion near the end and the garlic for the last 30 seconds, and stop well short of a hard smoke, since past about 356°F (180°C) things scorch and turn bitter.

Canned black beans get the same treatment. Rinse and drain them, pat them dry, and spread them on a sheet pan in the oven next to the roasting tomatoes for 10 to 12 minutes, until the skins start to split. It's heat you're already paying for, and the surface water evaporates so the beans mash into a thick paste instead of a wet one.

What Holds a Vegan Burger Together

A vegan burger holds together because of starch and gel, the two things that stand in for the egg and the meat proteins a beef patty relies on. This recipe stacks four binders, each doing a small part, which is sturdier than leaning hard on one.

Cooked quinoa brings starch that has already gelatinized: when grains simmer, their starch granules absorb water and swell into a sticky gel (rice starch does it at about 150°F, or 65°C), and that tacky coating glues the other pieces together. Mashed black beans add their own soft starch and give the patty body. Rolled oats soak up any free liquid left in the mix, and their starch sets in the heat of the pan. Give the mixed patty 10 minutes before shaping so the oats have time to drink.

Ground flaxseed is the egg. Stir 1 tablespoon of ground flax into 3 tablespoons of water and leave it about 5 minutes, the ratio Bob's Red Mill gives for its flax egg replacer. The seed coat is rich in mucilage, a plant gum, and it thickens into a glossy gel that coats everything and firms up further in the fridge. Ground chia works the same way if that's what's in your pantry.

Read the table as a hierarchy: dry ingredients first, then a gel, then starch. A mix that's still wet after all that needs another tablespoon or two of oats, not more flax.

Chill Vegan Burger Patties Before They Hit the Pan

Chill the shaped patties for at least 30 minutes, and up to overnight, before you cook them. Cold does two jobs here. The flax gel stiffens, and the cooked starch in the quinoa and beans begins to retrograde, the same process that makes leftover rice go firm in the fridge: as the gelatinized starch cools, it recrystallizes and sets the patty's shape. A patty that goes straight from the bowl to the pan is at its softest; after half an hour on a tray in the fridge it's firm enough to pick up.

Shape them about 3/4 inch thick and a little wider than the bun, with smooth, pressed edges. Cracked edges are where a veggie patty breaks, so wet your hands and press any splits closed before they go in the fridge.

How to Sear a Vegan Burger Without It Breaking

Sear a vegan burger in a hot nonstick or well-seasoned pan for 4 to 5 minutes a side, and flip it once, only after a dark crust has formed and the patty slides when you nudge the pan. That crust is structure as much as flavor: browned, dried starch and protein form a firm shell that holds the soft center together, so flipping early tears a patty that would have been fine a minute later.

Heat the pan over medium-high first, then add 2 tablespoons of oil, the Ramsay order for any sear. Two patties at a time in a 12-inch pan leaves room for the steam to escape; crowd it and the moisture that comes off the patties drops the pan back toward that 212°F ceiling. Flip with a thin, wide spatula slid fully underneath, and support the top with your other hand or a second spatula. A nonstick surface matters more here than with beef, since a plant patty has no melting fat to help it release.

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The patty is done when both sides are deep brown and the center is hot all the way through. Everything in it was cooked before it was shaped, but since the beans and quinoa were cooked ahead, treat a made-ahead patty like leftovers and heat it to 165°F (74°C) in the center. For the crust science on a beef burger, see our Truffle Burger; this one runs gentler heat because a plant patty has no fat rendering out to baste it.

Roasted Tomatoes, Avocado and Eggless Garlic Mayo

The Viva Vegan Burger's toppings bring the juiciness a plant patty lacks. Roast halved plum tomatoes cut side up at 400°F (200°C) for 25 to 30 minutes, until they slump and brown at the edges. As water evaporates from the cut faces, the tomato's flavor concentrates, and where the edges dry out, their sugars caramelize. Raw tomato slices would slide around and water down the bun; roasted halves stay put and taste sweeter and deeper.

For the eggless garlic mayo, stir a finely grated garlic clove, a teaspoon of lemon juice and a pinch of salt into half a cup of vegan mayonnaise, the kind sold as plant-based or egg-free, and let it sit while the patties chill so the garlic mellows into it. Slice the avocado last, right before you build, since cut avocado browns in the air. Butter lettuce goes under the patty, where its soft leaves catch the juices before they reach the bottom bun.

Check the bun label, because "vegan bun" is the easiest part of this burger to get wrong. Brioche is made with eggs and butter, and plenty of plain hamburger buns contain milk, whey, butter or an egg wash; some use honey. Pick a bun that lists none of those, toast the cut sides in a dry pan or a slick of olive oil, and spread the mayo on both halves. For more on why a toasted bun stays crisp, see the Luxe Royale Burger.

Store-Bought Patty Option for a Quick Vegan Burger

A store-bought plant-based patty turns this into a 20-minute vegan burger: roast the tomatoes, stir the mayo, and cook the patty to the package directions. Pea- and soy-protein patties are built to hold together without help. The Beyond Burger, for example, lists methylcellulose and potato starch among its ingredients, and Food Business News reports that the company uses methylcellulose as the patty's binding system.

Read the label all the same. "Veggie burger" doesn't mean vegan, and some frozen vegetable patties contain egg, cheese or milk. Look for a patty marked vegan or plant-based and a short ingredient list you're happy with, then season the outside with a pinch of smoked paprika and cumin so it tastes like the spiced patty on the menu.

Make-Ahead and Food Safety for a Vegan Burger Recipe

Cooked grains and beans need the same care as any cooked food, and cooked rice is the classic warning case: the bacterium Bacillus cereus grows on cooked rice between about 39°F and 131°F (4°C and 55°C), and reheating doesn't destroy the toxin it leaves behind. Treat cooked quinoa the same way. Spread it out to cool, and refrigerate it within 2 hours in a shallow container, 3 inches deep or less, as Nebraska Extension advises for leftovers. Keep the fridge below 41°F (5°C).

Cooked patties keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge and can be frozen for longer; reheat them to 165°F. Canned beans are already cooked, so they're safe straight from the can. If you swap in kidney beans you cooked from dried, boil them hard for at least 10 minutes once they're soft, because merely warming raw kidney beans makes their natural toxin more potent, not less.

How to Serve the Viva Vegan Burger

Build it from the bottom up: garlic mayo on the toasted bottom bun, two butter lettuce leaves, the hot patty, three or four avocado slices and two roasted tomato halves, then the top bun spread with more mayo. Taste a corner of the patty before you build and add salt if it needs it, since beans and quinoa soak up seasoning. Sweet potato fries or a crunchy coleslaw made with vegan mayo round it out.

The raw patties are flexible. Swap the black beans for chickpeas, the quinoa for cooked brown rice, or add a spoonful of chipotle in adobo for heat. If you're after something meatless beyond burgers, our mushroom risotto puts the same browned-mushroom flavor in a bowl. For the beef side of the menu, start with our Gordon Ramsay burger breakdown or browse all of Gordon Ramsay's signature burgers. A dry mix, a good binder, a cold rest and one patient flip are what make this vegan burger recipe hold together in the pan.

Gordon Ramsay Viva Vegan Burger

A spiced mushroom, black bean and quinoa patty bound with flax and oats, seared to a deep brown crust and served on a vegan bun with roasted tomatoes, butter lettuce, avocado and eggless garlic mayo: the Gordon Ramsay Burger menu build, made at home.

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Prep Time 60 minutes mins

Cook Time 40 minutes mins

Course Main Course

Servings 4 burgers

Calories 750 kcal

Ingredients

  

Roasted tomatoes

• 4 plum (Roma) tomatoes, halved lengthwise
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Kosher salt and black pepper

Eggless garlic mayo

• 1/2 cup vegan (egg-free) mayonnaise
• 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Pinch of kosher salt

Spiced vegan patties

• 1 tbsp ground flaxseed
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 can black beans (15 oz), rinsed and drained
• 3 tbsp grapeseed or other neutral oil, divided
• 8 oz cremini mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1/2 small yellow onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tbsp soy sauce or tamari
• 3/4 cup cooked quinoa, cooled (about 1/4 cup dry)
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt, plus black pepper

To serve

• 4 vegan burger buns (no egg, milk, butter or honey on the label), split
• 8 butter lettuce leaves
• 1 ripe avocado, sliced

Instructions

 

• Heat the oven to 400°F. Toss the tomato halves with the olive oil, salt and pepper and lay them cut side up on a sheet pan. Pat the black beans dry and spread them on a second small pan.
• Roast the tomatoes 25 to 30 minutes, until slumped and browned at the edges. Put the beans in alongside for 10 to 12 minutes, until the skins start to split, then let them cool.
• Stir the ground flaxseed and water together in a small bowl and leave it about 5 minutes to thicken into a gel. Stir the mayonnaise, grated garlic, lemon juice and salt together and chill.
• Heat a 12-inch skillet over high heat, add 1 tablespoon of the oil and the mushrooms in a single layer. Cook, stirring now and then, 8 to 10 minutes, until their liquid has cooked off and they are deep golden brown.
• Add the onion and cook 3 minutes more, then the garlic for 30 seconds. Stir in the soy sauce, take the pan off the heat and let the mixture cool for 10 minutes.
• In a large bowl, mash the beans with a fork, leaving some pieces whole. Add the mushroom mixture, quinoa, oats, flax gel, smoked paprika, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper and mix well. Rest 10 minutes so the oats absorb the loose moisture.
• With damp hands, shape 4 patties about 3/4 inch thick and a little wider than the buns, pressing any cracked edges smooth. Chill on a parchment-lined tray for at least 30 minutes, or covered overnight.
• Wipe out the skillet and heat it over medium-high heat, then add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Cook 2 patties at a time for 4 to 5 minutes, until a deep brown crust forms and they slide when you shake the pan. Flip once with a thin, wide spatula and cook 4 to 5 minutes more, until hot through (165°F in the center if the patties were made ahead).
• Toast the cut sides of the buns in a dry pan until golden. Spread garlic mayo on both halves, then build: lettuce on the bottom bun, the patty, avocado slices, 2 roasted tomato halves and the top bun. Serve right away.

Notes

The chill is what keeps the patties whole, so do not skip it; they can be shaped the night before. Refrigerate cooked quinoa and beans within 2 hours, and keep cooked patties 3 to 4 days in the fridge, reheated to 165°F. For a store-bought shortcut, use 4 vegan plant-based patties cooked to the package directions. For gluten-free, use certified gluten-free oats, tamari and a gluten-free vegan bun.

More Gordon Ramsay burgers: the Truffle Burger, the Luxe Royale, the Hellfire Chicken Burger and all signature burgers. For the pan, see our Gordon Ramsay cookware guide.

Viva Vegan Burger FAQs

The questions that come up most: what is on Gordon Ramsay's Viva Vegan Burger, why veggie burgers fall apart, what the best vegan burger binder is, how long to cook a vegan burger, whether you can grill one, whether veggie burgers are always vegan, and how long homemade patties keep.