The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet: 101 Globally Inspired Vegan Creations Packed with Fresh Flavors and Exciting New Tastes

The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet is a wonderful resource for the committed vegan cook. This cookbook introduces flavorful food combinations that powerfully evoke exotic destinations (like burgers from the Far East, Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean and "The Boot"), intriguing breakfast offerings (she even includes a "bacon" and "egg" breakfast burger), along with more familiar options, including proper sides (from sweet potato fries and fried zucchini to no less than three recipes for mac salad) and (for me at least) the most remarkable section of all: Condiments and Sauces. Because we live in a rural carnivore community more than four hours from the nearest Trader Joe's, I find myself making most of our condiments here at home in the old Vitamix, so I'm overjoyed when someone shows me how to make a vegan version of any sauce, dressing, topping or dip; however, I will admit that I feel like the author dropped the ball by not including a recipe for ketchup*. She does, however, arm the vegan cook with vegan mayo, non dairy sour cream, Tzatziki sauce, sweet mustard sauce, and a Thai Peanut Sauce. Before cracking open this cookbook I relied on various combinations of beans, rice and oats to create a "burger", often relying on spices like smoked hot paprika (pimentón) to invoke a smoky bacon flavor or cracking open a can of diced tomatoes for texture, color or that ever elusive "umami". Now, after using this cookbook for awhile, I realize I was a baby making mud pies, and I now have better flavor matching skills and a better handle on "burger texture". If you are looking to improve your vegan burger making skills, it's hard to imagine a better resource than The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet with no less than 101 burger recipes. The only potential "negative" is many (not all) of these recipes rely on controversial ingredients like vital wheat gluten, tvp and other dreaded soy products like tofu. I feel pretty comfortable with tofu and am often found unsealing containers of tofu with wild abandon, wrapping the bricks in dish towels and setting them out under plates stacked with heavy vinegar bottles and cans to drain- but if you aren't comfortable throwing caution to the wind like this, be aware that you probably won't be able to make quite a few of the recipes (but there will be plenty you can, and the author will even show you how to make ham out of chickpeas -see "split peas with ham burger"). All in all, I am very fond of this cookbook, and while every recipe won't be for everybody, everybody will be able to find recipes. Five stars for a perfectly wonderful vegan cookbook. *oh, and here's a perfectly wonderful ketchup recipe: 2 6oz cans tomato paste 2/3 cup water 1/4 cup sugar 1/3 cup white vinegar 2 tsp salt 1 Tbsp onion powder I like to use the vitamix, but you could easily mix in a bowl with a little elbow grease. Bon appétit, my vegan brothers and sisters.

The creativity that went into this book is incredible; there are things I would have never thought of throwing into a patty that look and sound amazing. This is especially great for veg*ns in the summer since it gives the freedom to break away from the pre-made freezer fare and have something exciting to take to omni cookouts. To make life even easier, there are instructions on how to freeze and reheat burgers so they're as convenient as store bought and various cooking methods listed for many recipes, which eliminates the guesswork of baking over frying or vice versa. It's not advertised on the book or in the description, but this is 101 BURGER (well, patty)recipes plus breads, condiments, sides, and a handful of desserts, making it have closer to 150+ recipes than 101. And there are serving suggestions and/or condiment & bread pairings with every burger, which is a nice touch. So far, all of the burgers I've tried have been good and have worked; so far no broken patties here! I am hoping to find my "it" burger; so far I've enjoyed all the ones I've tried but none have really jumped out and grabbed me. So far, I've tried mostly things from the Latin Flavors chapter and a few others sprinkled throughout. By far the most fun is the Seitanic Stuffer, a huge burger stuffed with whatever you wish. I just did the mushroom and onion version which we enjoyed. I plan on making one or two recipes per week so I'll update this if I find anything noteworthy. The only real downside I see is that many of the recipes (but by no means all) use a lot of oil, but I think most of those should be modifiable if need be. Just one additional notes-I'm sure I'm not the only person who loves organized cookbooks and this book has a great index as well as a recipe list at the beginning of each chapter. Coming on the heels of a much less user friendly(but otherwise great) book by the same author, I though this was worth pointing out.

I have made a few recipes from this cookbook. One I must mention may be the best veggie burger I've made, and I've made a few from many different sources. The recipe for Bacon Cheeseburgers on page 89 is the best. I just made these burgers for the first time for my 4th of July BBQ. The burgers held up nicely on my Weber grill. I covered them with BBQ sauce about 2 minutes before I took them off of the grill and they were absolutely fantastic. One word about the recipe, it states it makes 4 burgers. I doubled the recipe as I planned to freeze a few. Initially, I was trying to make 8 burgers, but they were ginormous! The recipe easily will make 6 burgers. I made a total of 10, but these were still very big burgers. Next time, I'll make 6 regular sized burgers (12 if doubled). I've been a vegetarian nearly a year (end of July 2010) and began eating a vegan diet on Labor Day weekend 2010. Some of the things I miss are having BBQ'd food for family gatherings on holiday weekends. While not all of the burgers in the cookbook would hold up on a grill, the Bacon Cheeseburgers do, tasted great, and held up well the next day as leftovers. These burgers are so good, I'm sure that omnivores would love them as well! Are the recipes the most healthy on the planet? No, they aren't, but they are just what I needed to celebrate holidays with my omnivore family and provide a great burger alternative for someone eating a vegetarian or vegan diet. Joni has a real winner here.

Usually I expect to actually try out and perhaps incorporate one or two recipes from each new cookbook I review for possible future recipes. This was not the case here. This cook was written with down home interesting bits of information pertinent to each individual recipe. It does not include 100 per cent soy based recipes. It contains didn't vegetable based proteins; along with world wide ethnic culture foods and food items. Yes, it turned out to be far more than I had dreamed it would be. Besides I ended up trying several meals and plan on using more in the future. It has a earned a permanent place in my library cookbook section.

So far I have made 4 recipes from this book and they have all turned out great. Easy to follow recipes, very varied. My only suggestion would be when you are making your burgers is to cook a small, experimental one before doing a whole pan, a couple of times they were a little too dry and I had to add a little more water for them to cook up well. I don't think this is a problem with the recipes, just that I live in a dry, semi arid area.

Being a vegan and regularly purchasing the frozen veggie burger at the store, I was excited to get this book and create my own veggie burgers. After trying three times, I am convinced this book is not worth the effort anymore. I tried to make the Black Bean Burgers TWICE! The first time they came out a bit runny and I ended up throwing the whole mixture out. The second time they looked more like burgers but they did not cook well. Half of the batch I baked for 45 minutes and half I pan-fried. The texture was the same as before cooking. They just developed a little crust but the middle was unchanged. The flavor was ok at best. Then I tried the Sunday Afternoon Grillers and those totally bombed! The texture was not strong enough to hold on a grill despite the authors recommendation to grill them. I tried baking them too and they still remained "uncooked in the middle. They were inedible. But that's not the worst. Just about every recipe, I'd say almost 80% are based on TVP (soy) and vital wheat gluten. Even though I am not allergic to either, I try to minimize my consumption of soy due to its GMO possible contamination and high estrogen content. And gluten acts like a glue in your intestines, making it difficult to digest. If you don't mind those ingredients, then go ahead and try the book. I rather use veggie burger recipes that don't rely so much on soy and gluten. And hopefully, cook much better than the ones I tried here.

I will start off to say that I absolutely love this book. It is creative and the recipes I've tried so far are delicious (but I did have to make modifications to spice level). I learned to cook as a child and have cooked ever since. I won't say I'm an expert at cooking but I'm a decent cook. Looking at the recipes, I can definitely tell that there is an overabundance of spice so I cut down the spice in the recipes. For some of the recipes, I'm amazed at the amount of various spices each recipe has and even with cutting down the spice, it still feels like the recipes are overly spiced. I'm not even talking about spicy hot, just spice - paprika, herbs, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, etc. So one caveat I'd say for anyone making this book is cut the amount of spice by a quarter, then add to flavor as you like. I think the fact that the spicing is so off that it is a detriment to the cookbook as many people may find this out the hard way.

I've had this book for about two weeks and have tried three burgers-- Jamaican Jerk (really good flavor, but I couldn't get the right texture), Chipotle Sweet Potato (amazing, this is my favorite so far) and Garlicky Ranch Potato (so simple). Joni gives some really good tips in the intro for grilling, baking and frying the burgers. I also like that each recipe give either a suggested side, condiment or bun. There is a chapter for every major cuisine, including a huge American-inspired chapter. So far, I have been able to pick a burger to make without buying too many extra ingredients, since there are so many options. As far as visual appeal, the book is heavy for a paperback and full of pictures. It's definitely worth the price. I'm excited to have this book going into summer grilling season, and look forward to trying all 101 burgers!

good book

Ottimo libro per gli amanti degli hamburger vegetariani! Se la lingua inglese non è un problema, ve lo consiglio vivamente. Include ricette provenienti da tutto il mondo, per lo più con ingredienti semplici e di facile esecuzione. Non vi deluderà e potrete anche sorprendere i più accaniti dei "carnivori"!

Love this book.. Although I have only made two of the recipes (after having the book for almost a year), the two burgers are the best burgers ever!! I almost don't care that Foodswings and Yellowsunshine are sooo far away from Copenhagen, when i make these burgers.

I saw this item at a french-language book store. i looked for it on amazon.ca and I saw that it was cheaper in english (the original language for this book). I then ordered it and it arrived to me today (March 28th). It was supposed to be delivered by March 24th, but 4 days isn't a big deal.

Des recettes toutes plus délicieuses les unes que les autres, pour découvrir et apprécier la cuisine Vegan. C'est vraiment délicieux. En revanche la recette des frites de patates douce m'a laissée sur ma faim, sans doute un problème dans la température du four indiquée dans la recette?