Field Roast Hand-Formed Veggie Burger

This probably officially makes me a dork, but one of the things I was looking forward to as I planned my visit to Los Angeles was not just the new veggie burgers I could try in local restaurants, but the possibility of new veggie burgers at the grocery stores as well.

I’ve been wanting to try Field Roast’s veggie burgers for ages (I stalk them on facebook) because I love their vegan sausages so much. But, alas, I have been unable to find them in New York! I’ve checked multiple Whole Foods locations and numerous local natural food stores, but it seems they have just not made it to the Big Apple yet.

So I was thrilled to find them at a Whole Foods in California!



At $8.99 for a pack of four, they were a bit pricy, but I was so excited to try them that I figured the price would be worth it.

Eager to finally taste them, I didn’t even wait for lunch or dinner – I fried one up for breakfast the next morning.

I was a bit dubious about the look of the patty as I dropped it into the frying pan (but I guess that’s the “hand-formed” shape the packaging advertised?) and they seemed thinner than I was expecting a good, hearty burger to be (they come with all four smashed together in the package and you kind of have to peel them off of each other).



And I was unfortunately kind of disappointed with the result when I tasted my breakfast burger patty. There were some good flavors in it, but it was super oily. I had fried it in a tiny bit of butter, but it seemed like the patty had plenty of oils in it already, and by the time it was cooked up it was extremely greasy. The texture was pretty good though – a bit like the Field Roast sausages, but different (heartier, and… meatier?).

As underwhelming as my breakfast had been, I was determined to give these burgers another chance. The guesthouse we were staying in had a rooftop deck with a barbecue grill, and we’d been planning to cook dinner up there one night:



So that’s what we did.



Knowing from my earlier experiment that the burger already contained plenty of oil, I didn’t even bother to brush olive oil on the patty like I normally would when barbecuing veggie burgers. I just dropped it on the grill, and let it cook…



…and it turns out, these might be the BEST veggie burgers EVER for cooking on a barbecue grill!



It cooked perfectly, heating up all the way through and getting nice char marks from the grill, while never sticking or falling apart (a flaw of many other veggie burgers). I was amazed!

And then for the taste test:


I went a little overboard with the ketchup…

DELICIOUS! It seemed that grilling was the secret to success with these patties. It no longer tasted too oily, and the texture was perfect. The flavor was rich and hearty – they’re made with barley, carrots, and celery, and you could see bits of the actual vegetables in the patty, yet the seitan base of the patty held it all together so well. Paired with some roasted habanero peppers and a toasted bun, it was a perfect burger!



I was so happy that my first impression of these burgers turned out to be wrong. Maybe there is a way to cook them in a frying pan that works better than the method I used, but I think these burgers are designed and destined for the barbecue grill. And if you have ever been frustrated by veggie burger failures on the grill, you should definitely try these! They will change your life! And they’re vegan, so everyone can enjoy them (unless you can’t eat gluten, then you’re out of luck with these).

It’s just too bad we don’t seem to get them in New York yet… but maybe by the time summer (and barbecue season) rolls around…

Or, you know, you could just fly out to L.A. – it’s a pretty cool city, afterall!

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Field Roast Hand-Formed Burger
purchased at: Whole Foods in Venice, CA
price: $8.99 for a package of 4 patties

YumVeggieBurger review #151