Mark Bittman has a terrific article in today's New York Times about why homemade veggie burgers taste so much better than most of the store bought varieties. The secret to a good DIY veggie burger is simple, according to the self-proclaimed Minimalist: start with a base of tofu, nuts, beans, or vegetables; add a binder of some sort, such as an egg, breadcrumbs, or mashed potatoes; blend in the food processor; pan-fry in a bit of oil.

He provides three basic burger recipes: tofu, nut, and bean. But with all his helpful pointers about what makes a good veggie burger, you could experiment and come up with all kinds of variations and be quite satisfied with the results. If you'd rather not fry your patties, you can grill them, too. But, as Bittman points out, veggie burgers tend to be a bit on the crumbly side and need to be handled carefully. I've had good results grilling veggie burgers in the toaster oven, but nothing gives them a nice crisp crust like frying.

If improvisation is not your thing but you want to go beyond Bittman's basic recipes, I highly recommend Bharti Kirchner's Vegetarian Burgers, a little paperback packed with an incredibly diverse assortment of recipes. I made her smoked tofu & hazelnut burgers last week and they were really outstanding. Her quinoa and black bean burger recipe came out great, too. I've only had the book for about a month so I haven't fully explored it; I'm looking forward to trying the shitake-stuffed barley burgers next.

As a bonus, Kirchner has a whole section on side dishes and another on sauces and condiments. Her book gives you fifty great ways to make a meal out of nuts, vegetables, whole grains and beans. If you've been put off by commercially available veggie burgers, the “frozen disks of what seems like library paste,” as Bittman describes them, try the homemade variety. For flavor and texture, they're the winner, hands down.