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Hands down the best wild rice burger ever! I live in Duluth MN, and this beats any of the local burgers! We made a garlic aioli sauce and wow!!! Thank you so much!
Laurie
Wild Rice in BURGER form!
That is what we are bringing today for the last post in our Feeding a Broken Heart series.
And it’s totally appropriate that this is a post for Wild Rice Burgers, because a) wild rice burgers are other-worldly delicious:
HOW TO MAKE OUR WILD RICE BURGERS:
and b) because our good friends invited us over a few nights ago and served up the Minnesota good-friend-good-neighbor vibes by making us – yes, you know it – wild rice burgers.
The burger recipe comes from a restaurant in Duluth that I think just about every Minnesotan knows and loves. The Duluth Grill? Do you know it? The Duluth Grill specializes in what I would describe as diner food with a hipster feel – for a prime example, WILD RICE BURGERS. If you are wondering if this place has ever been on the classic Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, then you have the right idea. (And yes, it has been.) This restaurant packs in lots of vegetarian dishes, almost everything made from scratch, and zero pretenses.
So the only thing I can think of that would be better than eating a wild rice burger from the Duluth Grill is eating a wild rice burger in the comfort of your friends’ apartment where they ask you thoughtful questions and give you time and space to talk about this hard season of your life. Frank and Emma, you are awesome. ♡
When it comes to how to serve these crispy-chewy patties up, you’ve got a few choices. If you want to walk down the carb-on-carb road, the wild rice burgers can definitely go on a bun. Or bread. The original version of this burger at the Duluth Grill is actually served up on straight bread, patty-melt style.
Personally, I prefer the burger to stand on its own, and I usually melt a piece of cheese on top and top it with an olive-oil-arugula-avocado-hot-sauce combo. Should you add an egg for a breakfast situation? Maybe. Is it a burger salad? Maybe. Is it lacking a lil polish? Maybe.
But more importantly, is it a perfect ten for your hungry mouth? Yes.
After we lost Afton, I really didn’t know how I was going to get back into this. Blogging, I mean. Writing about recipes.
To be able to take my work and make it fit into my current mindset of grief and love has been beyond healing for me. And I owe that to you.
Thank you for not only supporting this little series but full-blown participating in it with us. We all love to hate on the internet sometimes, but dang. There are a lot of good things about the internet, and watching you guys engage with this series in honor of food, love and our son Afton has been one of them.
Now go make a wild rice burger and feel REAL GOOD about it.
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The Ultimate Wild Rice Burgers
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
Description
These are THE ULTIMATE wild rice burgers and I might even say the best vegetarian burgers I’ve ever had. The recipe comes from the Duluth Grill Cookbook.
Ingredients
- 5 cups wild rice, cooked – see notes
- 1 cup fresh mushrooms, finely diced
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
- 1 cup panko (breadcrumbs)
- 4 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon each salt, pepper, and garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (optional, to taste, for heat)
- oil for the pan
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients.
- Using a 1-cup measuring cup, scoop up rice mixture and form into patties. If the mixture is too wet, just add another 1/2 cup of panko or pop it in the fridge for a few minutes to help it stick together.
- Heat a little bit of oil over medium high heat. Add the patties and pan fry until nicely browned on both sides.
- Top with slices of Muenster cheese. Serve on a bun (or not!) with barbecue sauce, hot sauce, magic green sauce, ALL THE SAUCE. Also arugula, avocado, and beyond. You’ve only just begun.
Notes
I found that 1 1/2 cups raw wild rice was about the right amount to yield 5 cups cooked wild rice.
This was served to us with a side of roasted cauliflower which was just total perfection. They went together beautifully.
To get your cheese nice and ooey-gooey, add it to the burgers for the last few minutes of pan frying and cover with a lid.
To make ahead or gift to someone, just freeze the burgers on a sheet pan until individually frozen solid and then store together in a freezer bag.
Worth noting that I have tried reducing the mayo but it never turns out as good. I do, however, add more mushrooms and as long as the ratios of all the other ingredients are as-written, it comes out great.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: wild rice burgers, wild rice recipe, vegetarian burgers
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our best sandwiches, burgers, and wraps page. Check it out!
I’m allergic to gluten, so bread crumbs aren’t possible for me. Do you think chia seeds or ground flax seeds would work as a substitute?
I can’t speak about this recipe specifically, but I use ground flaxseed, ground almond meal, and chickpea-breadcrumbs as substitutes for breadcrumbs in recipes and they all seem to work pretty well. Chia seeds are great for absorbing moisture and expanding, but I use them more for an egg replacement than for breadcrumb replacement. I’d be interested to see how they would work out though.
What Caitlin said! 👆🏼 Thanks Caitlin! 🙂
Hi! I just wanted to mention that I made these this weekend with ground flaxseed instead of breadcrumbs and they held together just as well as with breadcrumbs. I used just 3/4 cup of ground flaxseed, and then I refrigerated the mixture for at least an hour before I formed them into patties. PERFECT!
Also, I have made them 3 times now (they’re super delicious), and for me, it is best if I make them the size of my largest spatula, because they are much easier to flip. So I form them into 1/2 cup-sized ovals.
Finally, I have had to use less mayo 2 of the 3 times – just 1 cup instead of 1.5 cups because I make homemade mayo and I never have that much. I can tell they’re not quite as rich, but the flavor is still super bomb. This is a great recipe and responds surprisingly well to small modifications! Enjoy it!
Glad you enjoyed them, Caitlin! 🙂
I have gluten allergies too. You can make homemade gluten free breadcrumbs really easy. Simply blend some gluten free bread up in a blender (such as Udi’s or Trader Joes) until it looks like breadcrumbs. Then toast them on the stove until slightly golden brown.
Thank you for the yummy recipe! Can you please tell me if you can freeze these before cooking? Also, what about cooking on the grill?
Hi Joy! Yes you can freeze the burgers prior to cooking. We haven’t tried making these burgers on the grill. I’m inclined to say they’d have a hard time staying together if you put them directly on the grates. However, it may work to cook them up on foil or in a cast iron skillet on the grill. If you give it a try, we’d love to hear back!
I’m obsessed with The Duluth Grill and these burgers! They come GF at the restaurant so it’s odd that the cookbook uses breadcrumbs. The server said they use crushed up rice Chex to make them GF. He didn’t say how much, so I’d try a cup for cup substitute?
Wow, I didn’t even know rice burgers were a thing but these look incred!!
I have been looking forward to these posts every Tuesday and Thursday these last weeks, and your mini-steps towards healing are so comforting. Keeping all of these recipes in my back pocket for those hours of need.
Wild Rice Burgers + Roasted Cauliflower sounds like a great combination! I might just send these along with a bag of prepped cauliflower and roasting instructions for my friend because that combo sounds hard to beat.
Thank you for sharing your journey. <3 Big hugs. <3
That’s a great idea. It was seriously a perfect combo, something about the earthiness of both just worked really well.
Yum – I am making these this weekend! I pray that God continues to show you the way. Blessings to you!
Thanks Kelly! That means a lot.
I never thought I’d be drooling over a rice burger, but dang, these look amazing.
Thanks Aimee! hope you like em!
i hope you are planning some type of page or category for all of these recipes in the series <3 it has been such a unique and powerful series and i want to be able to access it when i need to make a friend or family member feel loved via food delivery! the duluth grill…adding another restaurant to try in the midwest…dang i need a visit to minnisota…you guys are hogging all the good restaurants 😉
yes! 🙂 posting that tomorrow. and yes you do need a visit to the Midwest!
OH MY GOSH!!! That close up of the patties makes me drool. The texture looks amazing. I’ll definitely be trying these 🙂
These look amazing. This series is so special – glad it’s healing. Have you tried using low fat mayo? Or just forget about it and use the real deal?:)
We haven’t tried it, but definitely worth a shot!
I made them today with low-fat mayo because I couldn’t bring myself to using that much real mayo. I think they would probably taste just a bit better with the real deal, but they were pretty great nonetheless.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! As a fellow Minnesotan I am in on the Big Secret folks from other states don’t know. Wild rice burgers are THE BEST. I give the edge to Fitger’s (always served with one of their local brews) but I love a good wild rice burger!!
Haha, I was just going to mention Fitger’s! We go there pretty much every time we pass through Duluth. They have the BEST wild rice burgers – I’m excited to see how these compare 🙂
These look awesome and something I’d like to try to make for my meal swap (10 of us freeze entrees and swap). In the past, though, burgers that had a lot of mushrooms really were watery upon thawing. You didn’t notice that problem with this recipe? Another thought: I wonder if you could cook these from frozen to avoid the watery mushroom problem?
Hi Noelle! We’ve cooked these, frozen them in the freezer, and then reheated in the microwave and they’ve been great. Not watery at all!
I’m not a fan of mayo. Would greek yogurt work? Or something else?
We haven’t tried yogurt, so can’t say if it would bind the same as mayo! If you give it a try, we’d love to hear how it goes.
Lindsay – thank you for sharing these incredible, comforting recipes with us. I am glad to see you blogging again and hope that your heart will slowly begin to heal. I wish I could give you a huge hug in person but a virtual one will have to do. {{{HUG}}}.
These burgers look incredible and I can’t wait to try them!
I could go all Forrest Gump on wild rice, as in I love wild rice in soup, salad, with fruit, with cheese, straight-up, baked in a casserole, made into stuffing… (ya following me?), but in a burger! oh man! this is right up my alley and so coming to my kitchen this weekend! (can you say left over wild rice burgers for lunch next week? and jealous co-workers?) Yes, yes I can.
Thank you for the supremely exciting recipe (hello, my name is Angie and I’m a wild rice freak). Love and prayers to you both as you continue your graceful healing. xoxo.
I’m so going to make these this weekend. We recently lost our beloved kitty of ten years and rather than mope and eat our way through ten pints of Halo while watching reruns of Spongebob, these burgers sound like a much better way of feeling comforted. I think of you guys often and pray for your continued healing. x
What type of mushrooms?
I believe we used cremini!
Are the mushrooms for this raw? Or sautéed?
Raw! 🙂
Well I was really excited about these burgers at first until I saw how much mayo is in them.
Wow that is interesting. Very intrigued to know how that tastes (:
Unfortunately mushrooms are one thing that just don’t fly in my house. Any subs? These sound so good! (besides the mushrooms;))
me too!!! i HATE mushrooms. like a teeny piece or just the smell makes me barf. but i want to try these SO! BAD!!! would tofu work? cauliflower??
What can you substitute for mayonnaise in the wild rice burgers? Thanks!
I also dislike mushrooms, Im wondering if I leave these out how much it would affect the recipe and the patties holding… what other substitutes could we use?
We think you could omit them, or sub in cauliflower or more wild rice!
This looks absolutely SCRUMPTIOUS! And it has truly been so awe-inspiring how you’ve turned a loss into a way for people all over the world to express their own losses and reach out to their loved ones.
These burgers look absolutely delicious! Especially with the avocado and the melted cheese on top. And yes, let’s add that egg, too! Sounds yum!
I’m really glad you’re feeling a little better, by the way. Or not so much better, but at least up to things like blogging and cooking again. This must still be such a difficult time for you. Hugs!
These look beyond yummy!
I love the look of your salad, and will in fact be trying it this way before I even consider a bun.
Thanks Lindsay, you rock.
Lo
http://www.themixtures.com
These look divine!
These look great! I love veggie burgers, but never thought about doing a mushroom and wild rice combo. That sounds so hearty and delicious!
Wow, over a 1000mg of sodium and 24.5mg of fat. Is that for ONE serving?
Hi Frances! That’s correct, assuming you make 6 patties.
Is the nutritional info just for the wild rice pattie or the whole burger ?
Just for the patty!