I love a good veggie burger. Especially when they contain actual vegetables like these.
This is one of those super versatile recipes that is excellent to have up your sleeve. Using frozen greens it’s basically a pantry recipe. But you can also cook the burgers ahead and have them stashed in your freezer ready to cook from frozen. Like I said, super versatile.
Spinach and Feta work so well together. The feta provides loads of flavour but also that satisfying texture so you feel like you’re getting a proper feed.
I couldn’t resist and added some parsley to make the burgers look prettier for the photo. But they really don’t need the extra greens.
And if you haven’t tried mayo and yoghurt together as a sauce, you’re totally in for a treat! It also doubles as a delicious tangy creamy salad dressing so you could always make more to dress some washed salad leaves if you wanted extra greens.
Spinach & Feta Burgers
Ingredients
- 1 packet frozen spinach or kale 250g / 8oz, defrosted
- 100 g feta
- 100 g almond meal (almond flour)
- 2 eggs
- 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 3 tablespoons Greek yoghurt
Instructions
- Turn your oven to 250C (480F). Squeeze defrosted greens to remove as much moisture as possible to give you about 125g (4.5oz) greens. Place squeezed greens in a medium bowl. Finely dice or crumble feta and add to the greens. Add almond meal, eggs and a pinch of salt. Stir to combine.
- With clean hands form 1/2 the mixture into a large patty about 2.5cm (1in) tall. Place on a baking tray lined with paper. Repeat with the remaining mixture to make your second burger patty. Drizzle with a little oil.
- Bake patties for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and sizzling. Until the burgers feel cooked and springy when you touch them. If you’re not sure give them more time.
- While the burgers are cooking, combine mayo and yoghurt in a small bowl with a pinch of salt.
- When the burgers are cooked divide the sauce between 2 plates. Top each with a hot burger and enjoy!
Nutrition
Substitutions
pantry-friendly – use plain mayonnaise or almond hummus as the sauce.
dairy-free – replace feta with roast nuts (walnuts would be my pick) and some lemon zest or chopped preserved lemon. Yoghurt = extra mayo.
egg-free – replace eggs with 4 tablespoons water and 2 tablespoons ground linseeds (flax). I haven’t tried this so if it looks dry and crumbly add some extra virgin olive oil to moisten.
nut-free – use ground sunflower seeds or soft bread crumbs.
different cheese – pretty much any cheese apart from blue will work here. Goats cheese or a good sharp cheddar would be excellent. Or you could use finely grated parmesan – it won’t have the chunks but will still be delicious.
more substantial (carb lovers) – burger buns or potato chips (fries).
more substantial (low carb) – double the feta. Add chopped walnuts or other nuts. Serve with avocado, extra mayo or on Almond Burger Buns!
Low FODMAP – use spinach and replace half the almond meal with sourdough breadcrumbs.
different vegetables – you need about 250g (9oz) chopped cooked or grated veg. Home frozen greens, beautiful broccoli, roast veg especially roast cauliflower, grated raw zucchini, cooked chickpeas or cooked lentils.
carnivore – serve with some bacon or sausage!
more fancy / for entertaining – serve with roast walnuts on top. And a green salad dressed with extra mayo + yoghurt sauce. Or go for extra impressiveness with this Lime & Tahini Kale Salad. Some roast veg like this easy ratatouille would also be delicious.
Waste Avoidance Strategy
frozen spinach or kale – keep it in the freezer.
feta – keeps for months unopened in its packet. Or can be frozen.
almond meal – keep it in the pantry.
eggs – will keep in the fridge for weeks or use for another meal.
mayonnaise – unopened in pantry or once opened will keep for months in the fridge.
yoghurt – usually has a shelf life of a month or so. Otherwise, have it for another meal like breakfast! Don’t freeze.
Problem Solving Guide
bland – next time season the burger mixture more generously with salt. For now serve with salt sprinkled over or add a flavour packed sauce like hummus, pesto, chilli oil or your favourite hot sauce. A squeeze of lemon or lime can be a nice touch.
too dry – if overcooked the egg dries out. Next time check earlier. For now be generous with the sauce!
no oven – you can pan fry the burgers in a little oil on a medium high heat. I would form into 4 smaller patties to make them easier to handle. Will take about 4-5 minutes each side. Be super careful when turning as they will want to fall apart.
falling apart – change the name to spinach, feta and almond hash 😉 Will still taste amazing.
sticking to the tray – next time use baking paper or oil your tray very generously. Foil will tend to stick. For now, just do the best you can and consider the name change mentioned in ‘falling apart’.
Prepare Ahead
Yes! Just cook burger patties as per the recipe but keep the mayo and yoghurt separately. Burger patties will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or can be frozen. Don’t freeze the sauce. It will keep in the fridge for 2 weeks. To serve, cook in the oven 200C (400F) for 10 minutes from chilled or 15-20 minutes from frozen – you want the burgers to be well browned and warmed through.
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
This was my first week recipe and the one I chose to repeat and it will be a weekly staple for me now. I’m not a great measurer so each time was slightly different but good. Nice to have a forgiving “go to” that is filling and delicious.
Not being a great measurer is a super power Paula – it will give you variety each time!
These were yummy. I didn’t have yoghurt so I used sour cream. Will be using this dressing for other things.
Brilliant Leonie! Yes it’s one of my fave dressings 🙂
This was so good Jules ! And easy. I will add this receipt to my easy and quick receipt list. I added aneth and garlic to the spinach that I warmed up from frozen. And I like a lot the mix Mayo/Yogurt ?
Yay Emilie!
The mayo / yoghurt mix is a good one to have up your sleeve. I used it yesdterday for lunch of canned salmon and leaves from the garden. So good!
So happy I finally tried these. Delightful!
Wonderful Meredith!
SO delicious! This is the first recipe I tried from Simple Meal Plans. YUM!
Excellent Emily!
I’ve made these several times, and today decided to try using the air fryer.
I made it up into 2 fat logs rather than round patties as that fits the square cake-tin I use to bake in my fryer.
12 minutes at 200C.
Excellent!
(200 is the highest setting on my airfryer, but it cooks ‘hotter’ than 200 in an oven.)
Oh brilliant Allison!
I need to experiment with my air fryer more. I wouldn’t have thought to try something like there in there.
What else do you use your air fryer for?
Looks delicious!!! I need to try them!
Do Maria! They’re really good.
Superb veggie burger. Made as recipe was written into assorted size burgers of same thickness and they all cooked for same time. This gives more choice to those being served. Put a dab of yogurt/mayo on center top of each one with a whole roasted walnut on top. Presented beautifully. With this recipe the creative possibilities are endless!
Nice one Julie! Especially love the addition of the walnut for your presentation 🙂
Fabulous. And they held together perfectly. This had a Greek vibe, I had mint, dill and green onions in my garden so I added those. I love the more fancy/entertaining option! It gets the creative juices flowing. I added the walnuts, toasted then tossed in a bit of butter. I added more lemon juice and a hint of zest to the mayo. I served it with mesclun and cucumbers and a few kalamata olives. Two Stonesoup recipes today! ‘Was having fun!
Yum! A little bit of Covid cooking with what’s left in the fridge – spinach, baby broccoli and sweet corn. Drizzled with basil infused olive oil. The house smells great, too!
Glad you enjoyed it Ruth!
This was a a really good pattie. I subbed for some items I didn’t have. I used Cotija cheese instead of feta, fresh baby spinach I sauteed in garlic and instead of the mayo sauce, in keeping with the Cotija, I used leftover Taco Tuesday filling and spooned it over the top. I garnished with some more Cotija, some pickled jalapenos, sour cream and cilantro leaves. Just awesome!
ooh yum Linda!
I’m not familiar with Cotija – assume it’s a Mexican cheese?
Cotija is a Mexican cow’s milk cheese named after the town of the same name in the state of Michoacán. It’s white in color, firm and dry in texture, and salty and milky in flavor. When it’s younger (as in, aged for a shorter amount of time), its texture is akin to that of feta: moist and crumbly.
Thanks Linda – sounds lovely
Loved our Spinach & Feta Hash! No actually they turned out well. I went to turn one halfway through cooking, and as it started to break I thought better of it, so they did look like burgers. Great idea for a vegetarian meal, so easy and so delicious. Thank you again for simple, tasty inspiration Jules 🙂
Yay for hash Deb!
Meal #8. I was really looking forward to making this recipe, and was so pleased with how the burgers turned out. The patties are so filling that I had to cut mine in half and save for lunch tomorrow. I used the mayonnaise and yogurt dressing to make slaw – so delicious. It’s corn season here in the Midwest USA, so corn-on-the-cob rounded out the meal. Another winner, Jules!
Excellent Sherrill!
I used this as an inspiration for clean out the fridge patties. I mixed in mashed potatoes, and 4 cheeses, plus some diced red pepper. It needed something for stability, definitely more in the hash category, but very fancy leftover mashed potatoes. We loved the spinach and feta, which were well represented in the mix.
ooh I need to create a ‘clean out the fridge’ patties recipe Murphy – Love it!
Friday night dinner as part of the 10 day challenge. My supermarket was out of frozen spinach, so used fresh baby spinach which I lightly cooked and chopped (120gm bag per burger). Followed the recipe exactly other than that. Worked out fine. Very generous serves and the mayo/yoghurt mix is great. Will make again.
Excellent Jo!
Day 4 challenge dinner, these were delicious, and super easy and filling. I did add some coriander as a garnish
Nice one Michele!
Made this and the Euro burgers for our Sunday cookfest so knocked over two challenge meals in one night!
Very filling – I added some dill for a bit of flavour. The mayo and yoghurt dressing was excellent!
Nice addition with the dill Jennifer!
These were delicious and quite large, the mayo and yoghurt dressing was amazing
Glad you enjoyed Naomi!
Made these for packed work lunches this week – they’re delicious, the mayonnaise & yoghurt dressing wash a revelation too
Excellent idea for lunches Emma as they’re good at room temp as well as warmed. The mayo yoghurt is an old standby of mine – I use it on everything.
Loved the crisp base.
Me too Amanda!
Made this the first day. The servings are huge so put the second one in the freezer and had the remainder of the first as lunch the next day. It was delicious as I love the combination. I am in the process of moving house so the meal plans are saving both time and money.
Good luck with the move Anna!
Challenge day 4. Had this for lunch made into 4 patties so I could share it with my boys.
I wish I could they loved it. But the reality was they ate their burger buns and only tasted these under duress.
Kids! They don’t know what they’re missing!
Day one challenge and what a start! such delicious and easy meal and wonderful for a meatless meal. I loved it and look forward to the left overs for a lunch this week
So glad you enjoyed it Martina!
Monday challenge meal: I love a good store-cupboard meal, and this one is so easy! It’s nice to prepare ahead then let the oven do the work. I’ll be keeping a box of spinach in the freezer from now on.
I always have frozen spinach and kale too Keryl 🙂
Made this with cheddar cheese instead of feta and everyone was very happy. As others have noted, the patties are huge (and filling) if you only divide the recipe in 2.
I made this last night. Doubled the recipe to feed the whole family and made 6 burgers instead of 4 because they were huge.
I liked the sauce as is, but did add a bit of white wine vinegar and a touch of salt because I wanted just a bit more tang.
They are big burgers Catherine! And nice addition to add the vinegar – I love a good bit of tang too!
The spinach and feta burgers were delicious, and super easy – a perfect meatless Monday dinner. We enjoyed the burgers with toasted sourdough.
I particularly I liked the mayo dressing – the yogurt makes the mayo light and tangy.
The mayo + yoghurt combo is an old favourite trick of mine – Glad you enjoyed Deveri!
First 10 Day challenge recipe. I had everything I need for this, and apart from adding cumin, pepper and veg stock powder for extra flavour, and dividing the mixture into 4 patties rather than 2, I stuck to the recipe for a change. As a carb lover, I had them with roast potato and microwaved frozen peas. Good.
Sticking to the recipe Mark. Wow! Glad you enjoyed (and got your carbs in!)
Much the same this time, except that I added wholegrain mustard instead of cumin, which went well with the spinach and feta.
I wouldn’t have thought of mustard Mark – nice one!
I was going to make zucchini burgers tonight despite the fact that I find them a bit insubstantial, because I had bought some last week but not used them. I then noticed that one of the substitutions you suggest here is grated zucchini, so proceeded with this one again. I’m curious though as to why under “Different vegetables” you say “you need about 125g (4.5oz) chopped cooked or grated veg”, which is half the quantity of spinach specified in the main recipe. I used 250g and didn’t feel that I had too much. I also used grated cheddar in place of feta, which gave the burgers a pleasant “toasted cheese” edge, and had them with avocado, sauerkraut and plain yoghurt.
… and sweet potato chips.
One other observation – piling and compressing the grated zucchini on the side of the mixing bowl drained quite a bit of liquid into the bottom while I was assembling the other ingredients. The result wasn’t bone dry but was about right.
Good to know MArk. And Thanks for soptting the error with the other veg variation – have increased the quantity in the recipe. Who knows what I was thinking ?!
Thanks. Jules.
I made these again and diced a red capsicum to cook on the same tray, which was ready at the same time as the burgers, and a good contrast.
Good call on the capsicum Mark 🙂
I made these again rather than last week’s scheduled broccoli burgers, with cheddar rather than feta, ground sunflower seeds and breadcrumbs instead of almond meal, and mustard again. Cheddar is neither better nor worse than feta, but makes an interesting difference.
Good to know Mark! I made zucchini burgers with grated halloumi that were really good – it’s another cheese option 🙂