'Veggie Burger' is a term for two fundamentally different food products which have nothing in common other than they go on a
bun and are made without
meat. The broadness of the term often causes some confusion, as does the way that one specific brand of veggie burgers,
Gardenburger (tm) is often used interchangably with the term veggie burger much as '
Kleenex' is used for tissue.
One type of veggie burgers (1) are patties made from rice, TVP, and sometimes cheese and various other vegetables or beans. Whle being somewhat tasty patties to put on buns, they are NOT simulations of ground beef hamburgers in terms of taste, texture, or protein content.
The other type (2), made with soy protein, ARE simulations of beef hamburgers in terms of, taste, texture, and protein content. They actually have more protein than beef hamburgers, and of course have a tiny fraction of the fat and e-coli. They are simply a wonderful uber-food.
These two products ought to have different generic names, like 'veggie burgers' and 'soy protein patties,' but unfortunately they don't, which has led to many a potential ex-carnivore to conclude 'Those veggie burgers taste nothing like hamburgers,' when in fact they have only sampled the first type. Also this is a problem in restaurants which may feature a veggie burger on the menu. Which one is it? You won't know until it comes, but it is usually type (1), which means if you were hoping for a large, satifying protein meal you will be disappointed.
IMHO, Harvest Burgers (tm) are the best brand of type (2) veggie burgers.