Tofu

In a process that’s similar to cheese, tofu is made from coagulated soy milk, and I find it to be the most obvious choice of a protein base for veggie burgers in this chapter. Because of its soft, spongy texture, it doubles as a primary protein and can also function as a binder. I used to make burgers by blending tofu in a food processor but never really loved it because that compromised all its structural integrity. So my favorite way to manipulate it into a burger is to blend a portion of the tofu, which has helpful binding properties, and coarsely grate the rest.