Best veggie burgers: budget supermarket options beat Birds Eye

If you're after a tasty and satisfying plant-based burger, we've found four great veggie options, including two cheaper selections. 

We asked a panel of 77 people to blind-taste and rate nine veggie burgers, comparing Birds Eye and Schär with supermarket own-brands including Aldi, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco.

Supermarkets won the day with Asda and Co-op tying for top spot, and a couple of Great Value options weren't far behind.

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Best veggie burgers

We tested frozen mixed veggie burgers with breadcrumb coatings. 

Asda and Co-op's burgers were the biggest crowd pleasers, earning themselves Best Buys, but budget options from Aldi and Sainsbury's were highly rated too. 

One branded burger fared OK, but the other was the lowest-scoring burger on test.

Best Buy: Plant Based by Asda Veggie Burgers, 74%

£2 for 454g, 4 burgers (44p per 100g)

This was our joint top-scoring veggie burger. Most of our tasters loved the veg-packed filling and crispy breadcrumb coating. 

The flavour was highly rated and tasters thought the burger was well seasoned, with an appealing colour and good consistency.

The only real criticism related to thickness, with 39% wanting a chunkier burger. 

Overall, though, this is a worthy Best Buy, and the cheapest of our two top-scorers.

Available from Asda.

Best Buy: Co-op GRO Crunchy Veg Burgers, 74%

£1.90 for 280g, 2 burgers (68p per 100g)

Our tasters were enthusiastic about the colour and consistency of this burger, which is the pricier of our two Best Buys.

The majority thought it was the perfect thickness, had the right proportion of veg filling and had a pleasingly textured coating.

Flavour-wise, 60% felt it hit the spot, although some thought it could have done with a little extra seasoning.

Available from Co-op

Great Value: Aldi Plant Menu Vegetable Burgers, 73%

£1.69 for 454g, 4 burgers (37p per 100g)

Most thought the veg content was just right with this burger, and appreciated the moist consistency and crispy coating.

While the majority were happy with the strength of flavour, nearly half thought that it lacked seasoning. Some also felt that it was a bit thin and would have preferred something more substantial.

Nevertheless, it's still a tasty option and an excellent budget choice.

Available from Aldi

Great Value: Sainsbury’s Plant Pioneers Vegetable Quarter Pounders, 73%

£1.69 for 454g, 4 burgers (37p per 100g)

Another good-quality budget burger.

The texture of the coating, veg filling and consistency were all loved by more than three quarters of our tasting panel.

The flavour was also rated welland more than half felt that the seasoning was good.

Just under half would have liked a thicker burger and the same proportion actually wanted more seasoning.

Available from Sainsbury’s

Plant-based meat alternatives: see what your options are, including meat-like plant products

How Iceland, Morrison, Tesco, Birds Eye and other veggie burgers compare

Morrisons burgers did nearly as well as the top scorers, while Bird's Eye was the favourite of the two brands. Schär, the priciest burger brand on test, scored lowest overall

• Morrisons Plant Revolution Veggie Burgers, 72% A good burger that went down well with most of our tasting panel. More than half would have liked more seasoning, though, and nearly half felt that it lacked a bit of flavour. £1.99 for 454g, 4 burgers (44p per 100g). Available from Morrisons.
• Birds Eye Green Cuisine Veggie Burgers, 68% The only non-vegan burger on test. It was OK, but didn’t wow our tasting panel. The burger was a good thickness, and more than twothirds liked its consistency and texture of coating. However, more than half wanted a stronger flavour and a similar number said that the seasoning was too weak. £3 for 454g, 4 burgers (66p per 100g). Available from Ocado, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.
• Tesco Plant Chef Veg Burgers, 68% 39% thought the coating lacked crispiness, while more than 60% said the flavour and seasoning levels were too weak. £1.69 for 454g, 4 burgers (37p per 100g). Available from Tesco.
• Iceland Vegetable Burgers, 65% This burger lacked oomph when it came to seasoning and flavour, with more than two thirds wanting both to be stronger. £2 for 454g, 4 burgers (44p per 100g). Available from Iceland.
• Schär Plant Burger, 62% The only gluten free burger on test, but the least liked (and the priciest). It's a nice thickness, but more than half said the coating lacked crispiness and nearly as many felt it could do with more veg, more flavour and more seasoning. £3.50 for 160g, 2 burgers (£2.19 per 100g). Available from Ocado and Sainsbury’s.

What's in a veggie burger?

Veggie burgers have a markedly different nutritional profile to beef burgers.

They are high in carbs and low in saturated fat. They’re also a fairly good fibre source. Like beef burgers, they contain moderate amounts of salt and just a little sugar.

There’s some protein in them, but a good deal less than in a beef burger. If you're after something more nutritionally similar, soya-based meat-imitation veggie burgers supply a much higher vegan protein hit.

The veggie burgers we tested were broadly similar in nutrient content. Schär was the exception, containing more protein and less carbohydrate than the other brands. 

Are veggie burgers vegan?

All the burgers in our taste test are vegan except Birds Eye, which contain egg and mozzarella cheese.

Schär's veggie burgers are gluten free.

Can you cook veggie burgers in an air fryer?

Veggie burgers can be cooked in an air-fryer, which acts like a mini oven. It uses less energy than a standard oven as it's heating up a much smaller volume. 

Other cooking options include oven baking and grilling. These veggie burgers generally take around 25 minutes in an oven and a little less under the grill.

Whichever method you choose, all these burgers should be cooked from frozen.

Find out which are the best air fryers according to our independent tests

How we tested veggie burgers 

The veggie burgers were tasted in May 2024 by a large panel of consumers who regularly buy and consume veggie burgers. 

The make-up of the panel broadly represents the demographic profile of adults in the UK. 

Each brand of veggie burger was assessed by 77 people. Each taster rated the taste, texture, aroma and appearance of each burger, then told us what they liked and disliked about them. 

The taste test was blind, so our testers didn’t know which brand they were trying. The order in which they tasted the burgers was rotated to avoid any bias. Each person had a private booth, so they couldn’t discuss what they were tasting or be influenced by others.

The overall score was based on:

• 50% flavour
• 20% appearance
• 15% aroma
• 15% texture

These weightings are based on how consumers rank the importance of different attributes of veggie burgers.

Price and availability checked 20 June 2024.