90% of the time when I want a burger, I want a caramelized onions, blue cheese, and bbq sauce style burger. For that type of burger I like a husky veggie patty made with soy or seitan (wheat meat), like Gimme Lean brand.

But for some reason, tonight I really wanted a more traditional American style burger: patty, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onions and thousand island dressing. I thought a veggie patty more like the Garden Burger would be better than a soy/seitan type and tried out the Trader Joe’s Veggie Burgers (here is a blog about them). I think these are new because they are definitely different than ones I have bought there in the past, but who knows, maybe I just haven’t seen them.  They worked perfectly!

I kicked them up a notch by adding a little srirachi to the thousand island dressing and adding caramelized onions. Of course I still added raw onions :-). This is a simple throw it together recipe since most everything is already made. It makes 2 burgers.

Srirachi Thousand Island
2 tablespoon mayo
2 teaspoon ketchup
1 teaspoon sirachi
2 teaspoon relish

• Mix all together.

The American Burger
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion for caramelizing
Salt
2 Trader Joe’s Veggie Burgers (or your favorite veggie burger)
2 cheddar cheese slices
2 Whole wheat buns (we used some from Fresh & Easy that were really nice)
A little butter (for bun toasting)
Srirachi  thousand island
2 romaine leaves
1 roma tomatos sliced
1/2 onion sliced

1. Heat oil in skillet and cook onions over medium to low heat until lightly caramelized. Sprinkle with salt.
2. Take out the onions and heat the veggie burgers on both sides until cooked through and a little browned. When they are almost done, add a cheddar cheese slice to each burger, cover the pan, and melt a little. Remove from pan.
3. Lightly butter buns and toast in the pan.
4. Slather both sides of bun with srirachi thousand island, then from the bottom up add a romaine leaf, tomato slices, raw onions, burger/cheese, and caramelized onions. Mmm.