The dr. Praeger’s California Veggie Burgers at Costco Are NOT Tasty

The California Veggie Burgers from dr. Praeger’s, available in the freezer section at Costco, feature nine different vegetables in an Organic, Gluten Free and Vegan patty.

I was curious if these would be tasty enough to make me give up my usual Spicy Black Bean Burger so I gave them a try.

It turns out that I am not a fan of these veggie burgers but you might end up liking them.

Keep reading to see if these veggie burgers are right for you and your family.

Nutrition and Ingredients

Let’s take a closer look at what you get with this box of burgers.

Nutrition Facts

You get 12 veggie burger patties per box and one patty is considered a single serving.

The nutritional facts for a single serving are:

• Calories: 180
• Fat: 8g (11% DV)
• Cholesterol: 00mg (0% DV)
• Sodium: 350mg (15% DV)
• Carbohydrates: 20g (7% DV)
• Protein: 6g

I am not a fan of the calorie count on these burgers.

I like that the Morningstar Farms burger I usually eat only has 110 calories.  In my mind I always round that down to 100 calories.   These burgers have 180 calories which my mind rounds up to 200 calories.

I realize that the math isn’t right but my mind keeps telling me that these burgers have twice the calories as a black bean burger.

The difference in calorie count, which is actually closer to 40%, is that these Veggie Burgers are about 40% larger than the Morningstar Farms Black Bean burgers (3.5 ounces vs 2.5 ounces).

Ingredient List

The veggie burgers have the following ingredients:

• Carrots
• Onions
• Oat Bran
• String Beans
• Shelled Edamame
• Zuchinni
• Canola Oil
• Peas
• Brown Rice Flour
• Soy Flour
• Spinach
• Red Pepper
• Garlic
• Salt

Cooking Instructions

The packaging states that the preferred method of cooking these burgers is to bake them in an oven or toaster oven at 450F for ten minutes per side.

Seriously?  It takes twenty minutes to cook a Veggie Burger??

I tried following the instructions and it was a mess.  I put the two burgers into my Ninja Foodi Air Fryer and cooked them for ten minutes at 450F.  After ten minutes I tried to flip them over but they were so soggy that they broke into pieces when I tried to pick them up.

At this point I got out another patty and followed the alternative microwave instructions zapping them for 1.5 minutes on one side and one minute on the other side.

Taste Test

When the burger came out of the microwave all I could smell was onions.  I am not a huge onion fan so the smell wasn’t my favorite.

The patty was certainly full of vegetables!  The veggies were colorful and it was nice to see that I was eating real food instead of an ultra-processed patty.

The flavor was not unpleasant but did not get me excited.  The flavor was, for lack of a better word, uninteresting.

Flavor is subjective so you might end up loving these burgers.  However, between the higher calorie count, awkward cooking instructions and the mild flavors, I see no reason to stray from my preferred Spicy Black Bean burgers.

Costco Value

The 12 count box of veggie burgers cost me $11.99 at Costco.  This works out to a cost of $0.99 per patty or $0.285 per ounce.

You can buy a four pack of these burgers at Walmart for $3.84.  While that looks cheaper on a per patty basis the ones sold at Walmart are 2.5 ounces instead of the larger 3.5 ounce patties at Costco.  The cost of the Dr Praeger’s veggie burgers at Walmart is $0.384 per ounce.

This means that you will save about $0.10 per ounce (25%) when you buy the larger package at Costco.