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Here’s how to make a portobello mushroom burger that everyone loves: grilled or roasted! Savory and meaty, it’s irresistible with cheese and special sauce.

Portobello mushroom burger
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Oh, hello. Meet: your perfect portobello mushroom burger. This giant meaty mushroom is irresistible on is own. But add it to a burger bun and pile it high with toppings, and it’s downright outrageous! So you can make it in any season, we’ve got two methods: grilled or roasted. We prefer it as a vegetarian grill recipe eaten on the patio with the wafting smell of charcoal…but that’s just us! It’s fantastic in any season. Here are all the tricks to the very best portbello mushroom burger (we think).

Love portobellos? Try these delicious Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms or all our Portobello Recipes.

Make a portobello mushroom burger: grilled or roasted!

To get the very best portobello mushroom burger there is, we think the grill is the number 1 method. But if it’s not summer and you want to make it too: roasting is nearly as tasty. Here’s a breakdown on both methods:

  • Grilled portobello burger: You’ll use our Grilled Portobello Mushrooms method: grill those babies for about 15 minutes at medium high heat. Start with the gill side up, so when you flip all the extra liquid goes into the grates.
  • Roasted portobello burger: You need only 15 minutes at 450 degrees Fahrenheit to roast up your mushrooms! Make sure to drain the extra liquid. Sometimes we like to add a few shakes of liquid smoke before roasting to emulate a grilled flavor. Just be careful not to overdo it!
Grilled portobello mushrooms

Two important things to know about portbello burgers

The key to the perfect portobello mushroom burger is the toppings. An important thing to keep in mind: portobello mushrooms have a soft texture. Sometimes they can get a little lost in the bun. This is why the toppings are so important. They add contrasting textures to make for a satisfying sandwich.

Another thing: portobello mushrooms are not filling! Because you’re using them in place of a protein, you’d think that they’d be just as filling as burger. Nope! A portobello mushroom burger is not filling unless you add toppings that have some protein. That’s why we like to load ours with cheese…

Portobello burger

Load on toppings to add texture and keep it filling!

With those two things in mind, you can construct a portobello mushroom burger that has texture and is filing! Here are the toppings that we chose — but of course, you can get creative and use whatever you’d like:

  • Lots of cheese! To keep it filling, we like to add lots of cheese (two slices). Substitute your favorite vegan cheese for a plant-based sandwich.
  • Crunchy veggies: Lettuce and red onion help to add texture and crunch
  • Tomato: Because it’s just good.
  • Sauces: It’s also important to add some great sauces to amp the flavor. We like adding Basil Pesto because it’s garlicky (optional), and then of course our Special Burger Sauce that’s super tangy, creamy and savory all at once.
Burger sauce

Top with special sauce

This Special Burger Sauce we created just for these portobello mushroom burgers! Veggie burgers in particular need good sauces, because they can be dry or bland without them. This burger sauce is like all your favorite burger condiments in one, and tastes a little like a Big Mac sauce. Here’s what’s in it:

  • Organic ketchup
  • Mayonnaise
  • Mustard (either yellow or Dijon)
  • Pickle juice
  • Hot sauce
Portobello mushroom burger

What to serve with portobello mushroom burgers

These portobello mushroom burgers are a great summer vegetarian recipe and vegan dinner idea! There are lots of sides that go well with burgers: here are some of our favorites:

More great veggie burgers

There are lots of other great ways to make a veggie burger! Try them all:

  • Best Veggie Burger This mouthwatering veggie burger is slathered with barbecue sauce and doesn’t fall apart on the grill! It’s truly the best you’ll find.
  • Best Chickpea Burgers A hugely satisfying plant-based dinner! Here they’re painted with BBQ and served topped with vegan bacon and spicy mayo.
  • Black Bean Burger Bursting with flavor! Top with special sauce for a treat.
  • Falafel Burger Easy to make and healthier than traditional falafel! Serve with or without a bun, topped with any sauce you like.

This portobello mushroom burger recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, use vegan cheese or omit and load with other toppings!

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Perfect Portobello Mushroom Burger

Portobello mushroom burger
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5 from 2 reviews

Here’s how to make a portobello mushroom burger that everyone loves: grilled or roasted! Savory and meaty, it’s irresistible with cheese and special sauce.

  • Author: Sonja Overhiser
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x
  • Category: Main Dish
  • Method: Grilled or Roasted
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale
  • 4 portobello mushrooms
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • Fresh ground black pepper
  • 8 slices provolone or sharp cheddar cheese (or substitute vegan cheese)
  • For serving: Buns, lettuce, tomato, red onion, Basil Pesto (optional), Special Burger Sauce

Instructions

  1. Preheat a grill to medium-high heat (375 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit) or preheat an oven to 450 degrees*.
  2. Clean the portobello mushrooms and remove the stems. Place them on a baking sheet gill side up. Drizzle the tops the olive oil and use your hands to rub on the bottoms. Then place them back on the sheet gill side up and sprinkle with garlic powder, smoked paprika, kosher salt and several grinds of black pepper. Rub them until evenly coated.
  3. For the grilled method: Place the mushrooms directly on the grates gill side up, and grill 10 to 14 minutes until tender and juicy. Liquid will pool in the cap. Flip the mushrooms (this drains the liquid into the grates). Then top with the add cheese slices and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes until melted. Tip: Step up your burger and grill the burger buns for about 1 minute on one side until lightly toasted!
  4. For the roasted method: Place the baking sheet in the oven and roast for 15 minutes until tender. Drain of any excess liquid, then top with cheese and roast another 1 minute until the cheese melts.
  5. Serve: Place the mushrooms on buns. Top with lettuce, tomato, red onion, basil pesto (optional), and Special Burger Sauce.

Notes

*If you want to infuse a little smoky flavor to the roasted version, add a few shakes of liquid smoke to each mushroom (it’s potent, so don’t overdo it).

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About the authors

Alex & Sonja

Hi! We’re Alex & Sonja Overhiser, authors of the acclaimed cookbooks A Couple Cooks and Pretty Simple Cooking—and a real life couple who cooks together. We founded the A Couple Cooks website in 2010 to share seasonal recipes and the joy of home cooking. Now, we’ve got over 3,000 well-tested recipes, including Mediterranean diet, vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, smoothies, cocktails, and more!

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8 Comments

  1. Debbie Joyce says:

    I added my only personal touch with this recipe- it was wonderful! Everyone loved them. I’m done searching for a portobello recipe.

  2. Sue J. says:

    Never got an answer, so went ahead and roasted the red onion. Otherwise, followed the recipe, including the sauce. It was stellar, like make it every week stellar. Thanks!






  3. Sue J. says:

    Plan to make this tonight. One question: The red onions in your pics are clearly cooked (grilled or roasted, it seems). But the recipe doesn’t call for them to be cooked. If I roast them, as I will the mushrooms, can I put them both in the same pan? How long should I roast the onions? Thanks for any assistance.

  4. Linda Watson says:

    This was sooooooo good! Be sure to make the special sauce; it adds so much flavor!






  5. Anonymous says:

    I have the recipe for McDonalds Big Mac sauce. Could this be used?

    Thank you

    1. Alex Overhiser says:

      That would be great!

  6. Anonymous says:

    Soooo good! Made these tonight with your special sauce. Yum yum 🤤