Hamburger helper, but gluten free, dairy free, and VEGAN! Comfort food at its finest, I love how easy, simple, and delicious this homemade vegan hamburger helper recipe is!
If you’re vegan, it can be hard to find alternatives to your former favorites. Lucky for you, this is the ultimate vegan hamburger helper recipe and even better than the original. Your favorite one-pot dinner, but made vegan and without any preservatives found in the boxed version.
With this homemade vegan hamburger helper recipe, you start by making your own meatless ‘meat’ crumble by pulsing together walnuts and sunflower seeds in a food processor. This mixture then gets sautéed with onions and diced mushrooms, and the texture of the walnuts combined with the flavor of the mushrooms creates the perfect vegan ‘meat’ crumble.
For some extra creaminess, you finish the recipe by adding vegan cream cheese and nutritional yeast. With the vegan cream cheese, I suggest a tofu or nut-based option such as Kite Hill, Miyoko’s, or Toffuti. If you haven’t used nutritional yeast in your cooking before, it adds a really nice cheese-y flavor to your recipes and is available at pretty much all grocery stores including Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Target, etc.
Lastly, this recipe wouldn’t be complete without the delicious spices from Frontier Co-op! They’re organic, high-quality, and as a business, they actually invest in the farmers they work with. For this homemade vegan hamburger helper recipe I use Frontier Co-op’s Paprika, Garlic Powder, and Black Pepper. You can read just one example about how they work WITH their farmers here.
What if I have a nut allergy?
Easy fix! Instead of making a homemade nut crumble, feel free to use a vegan substitute for ground meat. I personally love the Trader Joe’s vegan ground beef crumbles, but I’ve also used the impossible burger which turned out just as great.
Can I make a vegetarian hamburger helper too?
Sure! If you don’t need the recipe to be dairy-free, feel free to substitute regular cream cheese and top / serve with additional cheese.
How to Make Vegan Hamburger Helper
- Prepare nuts – use a food processor to pulse walnuts and sunflower seeds until blended into small pieces.
- Cook meatless ‘meat’ crumble – saute onions and mushrooms for 8-10 minutes. Add processed walnuts and sunflower seeds and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
- Start on sauce – add olive oil to a medium saucepan and cook carrots for 2-3 minutes.
- Return meatless ‘meat’ crumble – back to saucepan.
- Add spices – including Frontier Co-op Garlic Powder, Paprika, and Black Pepper, along with your salt and tomato paste and cook until tomato paste has been evenly distributed.
- Add vegetable broth and diced tomatoes – and bring to a simmer.
- Stir in vegan cream cheese and nutritional yeast – and once evenly combined, turn off heat and set aside.
- Cook pasta – and transfer back to pan with sauce. Stir to combine and serve immediately. Enjoy!
This recipe was made in collaboration with Frontier Co-op, and all opinions are my own. I’m incredibly thankful for Frontier for sponsoring me and helping me make it possible to share these recipes with you. If you enjoy their spices as much as I do, please show them some love 🙂
Please let me know in the comments if you try, want to try, or make any changes to this recipe! If you’re interested in more vegan and gluten-free dinner ideas, check out my Tomato Coconut Curry, Curried Tofu Salad, or one of my favorites, these Spicy Tahini Riced Cauliflower Bowls!
Ingredients
Meatless "Meat" Crumble
- 1 cup raw walnut pieces
- ½ cup raw sunflower seeds
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 cup onion chopped (1 small-med onion), heaping cup
- 10 oz mushrooms chopped small
- ½ tsp salt
Sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 ea. large carrot cut half lengthwise and sliced thin (~¾ cup)
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tsp Frontier Co-op garlic powder
- 1 tsp Frontier Co-op paprkia
- ¼ tsp Frontier Co-op ground black pepper
- ½ tsp salt
- ¾ cup diced tomatoes
- 1½ cups vegetable broth
- 4 oz vegan cream cheese*
- ⅓ cup nutritional yeast
- 8 oz GF pasta
Instructions
Meatless 'Meat' Crumble
- Start by preparing the Meatless 'Meat' Crumble - add raw walnuts and sunflower seeds to a food processor. Pulse until the walnuts resembles the texture of ground meat (the sunflower seeds will stay mostly intact). Set aside.
- Add olive oil to medium saucepan. Add onions and saute on medium heat until onions are clear. Add mushrooms and continue to saute until mixture is completely dry and starts to brown, 8-12 minutes.
- Finish by stirring in walnut/sunflower mixture and continue to saute for another 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
Sauce
- Start on the sauce - to the same saucepan, add an additional 2 tbsp olive oil and bring to medium heat. Once hot, add chopped carrots and saute until carrots start to brown, 2-3 minutes.
- Add meatless 'meat' crumble back to saucepan along with Frontier Co-op garlic powder, paprika, ground black pepper and tomato paste. Cook for 2-3 minutes until tomato paste has been evenly distributed.
- Add vegetable broth and diced tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Stir in vegan cream cheese and nutritional yeast. Turn off heat and set aside.
- Cook 8oz pasta of choice according to package instructions. Drain and transfer to saucepan. Stir to combine and serve immediately. Enjoy!
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The best!!
Yessssss…one of my favorites too!!! 🙂
Turned out delicious! I added potatoes for some extra texture !!
So glad you loved this recipe, Andy!!! Potatoes sound like a great addition 🙂
– Casey