What does potato starch do in this recipe, and can I substitute cornstarch or flour?

Potato starch is the binder that holds the patty together without eggs or meat proteins. When it contacts moisture and heat in the skillet, it gelatinizes rapidly, forming a network that locks the grains and vegetables into a cohesive patty with crispy edges. The key detail from the cookbook: mix the starch with water first to form a slurry before folding it in — this distributes it evenly. Cornstarch also works at the same 1-tablespoon ratio and produces a similarly crisp edge. All-purpose flour works in a pinch but produces a slightly doughier patty that does not crisp as cleanly. Do not skip the binder: without it, the patty will be delicious but will fall apart when flipped.

Why red quinoa specifically? Can I use white quinoa or another grain?

Red quinoa is specified in the cookbook because it holds its texture better after cooking — the bran layer is slightly thicker than white quinoa, so the individual grains stay distinct rather than clumping into a porridge. This texture is important for the burger, where you want visible grain structure rather than a homogeneous paste. White quinoa works acceptably; just cook it until the tails just unfurl (about 15 minutes) and spread it on a sheet pan to cool and dry slightly before mixing — excess moisture is the main enemy of patty cohesion. Brown rice, farro, or bulgur are reasonable substitutes but they change the flavor profile noticeably.

Why is chilling the patties before cooking important?

After you mix the patty ingredients and form the rounds, the potato starch slurry needs time to bind the mixture. The cold temperature firms everything up and lets the starch set as a preliminary structure before it encounters heat. Without chilling (at least 20 minutes, ideally 1 hour or overnight), the patty is fragile at the moment it hits the hot skillet — the outer surface of a warm patty hits the pan in a semi-soft state and the likelihood of it breaking when you try to flip it is much higher. Chilled patties hold their shape through the flip and develop a more defined crust. You can also freeze formed patties between parchment sheets for up to a month and cook from frozen — just add 2 minutes per side.

Can I skip the fennel seed?

You can, but you will taste the absence. Toasted and freshly ground fennel is what makes the Superiority Burger taste like a specific thing rather than a generic grain-and-bean patty. It provides a subtle sweetness and anise note that bridges the earthiness of the chickpeas and the sweetness of the roasted carrots, and it is the flavor most food writers single out when describing what makes the burger distinctive. To toast fennel seeds: put them in a dry skillet over medium heat and shake constantly for about 2 minutes until they smell fragrant and turn very lightly golden. Grind immediately in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle. Pre-ground fennel seed is a fair substitute but the volatile oils that carry the flavor dissipate quickly — ground-to-order is noticeably better here.

What is the special sauce made of, and is there a fully vegan version?

The Superiority Burger cookbook's special sauce uses a house-made chickpea aquafaba mayo as the base — an emulsion of chickpea cooking liquid (aquafaba), a small number of whole chickpeas, Dijon mustard, cider vinegar, cane sugar, salt, and grapeseed oil, blended into a silky vegan mayonnaise. The sauce itself is that mayo combined with roasted red tomatoes (or roasted cherry tomatoes, blended), ketchup, hot chile sauce, and red wine vinegar. For the home version in this recipe, good store-bought vegan mayo (or regular mayo) produces a sauce that is functionally identical in the assembled burger. The aquafaba method: combine 3 tablespoons of liquid from a can of chickpeas with 5 whole chickpeas, 1/2 tablespoon Dijon, 1/2 tablespoon cider vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a tall jar. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth, then slowly stream in 3/4 cup grapeseed oil while blending until emulsified. Proceed with the sauce recipe below.

What happened to the original Superiority Burger location?

The original 300-square-foot East 9th Street location, which opened in June 2015, closed in November 2021 when its lease ended. Brooks Headley announced the closure and said the restaurant would reopen — which it did in April 2023 at 119 Avenue A, across from Tompkins Square Park in the same East Village neighborhood but in a meaningfully larger space with a full bar. The new location serves the original menu of burgers, salads, and daily specials, and later added weekend breakfast and lunch service. The restaurant is first-come, first-served with no reservations, and long lines are normal on weekends.

Is this burger fully vegan?

The patty is vegan. The special sauce is vegan if made with aquafaba mayo (as in the cookbook) or store-bought vegan mayo. The toppings — shredded iceberg, pickles, roasted tomato — are vegan. Muenster cheese is where dairy enters; substituting a good vegan melting cheese (Violife, Miyoko's) keeps the burger fully plant-based. The restaurant describes itself as lacto-ovo vegetarian with a sizable vegan menu, and the burger is among the items it offers in a fully vegan version.

Superiority Burger (The Famous NYC Vegetarian Burger, Made at Home)

Name: Superiority Burger
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: Patty (makes 4 patties — can double for later freezing):; 1/2 cup dried red quinoa; 1/2 cup small-diced carrots (about 1 medium carrot); 1 tablespoon grapeseed oil, divided, plus more for searing; 1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped; 1/2 cup canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed; 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted in a dry pan and freshly ground; 1/2 teaspoon mild chile powder; 1 teaspoon white wine vinegar; Juice of 1/2 lemon; 1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped; 1 tablespoon Frank's RedHot or similar hot chile sauce; 1/3 cup coarse breadcrumbs (panko works well); 3 tablespoons toasted walnuts, roughly crushed; 1 tablespoon potato starch (see FAQ for substitutes); 1/2 tablespoon water; Kosher salt and black pepper; Special sauce:; 1/3 cup mayo (regular or vegan — see FAQ for the cookbook's aquafaba version); 2 tablespoons ketchup; 1 tablespoon Frank's RedHot or similar hot sauce; 1 tablespoon roasted red peppers or 2 roasted cherry tomatoes, finely chopped; 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar; Kosher salt, to taste; Assembly:; 4 potato rolls or brioche buns; 4 slices Muenster cheese (or American); 1/4 head iceberg lettuce, finely shredded; 8–12 dill pickle slices; Yellow mustard or Dijon, for the bun

Prep time: 30 min active Cook time: 45 min (quinoa + roasting; most of it is hands-off) Servings: 4 burgers

Brooks Headley opened Superiority Burger in June 2015 on East 9th Street in Manhattan — a 300-square-foot counter in the East Village, serving a vegetarian burger from a tiny kitchen where he had previously tested recipes after closing Del Posto at night. He had just won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef for his work at Del Posto, one of New York’s most decorated Italian restaurants. The trade he made — from tasting-menu desserts at a white-tablecloth institution to a $8 burger on a paper tray — became one of the more talked-about moves in New York food that decade.

David Chang ate one and said it was the best veggie burger he had ever had. Cate Blanchett brought the burger to Jimmy Fallon on national television and said it was “the best goddamn burger you will ever have in your life.” The New York Times critic Pete Wells gave the reopened restaurant three out of four stars in June 2023 — up from the two stars he awarded the original counter. Michelin named it a Bib Gourmand in its 2025 New York guide. A W.W. Norton cookbook followed in 2018 with the full recipe, which is what this page is based on.

Why the Patty Works

Most veggie burgers fail because they are built like a salad — vegetables and grains combined wet, then cooked in a way that steams everything rather than searing it. The Superiority Burger patty works because it treats each component as a separate ingredient cooked to its best individual state before combining.

The quinoa provides structure — individual grains that hold their shape in the patty, visible in cross-section, not a paste. The carrots are roasted at high heat until the edges darken and caramelize; that is not overcooking, it is the technique. A boiled or steamed carrot adds sweetness without any depth; a roasted one adds sweetness plus the savory Maillard compounds that usually belong to meat. The chickpeas and onion are cooked together and partially smashed into a binding paste that holds the other elements together while also contributing the legume’s protein structure.

The fennel seed is the bridge: toasted and freshly ground, it ties the sweetness of the carrots and chickpeas to something more savory, and it is the flavor most food writers identify when they try to describe what makes this burger taste like something deliberate rather than assembled.

The potato starch slurry is the binder, replacing eggs in a technique borrowed from Chinese cooking. Mixed into the cold patty mixture and then chilled, it sets at cold temperature and then gelatinizes rapidly when it hits a hot pan, forming a gel network that holds the patty together and produces crisp edges. Do not skip the chilling step: warm, unset starch produces a fragile patty that breaks on the flip.

The Special Sauce

The cookbook’s special sauce uses a house-made aquafaba mayo — an emulsion built on chickpea cooking liquid instead of egg yolk, which makes the sauce fully vegan. For this recipe, any good mayo (or store-bought vegan mayo) produces a functionally identical result at the table. The flavor components that actually matter are the hot sauce, the roasted tomato or roasted pepper, and the red wine vinegar, which together make the sauce bright and spicy and genuinely useful against the earthy, dense patty. See the FAQ for the full aquafaba mayo method if you want to go the cookbook route.

Assembly and the Cost Comparison

The canonical toppings at the restaurant: Muenster cheese, shredded iceberg lettuce, roasted tomato, pickle slices, mustard under the patty, and the special sauce on the top bun. The iceberg matters more than it looks like it should — the cold, crunchy shreds provide texture against the soft patty and cheese, and their near-neutral flavor lets the sauce and fennel do their jobs. A heartier green (arugula, spinach) changes the flavor balance and competes.

At the restaurant, the burger is about $16. Made at home with good pantry ingredients, the cost per burger is approximately $4, including the bun and toppings. The cooking time is about 1.5 hours total — most of it passive, while quinoa cooks and carrots roast — making this a realistic weeknight project if you batch-prep the patties on the weekend. Formed patties freeze well between parchment sheets for up to one month and cook from frozen in about 8 minutes per side.

Superiority Burger is a trademark of its owner, used here only to describe the dish this recipe recreates. This is an independent copycat written in our own words — Copycat Spices is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Superiority Burger.

Superiority Burger

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