Rachael Ray‘s 5th annual Burger Bash at the South Beach Food and Wine Festival took place last week and the only three words we can say are “Too Much Cow.”

Thank goodness Ray is vegetarian friendly and often includes veg recipes on her Food Network shows.

Her vegetarian chickpea burger is one such meat-free recipe, but this chef realizes that although nothing beats a handmade veggie burger where you can witness the culmination of oats, beans, veggies and other plant goodies come together, sometimes it’s nice to have a frozen or otherwise prepared patty to nuke in the microwave.

That’s why she conducted the veggie burger taste test. You could call it the sans animal flesh version of her burger bash.

The following vegetarian and vegan burgers with judged best in their category.

Best Veggie Medley: Lightlife Light Burgers-Veggie

Best Mushroom: Gardenburger Portabella

Best Original: Amy’s All American Veggie Burger

Best Flavored: Boca Cheeseburger

Best Black Bean: Morningstar Farms Spicy Black Bean Veggie Burger

For more information on why these were top of the line, visit here.

The chickpea burgers are easily veganized by substituting the one egg for an egg replacement, such as Ener-G and using vegan cheddar cheese on top, or leaving the patties bare.

Ray also says you can make these spicier by adding ground cumin, curry pepper or cayenne pepper to the mix.

Have your own veggie burger bash by giving Ray’s prepared veggie burger recommendations a try. Don’t forget to add these chickpea patties to the taste test.

Photo: PR Photos

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