These healthy whole wheat burger buns are crusty, tender, vegan and so easy to make! It’s a budget-friendly one-bowl recipe that requires only 10 minutes of prep time.
Skip the store-bought hamburger buns and make these healthy whole wheat burger buns with creamy soy yogurt and crunchy seeds.
This recipe is just too simple not to try: affordable staple ingredients, one bowl and ten minutes of hands-on time.
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These whole wheat buns are oil-free and dairy-free, making them vegan-friendly and packed with fiber!
While they don’t replicate fluffy white buns, we’ve grown to enjoy them even more. Use them to make vegan bean burgers and try our buckwheat bread and cornbread for more baked goods!
Recipe overview
- Simple, seeded and soft
- Fiber-rich and fully whole food plant-based
- 10 minutes of hands-on time
- Crusty on the outside, tender on the inside
- Flavorful and slightly nutty
- Chewy, hearty and wonderfully textured
These whole wheat buns can be served sweet or savory and once you’ve fallen in love with the flavor and texture of whole grains, you don’t care for refined flour products anymore!
Ingredients needed
- Whole wheat flour — if you don’t want to go “all whole grain” on your rolls, start with a 50/50 mixture of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour.
- Baking soda + powder — basic raising agents.
- Soy milk + lemon juice — creating some easy and delicious vegan buttermilk for better texture!
- Soy yogurt + applesauce — adding extra moisture to the buns!
- Toppings — sprinkle with seeds or rolled oats for some texture.
With these basic kitchen staples, you can create a whole array of tasty food — including these whole wheat burger buns.
All you need in terms of equipment are a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, large bowl, brush and measuring equipment.
How to make whole wheat burger buns
- Preheat your oven to 400 °F (200 °C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Sift flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder into a large bowl.
- Add wet ingredients: water, almond milk, soy yogurt and lemon juice.
- Combine with a spoon, then knead with your hands until a smooth but still sticky dough forms.
- Divide the dough into 6 pieces and shape them into buns.
- Line them on your prepared baking sheet at about an inch distance.
- Brush the buns with vegan milk, and top with rolled oats, black sesame and pumpkin seeds.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until golden on the outside, then remove them from the oven.
- Let the buns cool slightly before serving!
Storage & serving
Enjoy your whole wheat hamburger buns straight from the oven or over the next 2-3 days. They are best stored at room temperature in a food container or bread bag.
They will keep well in the fridge for about a week. You can also thaw them for up to 3 months!
You can create vegan burgers with them or use the buns to make sandwiches from BLT to PBJ! We like to spread them with hummus, mayo, smashed avocado, ricotta or other vegan spreads and top with veggies.
Serve these whole wheat buns as a side dish with some salad, soup or chili!
Tips & adjustments
Make them sweeter
Use sweetened yogurt, applesauce or milk to make these whole wheat buns sweeter. You can also add a few tablespoons of maple syrup or molasses!
Quantity & size
You can bake larger or smaller buns with the dough but make sure to adjust the baking time to neither burn nor undercook them.
If you want to make a larger batch of these delicious whole wheat buns, simply double or triple the recipe and freeze the baked rolls for up to 2-3 months, thawing and reheating them at your convenience.
Create the best texture
Sifting your whole wheat flour is key to making lofty whole grain baked goods and also eliminates the need for adding any dough enhancers — so it’s highly recommended but can be skipped for convenience and time purposes.
Try to properly combine the ingredients to form a homogeneous mixture but don’t over stir! Handle your dough with some love.
You’re looking for a dough that’s a little tacky as it will absorb more moisture.
Ingredient swaps
- Use aquafaba for the eggwash instead of vegan milk
- Add olive oil or vegan butter to the batter instead of applesauce
- Use any unflavored dairy-free (soy, oat, almond, pea) for this recipe.
- Swap the whole wheat flour for white wheat, rye, spelt or einkorn!
More healthy baked goods
In the mood for some more baking? Try these treats next!
Have you tried our burger buns and liked them? Feel free to comment below and rate our recipe! You can also Pin it here!
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour 240 g
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ⅓ cup almond milk 80 ml
- 3 tbsp soy yogurt
- ⅓ cup water 80 ml
- 3 tbsp applesauce
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp salt
Optional Toppings
- Rolled oats
- Black or white sesame
- Pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400 °F (200 °C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Start by sifting your flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder into a large bowl.
- Add the water, almond milk, soy yogurt and lemon juice to the flour mix. Combine everything with a spoon, then knead with your hands for a few seconds, until a smooth but still sticky dough forms.
- Divide the whole wheat dough into 5-6 pieces, shape them into buns and line them on your prepared baking sheet, at about an inch distance.
- Brush the buns with apple sauce, and top with rolled oats, black sesame and pumpkin seeds.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and let the buns cool slightly. Then cut horizontally with a sharp knife.
- Any leftover rolls can be stored in a bread bag or food container at room temperature for a couple of days. You can also keep them in the fridge for up to a week or freeze them individually for a few months!
Notes
- You can make these buns with either sweetened or unsweetened milk, yogurt and applesauce.
- This recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to make more buns in one go!
- You can swap some of the whole wheat flour for spelt flour or regular all-purpose flour — we haven’t tried making gluten-free vegan buns.
Alena Schowalter is a Certified Vegan Nutritionist who has been a vegetarian since childhood and vegan since 2012. Together with her husband, she founded nutriciously in 2015 and has been guiding thousands of people through different transition stages towards a healthy plant-based diet. She’s received training in the fields of nutrition, music therapy and social work. Alena enjoys discussions around vegan ethics, walks through nature and creating new recipes.
Hi. Could you please explain the function of the yogurt and if it’s necessary or if there is an alternative? (Silken tofu, perhaps, with vegan lactic acid powder?) I ask because I want to make these soon and don’t have any soy yogurt.
Thanks!
Hey Beth,
thanks for the comment! So, the yogurt is used to add texture and keep the moisture without using any oil. While I haven’t tried your replacement idea, I can imagine that it would work — even without the lactic acid powder perhaps.
Please do let me know if you end up making the buns that way and how they turn out!
Best wishes,
Alena
Would using any other plant milk be fine as well? Or is almond milk neccesary? Thanks.
yes, just go for any unflavored plant-based milk :)
Thanks Alena!
Hi again. So, I made the buns today (using the soft tofu instead of yogurt – that was the only change) and unfortunately, they turned out very hard on the outside and dense on the inside. Not dry, just dense. Any idea what I might have done wrong? (The applesauce goes on the outside, not the inside, right?)
Hey Beth,
thanks for checking back in! Awww sorry that they turned out so dense — it kind of makes sense because silken tofu is denser than soy yogurt and I haven’t tried this swap before.
Yup, the applesauce is used as a glaze on the outside. If you don’t have any vegan yogurt on hand, it might be best to just use some more plant-based milk or even sparkling water — also make sure that your baking powder is still good and pretty fresh.
Best wishes,
Alena
Hey there! I have just baked these bread-buns. The dough was very stiff, thus buns quite dry, dense and with strong soda flavour. I can’t say I didn’t like the taste, it is quite interesting. But definitely not a traditional burger-bun and something you have to get used to. ????
I made these and they looked great and texture was good too but the taste and smell, not so much. They turned out extremely bitter, and smelling also very strongly of baking soda. I had to throw them out as they were inedible . Any idea on why that happened? I followed the recipe exactly as instructed.
thanks for sharing, I’ll make them again very soon and double-check everything to see what could be the culprit!
turned out great, thanks!
I couldn’t find any brown burger buns in the shops that didn’t have emulsifiers in so thought I’d try my own and a quick google search brought me here as I wanted some I could eat right away – I’m seriously impressed with the recipe and will definitely make again. I’m having mine with BBB burgers (beet, brown rice and black beans) and we’ve just have one straight out the oven with balsamic vinegar- YUM!!!!
Hi. Should the apple sauce go in with the wet ingredients or just be used to glaze the buns?
applesauce is used for the glaze in this recipe — thanks for the question, I’ll be sure to write it out more clearly :)
Thanks .. it was clearly written, I was just double checking because other recipes add apple to the mixed ingredients instead of oil. ????????
I am interested in making this recipe but would like to know if it was corrected for the bitter and/or heavy soda flavor mentioned in the comments?
To be frank, this is a bad recipe. I did everything to the T, except sift the dry ingredients because I don’t have a sieve, and the buns came out soooo hard. I’m honestly really upset about how much time I wasted on these.
sorry that the recipe didn’t work for you! this can have several explanations and I’ll be sure to make the buns again soon to see whether there’s anything I can improve about them.
I thought these were great. After reading reviews, I was hesitant about these, but they turned out great. They seemed like they were a cross between a biscuit and a bun. I did put a linen towel over them after they came out of the oven to keep the moisture in and this did soften the crust and kept the inside soft and fluffy. I will also add that I couldn’t find anywhere in the recipe that the apple sauce was for the topping (the recipe says to use almond milk, but comments indicate that the apple sauce is for toppings). I added it to the rolls so that could be a factor in the texture. However it is to be used, I would continue to use it in the ingredients! Finally, I used whole grain, sprouted spelt flour. The taste was nutty and earthy! I will definitely make these again!
I thought these were great. After reading reviews, I was hesitant about these, but they turned out great. They seemed like they were a cross between a biscuit and a bun. I did put a linen towel over them after they came out of the oven to keep the moisture in and this did soften the crust and kept the inside soft and fluffy. I will also add that I couldn’t find anywhere in the recipe that the apple sauce was for the topping (the recipe says to use almond milk, but comments indicate that the apple sauce is for toppings). I added it to the rolls so that could be a factor in the texture. However it is to be used, I would continue to use it in the ingredients! Finally, I used whole grain, sprouted Spelt flour. The taste was nutty and earthy! I will definitely make these again!
The recipe did not say when to add the “apple sauce” I added it with the other wet ingredients. I thought the apple sauce added the perfect amount of sweetness! I froze the leftovers and hoping they defrost well. Thanks for this easy and delicious recipe!