Vegan In-N-Out Burgers

This VEGAN In-N-Out Burger has all the beefy, cheesy, oniony goodness of an Animal Style Burger, except with no animals!

Growing up in Southern California, I’ve eaten my fair share of the famous Animal Style Double Doubles from In-N-Out, and I gotta say, this Vegan In-N-Out Burger recipe comes shockingly close to what I remember (my non-vegan neighbor said they were “Spot On!”) In fact, I dare say these are better!

What does animal style mean?

In-N-Out’s menu is fairly simple (they really only make burgers, fries and shakes) there are a few “secret menu” items you can order. The most famous is Animal Style!

According to local lore, a bunch of hooligan skateboarders in the 1960s liked to order their hamburgers in a specific way, and the employees lovingly called them animals, thus Animal-Style was born.

When you ask for a burger in this style you get pickles, extra sauce, mustard grilled patties and the beloved grilled / caramelized onions. It truly is one of the best, if not THEE BEST fast food burger out there.

And since In-N-Out does things a specific way, let’s go over just what you need to do to replicate it at home! Oh, and this recipe is also available in my Cookbook: VEGAN FAST FOOD! Check it out if you wanna make more vegan fast food copycats!

ingredients for a vegan in-n-out burger

the buns

For the buns, you’re gonna wanna get some squishy white buns. Most commercially available buns in the US are accidentally plant-based.

Go for the smaller buns at the store, they should be about 3.5 inches. Bigger buns will go around 4.5 inches. I have a Vegan McDonald’s video where I go into more detail too!

Burger Patties

In order to nail an In-N-Out style burger, you want to make sure you use 2 oz patties. Otherwise the burger will be too tall and hard to eat. You can use something like Impossible or Beyond Meat, or whatever plant-based meat you like.

And if you don’t wanna use store-bought plant-based meat, check out my TVP BURGER RECIPE for a homemade burger patty, or my Veggie Burger Patty too!

Special Sauce

The sauce we are making is a simple concoction of Vegan Mayo, Ketchup, Relish (sweet or dill), Garlic Powder and Worcestershire Sauce (vegan of course) and it’s a humdinger of a sauce! I dare you not to lick the spoon after mixing it up!

grilled onions

I’m not gonna lie, it takes a while to grill the onions like In-N-Out. But, it’s totally worth it in my opinion! Plus you’ll have some leftovers for later and can quickly whip some burgers up! Or you can use them on a Patty Melt or Onion Dip! I also recommend making them in a batch and freezing them for later like I do for my Freezer Friendly Onions!

But if you still don’t wanna go through all that, another good option is the whole grilled onion, which is where you just take a slice of whole grilled onion and top your burger with that! Not as good, but still really dang good, so if you’re short on time or patience, that is a great option!

Fresh Veggies

I don’t usually like tomatoes on a burger, but I think they are necessary in this scenario. Try to get beefsteak tomatoes that are the same size as your buns, that way you only need one slice!

For the lettuce, it has to be crisp Iceberg! No fancy stuff, save that arugula or baby spinach for later!

Pickles

I’ve recently preferred cheap crappy pickles over something like Grillo’s when making these fast food copycat burgers. It just really nails the whole vibe of the burger, so just get some good ol’ neon green dill pickles!

Cheese

I highly recommend using Vegan American cheese if you can! I like the stuff by Follow Your Heart or Daiya.

how to make a vegan in-n-out burger

First make the sauce. This is quite easy, you literally just gotta mix everything up and taste for seasoning. Sweet relish seems to be what they use, but I’ve tried Dill and it’s great as well. So use whatever you like!

The grilled onions will take a while. Mine usually need at least 45 minutes – 1 hour. Just keep an eye on them so they don’t burn.

But all you really need to do is melt some butter and add some oil to a pan, and grill the diced onions over medium heat until browned to your liking.

For the patties, I recommend weighing out 2 oz of plant-based meat and then rolling into a ball. Then form a patty with a cookie cutter that’s the size of your buns.

Or for something faster, use a burger iron or spatula to smash the balls into patties in between 2 pieces of burger paper.

You can toast your buns however you like, but I prefer a dry toast as I find this keeps the buns from getting soggy.

Add your burger patties to the pan / griddle and season with salt and pepper. Cook them for about 3 minutes, and then right before flipping, squirt them with some mustard.

Then add a piece of vegan american cheese, squirt some water in the pan, cover and melt the cheese for about a minute.

Assemble burger as follows from bottom to top: bun, sauce, pickles, tomato slice, lettuce, burger patties, onions, more sauce, top bun.

Make it as SAUCY as you like!

storage

Store leftover sauce and onions in the fridge and use within 3 days. The great thing about this recipe is if you make enough for leftovers, you can whip up a Animal Style Burger in under 10 minutes!

Or you can make my Animal Fries too!

Or a Flying Dutchman!

handy dandy video here!

Other Recipes You Will Dig!

• Animal Fries
• Flying Dutchman
• Vegan Mayo
• McRib
• Big Mac
• Popeyes Chick’n Sandwich

If you made and enjoyed this recipe, please leave a rating & review! It really helps out the blog and it makes my day, thank you!

Vegan Double Double Animal Style

Thee Burger Dude

4.72 from 38 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Course Burgers

Cuisine American

Servings 1 Burger (Plus Extra Sauce & Onions)

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Burger

• 4 oz Vegan Meat (like Impossible or Beyond, SEE NOTES)
• 2 Slices Vegan American Cheese
• 1 Tomato Slice
• 1 – 2 Iceburg Lettuce leaves
• 4 Dill Pickle Slices
• 1 Burger Bun
• Mustard

Grilled Onions

• 3 lbs. Yellow or Brown Onions (diced)
• 2 Tbsp Vegan Butter
• 2 Tbsp Neutral Oil (Vegetable, Canola, etc)
• Salt
• Sugar

Special Sauce

• 1 cup Vegan Mayo
• 1/4 cup Ketchup
• 2 Tbsp Dill or Sweet Relish
• 1 Tbsp Vegan Worcestershire
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• Salt & Pepper (to taste)

Instructions

 

Grilled Onions

• The most time consuming part of this is grilling the onions, so let's start that before anything else. Add the vegan butter and oil to a pan over medium / medium high heat. Once melted and bubbling, add your onions and stir to coat. Stir it frequently, and after 10 minutes, add in a pinch of salt and sugar, which will help with the flavor and browning.
• You can try to multitask and grill the onions while you prepare the rest of the burger components, but either way, just keep an eye on them and make sure they don't brown too fast, or even worse, burn! Lower the heat as needed, stir frequently, and deglaze with some water if they stick to the pan. They should be perfect in about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Once they are done, remove from the heat and reserve.

Special Sauce

• Make the special sauce by combining all the ingredients in a bowl, taste and adjust for seasoning and store in the fridge.

Burgers

• Weigh out 2 oz of plant based meat and form two patties to be the same size as your bun, either with a cookie cutter or by smashing them with a spatula in between some burger or parchment paper. Or just do it by hand, whatever you want!
• Bring a pan up to medium high heat and toast your buns, either in vegan butter or mayo, or do a dry toast like me. Let them rest on a wire rack so they don't steam.
• Add your burger patties to the pan / griddle and season with salt and pepper. Cook them for about 3 minutes, and then right before flipping, squirt them with some mustard. Flip them, then add a piece of vegan american cheese, squirt some water in the pan, cover and melt the cheese for about a minute. Then remove from heat.
• Assemble burger as follows from bottom to top: bun, sauce, pickles, tomato slice, lettuce, burger patties, onions, more sauce, top bun.
• ENJOY!

Notes

Store leftover sauce and onions in the fridge and use within 3 days (5 max, use your nose if unsure!)

If you don’t wanna use store-bought plant-based meat, check out my TVP BURGER RECIPE for a homemade burger patty, or my Veggie Burger Patty too!

Keyword vegan animal style, vegan cheeseburger, Vegan Double Double Animal Style, vegan in n out

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