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.

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

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!