Buddha Burgers lives by a simple but meaningful philosophy: healthy vegan food should be available to everybody.

Is this your first restaurant?

Yes. I started Buddha Burgers seven years ago with no prior experience in the restaurant business. It’s in a small venue, in the backyard of a central Tel Aviv shopping mall, with only ten seats around a bar. To my surprise, within one month the place was basically booked solid from lunch to evening.

When did it open?

The first location, at Yehuda HaLevy 21, opened in December 2007.

How many do you hope to have in the future? Will you expand further?

I’m focused on our current locations. I want to create places with good, inexpensive dishes that are as well-regarded as our flagship restaurant in Tel Aviv, so I won’t strive to open more branches. We have branches in central Tel Aviv and Ra'anana [a suburb of Tel Aviv], as well as the Haifa branch that opened in May 2013, that are independent franchises.

What’s your favorite dish on the menu?

I personally eat almost exclusively raw, and I can say if it weren’t for my regular intake of sprouted lentils, and all the energy and physical and mental strength I gain from them, the restaurant never would have come into creation. So my favorite dish would be sprouted lentil salad with greens and bell peppers, and for this reason we have quite a large salad bar with about thirty-four different vegetables, as well as tofu and seitan products.

What’s your most popular appetizer?

Our Seitan Fingers, which is seitan cut into sticks, covered with a mixture of bread crumbs, nutritional yeast flakes, salt, and pepper, then fried. It’ll take care of any meat cravings.

What’s the most popular entrée on the menu?

One very popular entrée is our stuffed peppers; the traditional stuffing is a mixture of meat and rice; we make ours with seitan and brown rice, plus greens and dried cranberries.

What’s your most popular dessert?

Because I’m originally from Vienna, and I remember the desserts in those coffeehouses, I put a lot of effort behind my desserts here, and many nonvegetarians are astonished by our capabilities. Two popular desserts are our Un-Cheese Cake and our tiramisu.

What do you feel is special about your restaurant?

Our customers, who are incredibly intelligent, and our team. I’m always trying to find team players who are vegan or at least will be capable of understanding our mission. And with them, I know that we maintain a very high standard.

How often do you change your menu items? Do you have daily or weekly specials?

We do offer seasonal dishes; for example, when apricots are in season, we make apricot balls (a sweet dough ball with an apricot in the center) for dessert. Daily specials were dropped some years ago, but maybe they’ll return again.

Do you have gluten-free, soy-free, and sugar-free options on your menu?

The awareness of gluten intolerance has risen in Israel over the last few years, so many of our dishes are made and marked as gluten-free. We also have soyfree options, but we didn’t label them as such, since not many customers request it. And we also serve sugar-free desserts made with maltitol and stevia.

What do you do to reduce your environmental impact?

All of our deliveries are done by bicycle, [and have been] since day one. We were the first in Tel Aviv, maybe in the whole of Israel, to do this, and others copied us since then. We do this mainly to emphasize the environmental advantages of vegan food.

What are the most important lessons you’ve learned as owner or chef of this restaurant?

It hasn’t been about learning something new for me. Instead, it’s been about taking the time to practice what I learned before, to do something complete, to strive to create something complete, something where I can say, “Now this is truly very good.”

What led you to want to open a vegan restaurant, and/or what led you to the vegan diet yourself?

Ethical reasons. But I never strived to open a restaurant. Initially it was a whim, a shot in the dark, but when customers kept returning I realized that there’s a real need for healthy vegan food. I felt an obligation to improve, because I understood we were doing something important for them.

In the time since your restaurant first opened, how has the plant-based food movement changed? Do you find more demand now for vegan food?

Yes, definitely, demand is growing in Israel, especially in the last two years. And I think the main difference is that the attitude of nonvegetarians has changed. Seven years ago many people ridiculed us, but now, over the years, there’s a growing understanding that vegan food is healthier.

Since your restaurant first opened, has your view of what constitutes healthy or delicious food changed? Have you changed the types of foods you offer?

No, I already knew that raw food was the healthiest choice. The only personal change I made is that I now frequently drink wheatgrass. This definitely helped me with caffeine withdrawal, and gave me more physical energy. I can see it in my running: I got faster and stronger with wheatgrass juice.

Where do you see the plant-based food movement going in coming years?

Change is slow. For me the real question is when will vegan restaurants become the majority. I believe it’ll happen, maybe in thirty, forty, or fifty years.

The principle of this burger is simple: include as many healthy and energizing ingredients as possible. Therefore, the base is sprouted lentils and quite a lot of flaxseed. All other ingredients are included for texture and taste.

Buddha Lentil Burger

Serves 8–10

2 tablespoons olive oil (optional)

1½ cups minced white onion

7 cups sliced white mushrooms

¾ cup sliced celery stalks

3 cups sprouted green or black lentils

1½ cups minced toasted walnuts

10 garlic gloves, minced

¼ green jalapeño pepper, minced well*

1 cup tomato paste

1 cup ground flaxseeds

4 tablespoons tahini mixed with 4 tablespoons water

4 tablespoons soy sauce**

30 fresh basil leaves, minced

1½ teaspoons ground sea salt (or regular salt)

1½ teaspoons ground black pepper

* Wear gloves when handling these peppers and never touch your eyes.

** For a gluten-free version of this recipe, use gluten-free soy sauce or Bragg Liquid Aminos.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Warm the olive oil in a pan and add the minced onion together with the mushrooms and the celery. Sauté for 5 minutes. Drain the vegetable mixture in a colander and press out all the juices and oil. Then put the mixture in a food processor together with the lentils and walnuts. Using a large food processor, work in batches. With the food processor half-full, pulse the ingredients for 5 to 8 seconds until it resembles the texture of ground beef.

Transfer the mixture out of the food processor and into a large bowl, and stir in the rest of the ingredients with a large spoon (or a mixer). Set aside and let it rest for 10 minutes so the ground flaxseeds can bind the mixture. The mixture should be soft and moist.

To make each patty, take about 5 heaping tablespoons of burger mixture and press it flat into a disc onto an oiled baking pan. Bake the patties at 375 degrees. After 10 minutes, flip the patties and rotate the pan around in the oven back to front (for even baking). Bake another 10 minutes. Remove and cool. The patties should be crunchy on the outside and softer on the inside.

Serve in a whole spelt bun with toppings, like our Béchamel “Cheese” (see recipe under Tofu Spinach Lasagna), a vegan Thousand Island dressing (vegan mayonnaise, ketchup, pickles, and dried onion), mustard, lettuce, tomato, red onion, or chives.

Tip: The healthiest way to prepare these burgers is to dehydrate them rather than baking. After shaping the patties, place them in an oven at 115 degrees for 12 hours.

Tip: If you want to make the lasagna gluten-free, replace the pasta with eggplant. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut 1 medium eggplant into thin slices, put them in salt water for 30 minutes, then drain them and pat them dry. Cover with gluten-free flour and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the eggplant slices are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. Then follow the steps at right to assemble the lasagna.

This lasagna remains a favorite even after four years. We make the same lasagna day after day, and there are customers at our brunch buffet filling up the entire plate with it. It’s quite easy to make, though a little time intensive.

Tofu Spinach Lasagna

Serves 4–6

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 cup minced white onion

3 cloves garlic, minced

3½ cups defrosted frozen spinach, drained

2 cups cubed potatoes, boiled and drained

4 tablespoons soy sauce

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

2 cups crumbled tofu, either hard or soft (not silken)

3 cups soy milk

20 ounces lasagna pasta

Buddha Tomato Sauce (recipe follows)

Béchamel “Cheese” (recipe follows)

Note: To protect the pasta layers from shifting due to humidity, work quickly and cover each layer with the next.

Put the olive oil in a saucepan and warm it for 15 seconds. Add the white onion and sauté for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and the spinach and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add the cooked potato cubes, soy sauce, salt, and pepper, and smash the mixture with a potato masher (or with an immersion blender, but be careful not to overmix, or the potatoes will turn to glue). Add the crumbled tofu and stir.

To assemble: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle soy milk on the bottom of the baking pan, just to make a base. Add 1 layer of lasagna pasta. Top that with the tomato sauce. Add another layer of lasagna pasta. Top that with the tofu-spinach mixture. Add another layer of lasagna pasta. Top with the cheese. Bake the lasagna for 30 minutes. The lasagna is ready when the cheese on top turns golden. Remove and serve. The lasagna will only keep well for 3 days in the fridge, so eat leftovers quickly.

Béchamel “Cheese”

Serves 8

This is our most popular sauce and cheese substitute, based on soy milk, with nutritional yeast for taste, besan (chickpea flour) for protein and added thickness, and a little salt and canola oil, creating a rich mayonnaise-style spread.

¼ cup Earth Balance butter substitute

6 tablespoons besan (chickpea flour)

1½ teaspoons salt

3 cups soy milk*

¾ cup nutritional yeast powder

1 to 1½ cups canola oil (weaker blenders require more oil)

* For this kind of cheese you will need soy-based milk; the lecithin in the milk is a binder and results in the mayonnaiselike consistency.

Soften the butter substitute on the stovetop in a stainless-steel pot over a low flame, taking care not to boil it. Mix the besan and salt into the butter substitute and stir so that the mixture thickens and makes a roux. Slowly add the soy milk, while continuously stirring. Turn up the flame to warm the mixture, and bring it to a boil still while stirring, until thoroughly combined, and then switch off the burner. Move mixture to a blender and add the nutritional yeast and blend until thoroughly combined.

Add the canola oil in batches: Pour out part of the mixture from the blender into another container, so the blender is never more than one-third full. Put the lid back on tightly and increase the blender to maximum speed. If you have a blender with a small middle lid on the top, open the lid on the top while the blender is running and you will see a hole created by the blender plates. (If your lid doesn’t have this, you will have to stop the blender.) Slowly pour the canola oil into the soy milk mixture while the blender runs. You will see that the hole slowly closes. When the hole is closed and the motor of your blender sounds higher (the blades of the knife are running in air), the cheese is finished and you can switch off the blender. Repeat this process, adding oil to the other batches.

Tip: If resulting cheese is too salty for your taste, you can dilute it with more soy milk in the blender.

Buddha Tomato Sauce (Marinara Sauce)

We base our tomato sauce on the classic Italian marinara sauce, but we add sun-dried tomatoes for more flavor.

5 sun-dried tomatoes (not packed in oil)

2 tablespoons oil

1 cup minced white onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 red bell pepper, diced

½ cucumber, diced

½ zucchini, diced

5 tomatoes, boiled and skin removed, diced (or 1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes)

1 cup tomato paste

10 fresh basil leaves, minced

½ cup white wine

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Soak the sun-dried tomatoes for 30 minutes in enough water to cover them. Do not drain. After 30 minutes, move them to a blender and blend them with the soaking water. Set aside. Sauté the white onion in the oil for 3 minutes in a saucepan. Add garlic, pepper, cucumber, and zucchini and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, sun-dried tomato mixture, basil, and wine, and cook for about 20 to 30 minutes until mixture is reduced by about 30 to 50 percent. Mash with a potato masher or blend with an immersion blender. Taste and add salt and pepper to your liking.