Peace Patties .Love — a Salem-made vegan burger

Delicious meat alternative
Darn good burger, period.

Move over beef, there’s a new burger on the scene. Peace Patties .Love are allergen-friendly, hand-crafted vegan burger patties combining mung beans, fresh vegetables and a blend of spices — made right here in Salem.

In 2016, Magdalena Abdon bought a 5-pound bag of mung beans from an Indian grocery in Salem. She brought it home, put it away and promptly forgot it existed. It wasn’t until she and her husband were packing their house for a move to Hawaii two years later that she was reminded of her purchase.

“When we were packing the very last box of kitchen stuff…I found that bag of beans, and I put them in, which is crazy…[when] packing for a move like that every space in a box is critical,” Magdalena said. “Honestly, it was a seminal point in my destiny.”

Once settled in their new home on Hawaii’s Big Island, Magdalena pulled out that 5-pound bag of mung beans, because her new friend, Niranjan Wonta, was going to show her how to prepare them.

Niranjan is from Nepal and had grown up eating and preparing mung beans, as they originated in India, but are a staple item in many Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

“After he showed me a couple of ways he prepares them, I said: ‘you know I could make a mung-bean-based burger patty out of them.’ He scoffed and snorted a bit with laughter and said, ‘how would you do that?’ I smiled…my new challenge was on,” Magdalena said.

She started making allergen-friendly, vegan burger patties combining mung beans, fresh vegetables and a blend of spices in her home kitchen almost every day. She gave them to neighbors, to friends, to people who were hungry. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

Magdalena returned to Oregon in late 2019, and reconnected with her friend Niranjan (who had also relocated to Salem). A year later the two cooks launched Peace Patties .Love.

“We felt that we were on board with the modern culinary revolution and the growing demand for delicious plant-based food…both from a health and environmental standpoint,” Magdalena said.

Peace Patties .Love are free from gluten, egg, soy, dairy, sulfites, peanuts, coconut, sesame seeds, shellfish and tree nuts. Plus, they have no preservatives, fillers, additives, added fat or sugar, and the beans are sourced from U.S. farmers.

Currently, you can find them at the Salem Community Market, Salem Public Market, and LifeSource Natural Foods.

Eventually, Magdalena and Niranjan hope to find a permanent location where they can share their delicious food year-round. A place where they can ”serve our patties to the public the way we intended them to be presented, in a small restaurant, burger bar setting,” Magdalena said. “Stand by for more information on that!”

Find Peace Patties. Love at —