Recipe: Cheeseburger Salad

What do you do when you are eating low carb, but a cheeseburger craving hits? Cheeseburger Salad, of course! All the taste without the guilt.

I could never be a vegetarian.

I just love a juicy, medium rare cheeseburger way too much.

I don’t indulge in them quite as often as I’d like though, because I keep carbs to a minimum and without the bun … well … it’s just not the same.

But last week I did a little out-of-the-box thinking and came up with the next best thing … Cheeseburger Salad.

If you close your eyes and dig in, it almost tastes like you’re eating a cheeseburger.

Almost.

Nice tender meat, the juicy tang from ketchup and mustard, a little bite from the pickle, a crunch from the onion … all the flavors you crave from a juicy burger and you can skip the side of guilt.

That’s my kind of meal.

And better still? It was kid-approved.

This recipe is very forgiving … use ground turkey instead of beef .. make a Mexican version and use Pepper Jack cheese on top and add some salsa. You can totally play around with the flavors without messing anything up, and it’s so quick and easy to make, it makes for a perfect weeknight meal when time is tight.

Dig in.

Cheeseburger Salad
Recipe courtesy of Cate O’Malley

Ingredients
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 pound 85% lean ground beef
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup finely chopped pickles
1 tablespoon mustard
8 cups lettuce, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions
Place the ground beef into a skillet over medium heat, season with salt, and brown the meat for about 10 to 12 minutes, breaking the beef apart as it cooks, until the meat is well browned and no longer pink inside. Add in the onion, ketchup, pickle, and mustard into the cooked beef and mix well.

Arrange the chopped lettuce on each individual plate and spoon the beef mixture over the lettuce. Top it with tomatoes and shredded cheese.

Serves: 4