Homestead Recipe: Cheeseburger Salad

I'm back today after a nice little weekend visit with our friend in Tennessee, and I've got a really yummy recipe for you this week! It sounds a little bit strange, but I made this last week and it was SO good I just had to share it with you.

Not only is this super fast simple to make (weeknight dinners that REALLY only take 30 minutes are few and far between in my experience), but it was much better than I imagined - and it's a great semi-healthy dinner option if you have husbands like mine who don't consider a meal complete without meat and cheese! :D 

It's very satisfying, yet light enough for summer, and given that we've had so much lettuce we've been struggling to find different ways to use it all, this made a nice change from our usual "big salad" night. My only regret is that we don't have fresh tomatoes yet, as that would have been an excellent addition, so I guess I'll just have to make it again next month. :-) 

Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

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Cheeseburger Salad Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs ground beef (I only used 1lb and it was plenty for 2 people, with one extra serving for leftovers)
  
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper, to taste
  
• 4 cups shredded lettuce (or a variety of salad greens you have available)
  

Toppings:

• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  
• 1 cup sliced or diced pickles (you can use whatever kind you like - I used homemade sweet bread and butter pickles and it was a delicious match!)
  
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced or diced
  
• 1 tomato, diced
  
• Fresh sprouts (optional)
• 1 batch of cheeseburger sauce

For the Cheeseburger Sauce:

• ½ cup mayo (I only used 1/3 cup since I had cut down the amount of beef and didn't want too much sauce left over)
  
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste (I only used one as it sounded like a lot, and I thought it was perfect!)
• ½ tsp. apple cider vinegar
  
• ¼ tsp. sugar (I used 1/2 tsp as I thought it needed a bit of sweetness)
• 1 Tbsp. dijon mustard
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• ½ tsp. garlic powder
• ¼ tsp. pepper

Instructions:

1. In a skillet, brown the ground beef with the minced garlic, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.
   
2. In a small bowl, mix together the cheeseburger sauce ingredients.
   
3. Prep the salad greens and toppings.
   
4. Arrange salad greens on plates, then top with ground beef and toppings and a generous serving of cheeseburger sauce.
   

Feel free to experiment and make this recipe your own by adding or varying the toppings! I think diced green peppers would be tasty, and maybe cucumbers as well. It was delicious without the tomato, but I think it would be even better with, so I plan to make this again during tomato season. We didn't have sprouts, but I'm sure they wold be a nice addition as well. The sauce sounded a bit odd to me, but it was YUM!

A note on leftovers - if you have them: Refrigerate the components separately. I put them all in one container (except the sauce) without thinking about it, and had the dilemma of either microwaving my salad (lettuce doesn't like that!) or having cold, congealed beef on top. I compromised by microwaving it for only 30 seconds, but it would have been much better to re-heat the ground beef separately and then assemble the salad. Lesson learned!

This dish was SO easy it literally only took 30 minutes including prep time, and I can't wait to have it again! 

I hope you enjoy it, too! Let me know what you think.

Rose.


Thanks to Jill at The Prairie Homestead for this simple and delicious recipe!