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A Cheeseburger Salad features all of your favorite burger fixin’s, minus the bun! This salad has some seasoned ground beef, a bit of bacon, lettuce, cheese, tomato, and pickles. Top it all with a savory mustard salad dressing for the best burger salad ever!

It’s customizable and easily made Paleo and Whole30-friendly.

Cheeseburger salad in a bowl with mustard dressing.


Cheeseburger Salad

Dare I say it, but I think I like this cheeseburger salad better than a traditional burger with a bun! This salad is delicious, hearty and so flavorful. The burger meat alone is insanely good. It’s cooked up with my classic burger seasoning, and a little (optional) ketchup added in to give it a really umami flavor. And when it’s combined with all that salad fixin’s, it’s out-of-this-world. I also love how customizable this salad is. You have the freedom to add in what you love on your burger! Feel free to get creative with it! And this is easily made Paleo, Keto, and Whole30 friendly for whatever your dietary needs are!

Ground beef cooked in a skillet for cheeseburger salad.

Burger Salad Ingredients

Scroll down for the full recipe!

  • Ground Beef
  • Bacon
  • Burger Seasoning
  • Paprika
  • Ketchup + Mayo + Mustard
  • Apple Cider Vinegar
  • Olive Oil
  • Lettuce
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • Avocado, diced
  • Pickles
  • Red Onion
  • Shredded Cheddar

Substitutions

It’s pretty easy to customize this salad based on your own dietary needs! Feel free to leave out any salad component that doesn’t work with your restrictions, such as cheese, and substitute it in with what you can have or what you like! The sky is the limit here, and think about what you like to eat with a burger.

You can leave out the cheese and the ketchup to make this Whole30 and Paleo compliant (or use compliant ketchup).

Have leftover burgers? Substitute those instead of cooking up fresh ground beef!

Mustard salad dressing in a glass container.

Steps to Make a Cheeseburger Salad

There are three main steps to making this cheeseburger salad:

  1. Cook the ground “burger” meat!
  2. Make the amazing mustard dressing.
  3. Assemble the salad.
  4. Enjoy!
Cheeseburger salad ingredients in a bowl.

Meal Prep Ideas

This salad is great to make for meal prep, with a few modifications. While the burger meat can be eaten cold if you want, this salad is best served with hot or warm burger meat. So the best way to meal prep this salad is to have a separate container for the salad components and the meat, that way the meat can be heated up on its own. And of course, with most salads, you’ll want to dress with the mustard dressing right before serving, so keep that separate too.

Just be careful about what salad components you choose. Obviously, something like sliced avocado will not keep well, so omit that if intending to make this for meal prep.

Keeping all of this in mind, this salad will keep well for 3-5 in the refrigerator.

A cheeseburger salad with mustard dressing.

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Cheeseburger salad with mustard dressing in a bowl.

Cheeseburger Salad with Mustard Vinaigrette

5 from 7 votes
A Cheeseburger Salad features all of your favorite burger fixin's, minus the bun! This salad has some seasoned ground beef, a bit of bacon, lettuce, cheese, tomato, and pickles that are topped with a savory mustard salad dressing! It's customizable and easily made Paleo and Whole30-friendly.
Servings 4
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes

Ingredients
  

For the "Burger":

  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 tablespoon burger seasoning
  • 2 tablespoons ketchup optional

For the Dressing:

  • 2 tablespoons yellow or dijon mustard
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoons mayo
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • Big pinch salt and pepper

For Assembling:

  • 8 cups fresh lettuce chopped
  • 2 cups halved cherry tomatoes
  • 4 strips bacon cooked
  • 1 Avocado diced
  • ½ cup dill pickle slices
  • ½ red onion sliced thin
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheddar

Instructions

  • Heat oil over medium heat in a skillet. Once hot add ground beef and burger seasoning. Cook until no pink remains. Once cooked through, add in ketchup (optional) and stir together to combine. Shut off the heat and let cool slightly.
  • Meanwhile, make the dressing: Add all ingredients to a jar or small bowl and whisk together. Taste and adjust seasoning.
  • Assemble the bowls: Divide lettuce, tomatoes, bacon, avocado, pickled and red onion among four bowls. Divide the beef mixture on top, then drizzle over 1-2 tablespoons of dressing. Serve immediately.

Notes

To make for meal prep, separately store the burger seasoning, the salad components, and the dressing. It should last 3-5 days.
This recipe was originally published in 2015, and updated with a new recipe and photos in 2020.

Nutrition

Calories: 415kcalCarbohydrates: 5.7gProtein: 34.4gFat: 28.1gSaturated Fat: 7.5gCholesterol: 179mgSodium: 533mgFiber: 1.4gSugar: 2.7g
Course: Salad
Author: Lexi's Clean Kitchen


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Comments

  1. This salad was absolutely amazing! It tasted like a burger you would get at a fast food restaurant (but even better). This is going on my list of rotational dinners for sure.

  2. This was amazing!!! There is so much you can add to this salad. I added olives to my husband’s. The dressing is so yummy! I can’t wait to make it again.

  3. 5 stars
    LOVE LOVE LOVE this salad! It’s become a weekly favorite in our house. The hubs requests it 🙂 And it even works well for our “selective” 6 year old as he eats his version in a de-constructed style. He’s not a big fan of salad mixed up together, but he likes all of the ingredients so that’s how he eats his serving. Gotta love a recipe even more when it’s a family hit. Also, this does really well for meal prep!

  4. 5 stars
    This was delicious and so easy to make for dinner! I have dressing leftover and I’m totally making this with ground turkey for lunch this week!

  5. This looks great, but where is the recipe for the mustard dressing? That seems to be the key component to bring this salad together but there is not a recipe for it.

    1. Apologies, Leslie but we were having some site work completed and it caused issues with some of the recipes. It is back up to the correct recipe. Enjoy!

  6. 5 stars
    These were great! I e Topped salads before with a burger and fried egg for hubby but never thought to put the burger fixings in there aka pickles!! I had Some sir Kensington’s chipotle mayo and thinned it out with a little oat milk. Delish dressing! Really a hit with the fam!! Thanks for the inspo!! ♥️

  7. That has been my routine as well, make extra chicken or burgers on the weekend and I’ve got lunch for the whole week! Love this salad and will definitely try the dressing!