Today’s recipe is going to show a very simple way to still eat your cheeseburger with your hands but without the buns (for those of you worried about eating carbs). No, it’s not the Tracy Jordan Meat Machine.
And it’s not just about using lettuce as a wrap instead of a bun. If you put together all of your burger toppings without this trick, you’re gonna be in for some sloppy eating my friend.
Step 1: Season your ground meat to your liking (we’ll be adding in separate recipes for making delicious burgers soon) and get your ingredients ready. For this one we kept the recipe simple, just mixed in ketchup, mustard, salt and pepper.
Step 2: Form patties with the ground beef, chop up the vegetable. Heat a few drizzles of olive oil in a pan for the vegetables and use cooking spray on the pan for the burgers.
Tip: Form the burgers into slightly smaller patties than usual so that they will fit in our bunless wrap when they’re ready.
Step 3: When your burgers are about 90% cooked, add the sautéed veggies on top, then cover with a slice of cheese to melt on top and keep everything together.
This will keep your toppings from sliding all over the place without having a bun to keep them together.
Tip: Notice the size of the patties are a little smaller than the slice of cheese. Tear the cheese to fit and drop that extra piece on top for more cheesiness.
Step 4: After your burgers are cooked through and the cheese has melted to keep all the veggies on top, your burgers are ready.
Now you’ll take a full head of lettuce and carefully peel off the top layers to lay down on a plate. Place the burger inside the lettuce, add anymore toppings or condiments that you may like (we threw in some pickles, ketchup and mustard).
Step 5: Wrap up the lettuce around your burger and dig in! Now you have a burger you can still easily eat with your hands and no worry about the bun or getting too sloppy.