Keto Big Mac Salad
The Big Mac has always been a favorite hamburger. On the keto diet, you can still enjoy a Big Mac, just turn it into a salad. Take a juicy cheeseburger and put it onto of shredded iceberg lettuce, tomato, pickle, red onion and add a creamy thousand island dressing.
4
Servings
602
Calories
47.6g
Fat
35.6g
Protein
3.5g
Net Carb
5.2g
Total Carbs
Keto Big Mac Salad Recipe Video
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Low Carb Thousand Island Dressing Ingredients
1/2 cup mayonnaise
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2 tablespoons sugar free ketchup
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1 tablespoon vinegar (white or apple cider)
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1 tablespoon minced dill pickle
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1 teaspoon sugar free sweetener
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1 teaspoon finely diced onion
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salt & pepper to taste
Keto Big Mac Salad Ingredients
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1 pound ground beef
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1 teaspoon garlic powder
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1 teaspoon salt
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1/2 teaspoon black pepper
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one head of iceberg lettuce or green leaf lettuce, shredded
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1 cup diced tomatoes
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3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
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1/2 cup diced dill pickles
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1/3 cup finely diced red onion
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sesame seeds & fresh dill for garnish
Keto Big Mac Salad Directions
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Thousand island dressing
In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for the dressing. Add salt & pepper to taste. Set aside.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tablespoons sugar free ketchup
- 1 tablespoon vinegar (white or apple cider)
- 1 tablespoon minced dill pickle
- 1 teaspoon sugar free sweetener
- 1 teaspoon finely diced onion
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Cook hamburger
Heat a skillet to medium high heat. Add ground beef . Cook and crumble until almost browned. Stir in garlic powder, salt and pepper. Continue cooking until ground beef is cooked through. Remove from heat and let cool.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
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Assemble salad
To assemble the burger bowl, mix iceberg lettuce, red onion, dill pickle, and tomato to a bowl. Top with ground beef mixture and shredded cheese.
Ingredients
- one head of iceberg lettuce or green leaf lettuce, shredded
- 1 cup diced tomatoes
- 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/3 cup finely diced red onion
- 1/2 cup diced dill pickles
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The secret sauce
Drizzle on thousand island dressing. Garnish with sesame seeds and fresh dill.
An American classic burger is the Big Mac. Traditionally, a Big Mac contains shredded iceberg lettuce, white onion, two quarter pound beef patties topped with American cheese, and thousand island dressing. All layered between three sesame seed buns.
This low carb version of the Big Mac, ditches the bun, replaces the American cheese for cheddar, and adds sliced tomato. The thousand island dressing is also a low carb version.
Once mixed together, this salad has all the flavor of a cheeseburger without the bun. And at only 3.5 grams net carbs per serving, you will want to add this to your weekly keto meal rotation.
The thousand island dressing in this recipe is a homemade creamy low carb thousand island. It is simple to make, so you could make it up ahead of time but you don’t need to. The dressing comes together in less than 5 minutes.
This salad dressing is the perfect amount of sweet and tang. It is sweetened with erythritol. And uses dill pickle and apple cider vinegar to give it a little bite to it.
In this keto burger bowl recipe, I opted not to use American Cheese that you would traditionally find on a Big Mac. American cheese has carbs in it. Sure it’s a small amount 1-2 carbs per slice, but that can add up when you are limited to a small amount of carbohydrates a day.
Instead, I suggest topping your burger with cheddar cheese. Cheddar has zero carbs per slice and has a similar flavor to American cheese.
Technically, the Big Mac does not contain tomato. However, I like to add it to my burger bowls because it adds color and I love the flavor it adds. Tomatos do have carbohydrates in them, but a few thin slices on a salad aren’t going to break the bank. They also provide fiber, vitamin C and lycopene.
Big Mac Salad is an easy recipe to meal prep ahead of time. I like to prep these to take for my lunches. To meal prep a burger bowl, store all your ingredients separately. Then combine them when you want to make your Big Mac Salad. You can cut up the iceberg lettuce ahead of time and store it in a ziplock bag or container. Place a dry piece of paper towel in with the lettuce to help absorb any excess moisture.
Mixing the red onion with the shredded cheddar added a sharp, savory crunch that made every bite exciting. Sautéing the ground beef with garlic powder gave it a deep, comforting flavor that really brought the whole salad together. Loved how the sesame seed garnish gave that classic burger vibe in a fresh way.
I made this salad for a quick weeknight dinner and it totally hit the spot. The flavor combo reminded me of the real thing but without the bun. I especially loved how the diced pickles added a punch of tanginess throughout. Definitely making again.