Trade your burgers in for these delicious Burger Bowls! The hamburger salads are packed with ground beef, greens, cheese, veggies, burger bun croutons, and special sauce dressing. You and your family can customize your own ideal bowls by adding any of your favorite burger toppings.
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It's finally burger season and I am so ready! But in between all the summer BBQs and grilling sessions, I sometimes crave a really good salad.
Does it count as a salad if it's basically a deconstructed burger? I'm going with YES. While the typical burger is mostly meat and bread with a few veggie toppings if you choose, these burger bowls are mostly vegetables with a small amount of beef, cheese, and croutons.
Of course, you can totally control the amount of every ingredient in your burger bowl, adding and omitting the components of your choice and customizing it to your own tastes.
Your ideal burger bowl may look different than mine, but no matter how you make it, it's going to be absolutely delicious!
❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
If you're a fan of hamburgers, you're going to love these customizable burger bowls! They're packed with everything that makes a really good hamburger, but in salad form.
They're super easy to make and are a fun dinner to enjoy with a crowd. You can even set up a burger bowl bar and let everyone design and build their own bowls!
Though the bowls are quite simple, they do include delicious homemade burger bun croutons and a special sauce dressing!
🗒 Ingredients
Here's everything I use in my burger bowls. But feel free to customize to your own and your family's tastes. And be sure to view the recipe card at the bottom of this post for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.
- Ground beef
- Garlic powder
- Salt & pepper
- Romaine lettuce
- Cherry tomatoes
- Red onion
- Avocado
- Shredded cheddar cheese
- Sliced dill pickles
- Hamburger bun croutons: I share the recipe in this post and ingredients below
- Secret sauce dressing: I share the recipe in this post and ingredients below
Here's what you need for the hamburger bun croutons:
- Hamburger buns: I like the ones with sesame seeds
- Olive oil
- Salt
And here's what you need for the homemade special sauce dressing:
- Mayonnaise
- Ketchup
- Yellow mustard
- Dill pickle juice
🥖 How to make burger bun croutons
I like to make the hamburger bun croutons ahead of time, so they're ready whenever I want to enjoy my salad. They're super easy to make!
Simple, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a medium bowl, toss together cubed hamburger buns, olive oil, and salt.
Place the bread cubes on a baking sheet.
And bake for 9-11 minutes, until the croutons are nice and crispy.
Once they're cooled completely, you can store the croutons in an airtight container at room temperature.
They should keep fresh for 1-2 weeks when stored properly.
🥣 How to make secret sauce dressing
You can also make the burger bowl dressing ahead of time. It's literally as easy as putting all the ingredients in a bowl and whisking together.
You can also put all the ingredients in a small mason jar and shake them up if you prefer.
Be sure to keep the dressing stored in an airtight container in the fridge. It should keep good for at least a week.
🍔 How to make burger bowls
Now you're ready to cook up your ground beef and assemble your burger bowls!
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the ground beef and season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Of course, you can add any spices and seasonings you choose.
Cook while breaking beef up with a spatula.
Continue cooking until the beef is cooked through with no remaining pink, about 8-10 minutes. Drain excess fat and set aside to cool slightly.
And assemble those burger bowls!
I like to divide the lettuce evenly between 4 salad bowls.
Then I top the lettuce with ground beef and evenly divide tomatoes, sliced onion, avocado slices, cheese, and pickles between the bowls.
Top with croutons and drizzle as much dressing as you desire over the top.
And dig in to the most delicious salad/deconstructed burger/burger bowl of your life.
This is so my kind of meal and I actually prefer it to a burger pretty much any time. I love that I can add whatever I want and however much of everything I want.
And it's much easier to eat than a giant burger with all the toppings!
Burger bowls are also fabulous for rainy days. When you can't get out to the grill, you can enjoy this flavor-packed salad inside instead.
⏲️ How to make ahead of time
If you want to make these burger bowls ahead of time or use them for meal prep, I recommend keeping the components separate and then assembling the bowls right before you're ready to enjoy them.
You can cook the ground beef ahead of time and store it in an airtight container in the fridge; make the dressing and croutons ahead of time; and chop all your veggies ahead of time and keep them in the fridge.
The salad will be quick and easy to put together when you're ready to eat!
🎉 Variations on recipe
This recipe shows you how to make my idea burger bowl; but you make have other ideas about what you want in your own bowl! Here are some ideas for other delicious additions:
- Greens: use the lettuce of your choice or use a spring mix, kale, or baby spinach.
- Cheese: use whatever kind of cheese you love topping your burgers with. Swiss, gorgonzola, blue cheese, pepper jack, or smoked gouda would all be delicious.
- Pickles: if you prefer bread and butter pickles (AKA sweet pickles), you can use those instead.
- Eggs: if you love your burger with an egg on it, you can add a hardboiled egg or a fried egg to this bowl.
- Dressing: if you don't want to make the homemade secret sauce dressing, you can use the store-bought or homemade dressing of your choice.
- Croutons: you can use store-bought croutons if you prefer.
- Crumbled bacon or bacon bits
- Crispy onions or caramelized onions
- Jalapeños or other spicy peppers
- Mushrooms
- Guacamole
🥗 More fun salad recipes
I think salads often get a bad name by people who think they're just boring vegetables with nothing fun involved. But it's actually so easy to make salads that are exciting and delicious and they're often my favorite meals to enjoy!
Here are some of my favorite salad recipes:
I also love this amazing Taco Salad recipe.
Let's be honest; when your salad is basically a burger in a bowl, there's no possible way for it to be boring!
While I'll always love a grilled burger in the summer, I'm making burger bowls all year round. I hope you'll make them for your family, too!
What else would you add to your bowl?
📖 Recipe
Burger Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 8 cups romaine lettuce
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes halved
- ½ red onion thinly sliced
- 1 avocado peeled, pitted, and sliced
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ¾ cup sliced dill pickles
- Hamburger bun croutons (recipe below)
- Secret sauce dressing (recipe below)
Hamburger Bun Croutons
- 2 hamburger buns cut into cubes
- 1 ½ tablespoon olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Secret Sauce Dressing
- ⅓ cup mayonnaise
- ¼ cup ketchup
- 2 tablespoon yellow mustard
- 2 tablespoon dill pickle juice
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the ground beef and season with garlic powder, salt, and pepper. Cook while breaking beef up with a spatula.
- Continue cooking until the beef is cooked through with no remaining pink, about 8-10 minutes. Drain excess fat and set aside to cool slightly.
- Divide lettuce evenly between 4 salad bowls. Top with ground beef and evenly divide tomatoes, sliced onion, avocado slices, cheese, and pickles to bowls. Top with croutons and drizzle as much dressing as you desire over the top.
Hamburger Bun Croutons
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, toss together cubed hamburger buns, olive oil, and salt. Place bread cubes on a baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes, until nice and crispy.
Secret Sauce Dressing
- In a medium bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, ketchup, yellow mustard, and dill pickle juice until smooth.
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