Bunless smash burgers in lettuce wraps
27 min · 39 g protein · 363 cals / serving
Thin, crusty smash patties with melted cheese, wrapped in cold, crunchy iceberg instead of a bun. Pickles, onion, tomato and a tangy burger sauce made with Greek yogurt keep every bite tasting like a diner burger, and the lettuce gives the hot beef a crisp contrast that a soft bun never does.
Ingredients
Burger sauce
- 1/3 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
- 2 tbsp light mayonnaise
- 2 tsp yellow mustard
- 2 tsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp reduced sodium dill pickles, very finely chopped
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1 large head iceberg lettuce, outer leaves separated into cups
- 1 1/3 lb ground beef (93% lean), well chilled
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp olive oil, for the pan
- 4 slices reduced-fat american cheese
- 1 small onion, sliced paper-thin
- 2 medium tomatoes, sliced
- 20 slices reduced sodium dill pickles
Steps
- Stir the yogurt, mayonnaise, mustard, tomato paste, chopped pickle, paprika and garlic powder together. Chill while you cook.
- Peel the large outer leaves off the lettuce and stack them two deep, so each wrap holds together. Pat them dry; wet lettuce slides off the burger.
- Divide the beef into 8 loose balls without packing them. Heat a cast-iron pan or griddle until it is smoking hot and brush it lightly with the oil. Add a few balls, press each one flat and hard with a sturdy spatula for 10 seconds, and season with salt and pepper. Leave them alone for 2 minutes, until the edges are lacy and deep brown.
- Scrape under each patty with the spatula to keep the crust, flip, and lay half a cheese slice on each. Cook 30–60 seconds more, until the cheese melts and the beef is cooked through (160°F; a thin patty gets there fast). Repeat with the rest.
- Stack two patties on each lettuce cup, add sauce, onion, tomato and pickles, and fold the lettuce around it. Wrap the bottom half in parchment paper if you want to eat it like a burger.
Good to know
Why 93% lean beef for a smash burger?
93% lean browns well in a ripping-hot pan with a hard press, as long as it goes into the pan cold. The patties come out a little less juicy and lacy than with 85%, which you can use if you prefer it; it adds a little fat to every patty, at about 58 instead of 68.
How do I stop the lettuce from tearing?
Use two leaves per wrap and wrap the bottom in parchment or foil. Butter lettuce works too and is softer; iceberg gives the best crunch.
Is it low carb?
Yes. The tomato paste gives the sauce its ketchup flavour without the sugar, and the whole wrap stays well under 20 g net carbs.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 104
- Protein
- (44%)
- 11 g
- Fat
- (44%)
- 5 g
- Carbohydrates
- (12%)
- 3 g
- of which sugar
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 265 mg
More meals
Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1452 kcal goes into the pot and 1554 g of ingredients comes out as about 1395 g of food: 104 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.