Loaded Burgers
Fire up those grills, summer weather is here.
This Memorial Day Weekend is the official launch of grill season. I hope you have a few good ones planned. Today I’m serving up sauces, spices, and cheese bites in person in Los Olivos to celebrate the five year anniversary of my winemaker friend Sunshine Stricker’s tasting room and delicious wine Future Perfect (you should all join her wine club). She also happens to be a co-producer of the Corkscrew Comedy Festival, which is an annual comedy event extravaganza that we throw every year. If you live anywhere near SoCal and love comedy and wine, you need to get a hotel reservation ASAP and get your tickets June 18-20.
Now, before I get to burgers, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Eat Happy Kitchen’s summer grilling sale on Salt Dust and BBQ Dust. These are the only two spices I use all summer for all of my grilling needs. Literally everything you want to grill, you will use these two dusts.
And we put the bundle on sale…only through Monday night 5/25 at 11:59pm PST. I have to write this specific deadline because I receive emails from people upset that they missed the sale. It makes me hate the algorithm so much.
What does 25% off even mean? Regular price is $48, but you get all 4 spices for $36. That’s a really good savings, Fam!
OK it’s Loaded Burger time, which is very similar to a Smash Burger.
One of the most important and frequent questions I get as a low carb recipe writer/cookbook author is…how many ways can you prepare ground beef?
We do seem to eat a lot of ground beef when we cut out sugar and processed foods and up our fat intake.
I guess I really just love burgers, so I’ve written a LOT of burger recipes over the years. Ground meat is less expensive, burgers are quick to prepare, and dropping the bun means I eat the good parts of the burger without filling up on a gluten free bun.
Here’s a round up of other burger recipes you will definitely want to bookmark and make this summer:
BUT THIS LOADED BURGER RECIPE…it’s so flippin’ delicious.
I included instructions for the grill or the stovetop. If you want to turn the burgers into a smash burger, then you can add the sautéed onions to the burger on your final flip, once it’s pretty much cooked all the way through. Then use a spatula to smash the onions down into the burger and immediately add the cheese slice.
Otherwise, make the recipe as-is, and you still get all the delicious flavors from these Loaded Burgers.
And if you want to be creative and add avocado slices, homemade ranch dressing, or whatever you have on hand.
Full disclosure: I think this recipe serves two hungry people who will eat two burgers each.
Here’s the recipe in a printable PDF, in the new-fangled Substack recipe card, and pasted in the body of the recipe below.
LOADED BURGERS
(Yields 4 burgers)
8 slices bacon, cooked, bacon grease reserved
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 cup sliced mushrooms
Salt and pepper
1 sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 pound ground beef, highest fat content possible
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon coconut aminos
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup small cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered
7-10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, white balsamic vinegar, or white wine vinegar
Cheddar cheese slices
Pickles for garnish
Whole butter lettuce leaves for wrapping
Cook the bacon until crispy, removing the crisp bacon to rest on paper towels, but reserve bacon grease.
In a large non-stick pan, pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the reserved bacon grease and bring to medium high heat to cook mushroom slices until cooked through and seared, about 4-5 minutes. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper, then them aside in a bowl.
In the same pan on medium high heat, add another 1 tablespoon of olive oil and cook the onion slices, until they sear and then start to soften. Season with salt and pepper. Turn heat down to medium low, cover pan, and cook 12-15 minutes until onions start to get brown and caramelized. Remove cover and turn off heat when onions are desired doneness.
In a medium mixing bowl, mix the ground beef, yellow mustard, coconut aminos, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of pepper, and garlic powder well with your hands. Make 4 burgers, place on a plate, and set aside.
In a small mixing bowl fold the cherry tomato pieces, chopped basil leaves, remaining tablespoon of olive oil, and vinegar. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.
Heat the grill up to 500 degrees and the grill burgers until you reach your desired doneness, about 2-3 minutes per side for medium. Lay the cheese slices atop each burger to melt for the final minute of cooking.
If cooking on a stovetop, heat a flat bottomed nonstick sauté pan to medium high heat and cook the burgers through, about 2-3 minutes per side for medium. Add the cheese slices atop each burger to melt in the final minute of cooking.
Plate the burgers by laying down a butter lettuce leaf, the burger with cheese, lay atop two bacon slices, then the onions, mushrooms, and tomato basil mixture. Garnish with pickle slices and top with the final butter lettuce leaf. Repeat plating for the remaining burgers and serve.
*Recipe originally published at AnnaVocino.com, then revised and updated exclusively for Substack newsletter subscribers at annavocino.substack.com.
Anna delivers the goods again and again and again! You can't go wrong with whatever she creates. Can't wait to try!!
🤤I can hardly wait to make these! Thanks, Anna!