My family loves a good Big Mac from McDonald’s, but it doesn’t exactly play well with a balanced diet. That’s why we love this Easy Big Mac Salad for a healthy, low-carb take on the classic.
Fast Food Recipe You Can Feel Good About Eating
When I was growing up, my brother and I had paper routes. Each time we had to ride our bicycles to the paper office and pay for the papers we delivered, we had just enough left over to buy ourselves a McDonald’s Big Mac Meal. While it is still a treat once in awhile today, it is important to try and sneak healthy food into our diets.
Therefore, this big mac salad has all the great taste with quite a few less calories.
Pickles on Salad?
Like you, I was astonished to find out how tasty pickles would be on a salad. I love cucumbers, but I never thought of pickles on my salad until I first tried this salad. They really make the whole dish shine!
I use baby dill pickles in mine. They are flavorful and easy to hold and chop. I usually use three pickles to a serving of the salad. Because pickles are a low calorie food, you can slightly increase the amount of pickles for a more filling dish and you’ll barely notice.
Thousand Island Dressing
The other piece of the Big Mac puzzle is thousand island salad dressing. You can make your own, of course, or you can purchase it, either way, it is zesty and creamy.
Easy Keto Dish
When you are pressed for time and are following a low carb or keto diet, this can be a great weekday meal. My diabetic husband often craves McDonald’s and this salad satisfies that fast food craving.
Lettuce for Big Mac Salad
This easy salad can be made with any type of lettuce that suits your fancy. However, the best lettuce that we have found for this recipe is the standard iceberg. Shredded is ideal, but you can always chop up a full head.
Bun-less Big Mac?
We have found a good solution for those of us that just really love our carbs. If you try our easy Big Mac salad and are still missing the bun, we suggest trying to add a few croutons or tortilla strips. These add just enough carb content and they add a nice crunch.
If you need a bit more of a doughy texture, try adding a sprinkle of walnuts or peanuts over the top of your bowl!
Easy Big Mac Salad
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Kitchen Essentials
Ingredients
- 1 head Iceberg lettuce
- 1 large tomato
- 1 small onion
- 1 cup chopped dill pickles
- 2 cups cooked ground beef
- ½ cup thousand island dressing
Instructions
- Cook the ground beef. While the beef is cooking, chop or shred the head of lettuce. Chop pickles, onion, and tomato.
- Assemble the salads by adding lettuce to your bowl and topping with tomato, onion, pickle, ground beef, and salad dressing. You can also use croutons, tortilla strips, or nuts if you’d like that extra punch. Serves about four people.
