Bacon Burger Salad with Gouda Cheese Sauce

Don’t limit your burger potential! Grill up a well-seasoned patty and serve it on a bed of greens with gouda cheese sauce for a delicious dinner. This Bacon Burger Salad has it all!

This post is part of a kick-butt burger grill giveaway hosted by GirlCarnivore but the burger epicness is all my own. I am not being compensated for this.

A salad and a burger walk into a bar. Okay, okay, not really. But those two craveworthy dishes do get mashed up to great effect in this Bacon Burger Salad with Gouda Cheese Sauce and it’s divine.

When I first made this salad for my kids — Will is 13 and Paige is 11 — both were a little skeptical … until they saw it. A perfectly cooked (and seasoned!) burger patty is served on a bed of greens, red onions and tomatoes. Then it’s topped with a creamy, lovely gouda cheese sauce and smoky, salty crumbled bacon.

Did I mention that this dish is simply divine?

Making Well-Seasoned and Perfectly Cooked Burgers

A pound of ground beef — 85% is best for this — is seasoned thoroughly with salt and pepper. Work the seasonings into the meat. Then divide it into four portions and form four patties.

Hint: Always press a thumb into the center of your patties. It helps prevent shrinkage when they cook.

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For this salad, I prefer to grill the patties — and I did! It was a bit of a momentous occasion since I have been grill-free since we moved to Maine almost five years ago. Well, except for the itty bitty tiny camp charcoal grill that ended up being way too small for our needs. That doesn’t count.

This charcoal grill does. It’s not fancy (it was a $20 steal) and it’s certainly not the fine, well-crafted gas grill that I used to have (that beauty now resides at my ex-MIL’s house, from what I hear …). But pour in some charcoal, get the fire going and it’s just what I need right now.

These could also be cooked on a gas grill or even the stovetop. See the recipe for instructions for all three methods.

Once the burgers are cooked, let them rest while you make the sauce.

Making Creamy Gouda Cheese Sauce

The real piece de resistance of this salad though is the sauce which serves as the salad dressing. Yes, I said that the Gouda Cheese Sauce is treated as dressing. I know it sounds crazy but it’s absolutely delightful.

Try it.

To make the sauce, start with bacon grease (you’re making bacon for these salads, so just reserve a little) and whisk in flour to make a roux. (Alternatively, you could use butter instead of bacon grease, but … why would you?)

Then add milk a little at a time, whisking it thoroughly in after each addition. Once the milk is all added and the mixture is good and hot, whisk in the gouda cheese and season with mustard, salt and pepper.

The creamy gouda cheese sauce is ready to enjoy.

Assembling the Salads

Ok … The bacon’s cooked, the burgers made and the gouda cheese sauce is ready. Time to assemble the salads!

You’ll need four plates. Divide the lettuce evenly among them. Top with onions and tomatoes. Place a burger atop each. Drizzle with cheese sauce. Top with bacon.

Viola! Your salads are ready.

Hint: Assemble the salads just before serving. You want to dig in as soon as they’re prepared.

Cheese sauce and burger on a salad? This is the main course you didn’t know you were missing.

And one last note: When you want to make these, be sure to set aside enough time to cook from start to finish. Also, though it should probably go without saying, read the instructions thoroughly before beginning. The cooking process goes swiftly, so knowing what’s coming will make it go smoother.

It’s Burger Month! (And There’s a Giveaway!)

For the past several years, I have joined in the fun of Burger Month, created by Kita Roberts of GirlCarnivore and held each May. In 2017, I shared a Cheddar Bacon Panfried Burger and in 2018, I shared Buffalo Blue Cheese Skiller Burgers with Onion Straws. Both were indoor burgers. I am so excited to bring my burger game outdoors this year!

Be sure to follow along every day for the entire month of May for chances to win the Ultimate Burger Grilling Giveaway and check BurgerMonth.com daily for all of the amazing burgers.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A huge thanks to the #BurgerMonth sponsors for the Ultimate Burger Grilling Giveaway: Cabot Cheese, Char-Griller Grills, Crow Canyon Home, Porter Road, Melissa’s Produce, Red Duck, Spiceology, &  Western BBQ.

Also check out the other Burger Month bloggers:

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