A low carb cheeseburger can really only be low carb if it’s served without bread. Tonight my bread replacement to keep everything together are cabbage leaves. So does this mean the Chinese san choi bao is a low carb burger?
Low carb cheeseburger
Dedicated to a brief dip below 80
Can I get there again?
While I do enjoy san choi bao, tonight I wanted to mince (or grind) my own meat and fat so I decided to go with non-Chinese flavours including Old Bay and Worcestershire sauce.
Because I wanted my low carb cheeseburger to have a good fat to muscle ratio I went with beef steak for the muscle and pork belly for the fat. I’m guessing there will be some religion which shuns mixing the muscle and fat from different species. Not my religion though.
I also went with Red Leicester cheese for something different to my normal choice which is Coon cheese.
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I bought all the ingredients from Coles.
Yummy Lummy is not sponsored by anyone.
Recipe
- 1 Chuck steak
- 1 Pork belly strip
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 1 teaspoon iodised salt
- 1 slice Red Leicester cheese Thick
- Cos lettuce Shredded
- Green kale Shredded
- Savoy cabbage Shredded
- Red onion Sliced
- White vinegar
- Iodised salt
- 3 egg yolks
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 100 grams butter melted
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Grind your meat and fat yourself for a nice loose but not falling apart consistency.
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You don’t want your muscle and fat to bind too tightly and you don’t want it to flop about and fall apart.
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Beat your egg and add to it the Old Bay seasoning and garlic powder and beat it some more.
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In a mixing bowl add your muscle and fat, i.e., the minced (or grounchuck steak (muscland the pork belly (fat), and pour over the seasoned beaten egg mixture.
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Gently and slowly with your fingers which you may want to rub with a little rice bran oil before you touch your meat, massage the muscle, fat, and egg mixture together. When everything has come together, add in the salt and make sure everything is combined.
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Form a roughly circular disc with your oiled up hands being careful not to apply too much force so as to avoid compressing the muscle and fat too tightly.
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The aim is to achieve a moist, juicy, and tender centre which is pink but not red with a seared outside of your disc of happiness.
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Place the burger into the refrigerator so the meat firms up. It’s important to have firm meat.
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When you’re ready to cook the burger, put a frypan on a heat source and turn up the heat.
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Add some iodised salt to the burger.
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Squirt a little rice bran oil into the frypan and then add the burger.
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Cook each side of the burger for three minutes and then turn the heat off.
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Place the Red Leicester cheese on the burger, put the lid on the frypan and watch the burger meat rest while the cheese melts.
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Cut a few slices of red onion with a sharp knife or a mandolin.
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Be careful not to slice off part of your thumb with the mandolin.
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Use the safety guard. If you don’t have a safety guard, don’t use the mandolin. I’m serious. A couple of months ago I sliced open my dominant thumb and it bled for hours because I’d been taking aspirin for some pain. I taped up my thumb but after brushing my teeth that night, I got the sticking plaster wet and the blood continued to ooze while I slept so when I woke up my bedsheets and pillowcase were smeared red with my blood.
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Soak the slices of red onion in some white vinegar and salt.
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Put the three egg yolks into a container suitable for using a stick blender like my Bamix™ stick blender. A long tall plastic cup would be suitable so long as it will fit about 200 millilitres of fluid in it without toppling or spinning while you operate the blender and use your nondominant hand to pour in the thin drizzle of melted butter.
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In another small container add the Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice. You can use lime juice if you prefer limey flavours.
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Yummy Lummy is certainly a fan of lime.
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Put the butter into a glass measuring cup and cover it with a piece of kitchen paper and secure the paper with a rubber band.
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Use Microwave Radiation to melt the butter. The paper chapeau protects the inside surfaces of your oven from the splatter of super hot liquid butter.
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Using your stick blender, begin to process the egg yolks and then add in the Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and citrus juice while processing with the stick blender.
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Slowly pour in a thin drizzle of melted butter while processing with the stick blender and with slow up and down movements of your dominant hand while gripping your tool.
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When you have exhausted the supply of melted butter, you should have a slightly thickened gooey yet tangy special sauce with a little heat and umami from the magic that is Worcestershire sauce.
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Keep your special sauce warm in a bain-marie.
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Shred the leaves of the green kale, savoy cabbage, and cos lettuce and put them into a mixing bowl.
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Add some of the Hollandaise sauce and bind the leaves together.
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Put a savoy cabbage leaf on a plate concave up.
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With a small pair of tongs, place the Hollandaise sauce salad into the savoy cabbage leaf cup.
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Gently transfer the Red Leicester topped beef and pork Old Bay burger onto the Hollandaise sauce salad.
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Top the burger with slices of fresh tomato and some rings of pickled red onion.
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Tada, a low carb cheeseburger.
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Shoot a photograph and a short video because Google now wants video on recipe cards.
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Eat the meal.
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Wash the dishes (hint, wash as you cook, it makes life easier).
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Write the recipe.
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Write the blog post.
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Hit publish and hope this blog post gets shared on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.
Recipe Video
Disclaimer
I have no culinary training nor qualifications. This post is not intended to convey any health or medical advice. If you have any health concerns about anything you read, please contact your registered medical practitioner. The quantities are indicative. Feel free to vary the quantities to suit your taste. I deliberately do not calculate energy for dishes. I deliberately default to 500 Calories or 500,000 calories because I do not make these calculations.
Photographs
This is a gallery of photographs. Click on one image and then scroll through the photographs.
Mince grinder 
Mince grinder 
Mince grinder 
Beef steak and pork belly strip 
Beef steak and pork belly strip 
Mincing beef (muscle) and pork (fat) 
Mincing beef (muscle) and pork (fat) 
Minced beef and pork 
Minced beef and pork burgers 
Pickled red onion 
Bamix stick blender 
Bamix stick blender and Hollandaise sauce 
Bamix stick blender and Hollandaise sauce 
Savoy cabbage 
Savoy cabbage Hollandaise sauce salad 
Beef and pork burger with Red Leicester cheese 
Beef and pork burger with Red Leicester cheese and Hollandaise sauce salad 
Beef and pork burger with Red Leicester cheese and Hollandaise sauce salad 
Beef and pork burger with Red Leicester cheese and Hollandaise sauce salad 
Beef and pork burger with pickled onion and Hollandaise sauce salad
Questions and answers
What do you mean about dipping below 80?
On Thursday morning I weighed myself and I had breached the 80-kilogram barrier. Mind you, on Friday morning, I weighed in at 80 kilograms.
How did the low carb cheeseburger taste?
Listen to the audio of the YouTube video. It was bloody delicious.
That’s a really odd salad, what was the inspiration?
Well, I see a lot of burgers which have mayonnaise on them and sometimes, the lettuce is dressed with the mayonnaise.
I’m really enjoying making Hollandaise sauce which I think is nicer than mayonnaise so I thought why not dress some salad leaves with Hollandaise sauce.
Instead of using boring old iceberg lettuce, I thought I’d mix it up with shredded savoy cabbage, cos lettuce, and green kale.
Can you imagine a low carb cheeseburger with kale? Yummy right!
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Final thoughts
- Have you enjoyed a low carb cheeseburger before?
- What do you think of a Hollandaise sauce salad?
- Is Red Leicester a good burger cheese?
Sponsorship
Yummy Lummy has no sponsors but maintaining a blog isn’t free. If anyone or any company would like to contribute please contact me.
I actually am going to make this but will meat-cheat as in buy it already ground. Thanks. Nice blog btw!
Hi Sherry, thank you very much. There’s nothing wrong with a little cheating. I don’t even think it’s cheating 😃
I’ve never had a low-carb burger, but I have had stuffed cabbage leaves and spicy minced chicken in lettuce cups. I absolutely love Hollandaise sauce–my mom used to put it on asparagus and it was delicious!
I used to think Hollandaise was too tedious to make, but this blender recipe is fantastic.
I’d replace bread for a burger like that any day! Looks super delicious!
Thanks Rose. I was pretty happy with the flavours and mouthfeel of this burger.
Although I adore bread, I also enjoy lettuce wrapped food too. I think it reminds me of sang choi bau which makes me happy as I adore Peking duck!
I agree, Lorraine. Peking duck is one of my favourites and sang choi bau has amazing mouthfeel.
Looks great, I’ll try this!
I hope you do. I really enjoyed it.
I’ve done low-carb cheeseburgers. I prefer mayonnaise to Hollandaise though. Red Leicester would work well–and it looks lovely in your pics–but my favourite is blue cheese.
Oh, yes, Emma. Blue cheese, famously goes with a burger. Maybe I’ll do that next time.
Bonus! 🌟✨💫
This actually looks very good. You got the Red Lescieter cheese melted just nice too. I have never tried that cheese so can’t comment on it. If I had a low carb cheeseburger, I would just do without a buns and eat the burger and salad like a steak 😀
Thanks, Mabel. I really enjoyed this.
You can make more burgers using different kinds of meats. Like turkey and chicken burger 😀
This is true. I don’t mind turkey mince.