Meal Prep Low Carb Big Mac Salad Jars
These Meal Prep Low Carb Big Mac Salad Jars are a delicious lunch option and a healthier way to satisfy your cheeseburger cravings – and the Big Mac dressing is easily made with pantry staples!
Say hello to your new favourite meal prep idea – and it's basically your favourite fast food made healthy!
Cheeseburger Big Mac Salad in a jar – I'm obsessed with them!
These salad jars are a lot easier to put together than they look, and they're a fun, creative lunch idea that'll have your co-workers jealous and will probably keep you from going out to lunch every day of the week. All you need is a pound of extra-lean ground beef, some lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, cheese and special sauce.
This low carb Big Mac salad is basically your favourite McDonald's burger in salad form, and the key to getting these Meal Prep Low Carb Big Mac Salad Jars to stay fresh all week is to ensure that you stack everything correctly in the right order.
You always want dressing and protein on the bottom, and from there you layer in the veggies. I put onions next especially as the meat is hot because that way the onions get a little softened. You'll want to do a fine dice on the onions just like they do with the burger to avoid an overwhelming flavour, and from there you'll add the pickles and tomatoes. Add some shredded cheese and lettuce, and you're good to go!
I have featured a couple copycat Big Mac recipes now in honor of my favourite burger (a copycat Big Mac Burger and Tater Tot Big Mac Nachos in case you're wondering) and each time I've always done a variation on the sauce. I always thought you used to need vinegar and onions in the dressing, but have since realized that all you really need to do is mix mayo, ketchup and relish together.
SUPER easy and basic, you probably already have all the ingredients on hand at home. I would recommend using light mayo to keep the calorie count low, but honestly a little bit of this dressing goes a long way so I wouldn't be worried too much about the impact of this Big Mac dressing on your waistline.
What I love most about these Meal Prep Low Carb Big Mac Salad Jars is that they really do take the guesswork out of trying to make a version of the Big Mac burgers themselves. As simple as they look, they really are tricky.
The burger patties often shrink up so much, especially if you're frying them on the stovetop, and the buns are super tricky to slice so you often end up with these huge big buns and the feeling that your burger contains too much bread, and that the patties are so small and shrunken.
These Big Mac Salad Jars are perfect because you basically just need to fry up the ground beef, and then you don't need to worry about the bun situation either. Or feeling like you are comatose after inhaling at that goodness.
If you're worried about there being too much dressing (this was feedback from my brother, the recipe tester himself), you should cut the dressing you put in the bottom of these jars in half. You honestly won't need the whole amount of the dressing you're making, really.
I've just listed enough so that you'll have extra when you go to make cheeseburger salad (or the real deal) at some point in the future since the mayo-ketchup-relish combo won't really go bad. That is what I love about this Big Mac sauce: you make it once and store it in your fridge forever.
I know they've got the legit Big Mac sauces out now at the grocery store so you can always use that instead in case you're feeling really lazy so there's also that! You've got options!
Will you be making these Meal Prep Low Carb Big Mac Salad Jars?
I can't think of a better way to kick off the warmer months than with a delicious burger-style salad that can be meal prepped all at once at the beginning of the week. And did I mention they're basically ready in 30 minutes? I LOVE fast and easy meal prep like this!
If you try any of my recipes be sure to let me know on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or in the comments – I’d love to see what you come up with!
These are the Mason jars I use.
You can even get Big Mac sauce online!
And of course I get all my grass-fed beef from Butcher Box!
Meal Prep Big Mac Salad Jars
Ingredients
- 1 lb extra-lean ground beef
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1/2 cup dill pickles, chopped
- 2 plum tomatoes, diced
- 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup romaine lettuce, chopped
Big Mac sauce
- 1/2 cup mayo
- 2 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp relish
Instructions
- Cook ground beef in a medium-sized skillet over med-high heat until fat has absorbed and beef is fully cooked, about 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, mix Big Mac sauce ingredients together. Divide sauce among 4 mason jars. Top with ground beef, then layer with onions, pickles, tomatoes, cheese and lettuce.
- Store in the fridge up to 5 days - serve by dumping into a large bowl and enjoy!
Nutrition
This sounds so delicious and easy to prepare.. Great idea for work.
You’re a very smart girl! Love all your recipes.
Aww thank you so much Nancy!!! You just made my day!!! 🙂
The big debate between my wife and I is do you eat cold or warm?
I tried both and prefer the warm version, like a warm Big Mac!!!!!
thanks we do enjoy your jar recepies, great to bring to work!!
I made these last night for my weekday lunches. As I was prepping I started to question my choices and this recipe…I shouldn’t have! This salad was delicious, I didn’t miss the bun at all and I all but licked my plate clean!
Ahhh I’m so happy to hear that Kristen!!! I know sometimes it’s hard to cut out carbs but the dressing in this salad makes it worth it I think hehe
Love this! I prefer this to an actual burger now, the bun just gets me feeling so full. But with this salad I get my burger craving but I don’t feel way too stuffed after. Definitely making this again next weekend – thanks for sharing!
Yay!! So happy you liked it Sam 🙂
Making this today for work. Will have to do a Big Mac sauce comparison with the real stuff since that’s where I work. Looking forward to trying this
So happy to hear that Jennifer! Let me know how you like it 🙂
What kind of relish do you use? I’m assuming a sweet green relish, but I wonder if a dill relish would be even better!
I may try this and report back!
I use a sweet green relish but you could use dill 🙂
Would the sauce work without mayo?
You could try it with sour cream instead although that would make it entirely different tasting. I would not recommend making the sauce with just the rest of the ingredients minus the mayo though.