SERIES: burgers and lettuce-wrapped burgers

Week 4 of this 5-week burger series brings us to the lettuce wrapped burger.  For splurges, I definitely enjoy a burger on a delicious bun.  If it’s homemade (or restaurant made), I’m even happier.  But at home, we most often enjoy our burgers bunless or lettuce-wrapped.  The primary driver is that it’s just easy.  Whether you’re making your own buns at home or even buying them at the store – the first takes effort and the second results in a bunch of buns that now you don’t necessarily have a use for.  In addition, it adds a bunch of carbs, and I’d pick fries over a hamburger bun any day.

Use whatever lettuce you have on hand.  If you’re planning a meal and shopping for burger lettuce, here are a few I like to use for different styles of burgers:

• Iceburg: for just a basic lettuce flavor and lots of crunch
• Arugula: for the roasted red pepper & goat cheese burger; although the peppery flavor of arugula goes good with any burger
• Spring mix: it just looks pretty and gives you a good mix of different lettuce flavors
• Butter or Bibb:  like iceburg, this is a great lettuce to use if you want to completely wrap the burger and pick it up to eat it