BLT Burger
Seasoned beef with garlic, mustard, and paprika, seared until the cheddar melts on top. Crispy bacon alongside. Fresh tomato slices, half an avocado, and iceberg lettuce stacked on a whole wheat bun.
52g of protein and 902 kcal, ready in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 96% lean ground beef 140 g
- bacon 2 slices
- cheddar cheese 28 g
- tomato 2
- avocado 0.5
- garlic 5 g
- onion 0.5
- whole wheat bun 1
- olive oil 8 ml
- mayonnaise 15 ml
- iceberg lettuce 60 g
- yellow mustard 7 g
- paprika powder 3 g
Method
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Slice the tomatoes and the onion into rings.
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Mix the ground beef with the garlic, mustard, paprika, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Shape the mixture into a burger patty.
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Heat a skillet with olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook the patty for about 3–4 minutes per side, or until cooked through.
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In the last minute of cooking, place a slice of cheddar on top of the patty and cover the pan to let it melt.
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Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a separate pan until crispy.
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Slice the avocado and prepare the bun with a layer of mayo.
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Stack the bun with lettuce, the cheeseburger patty, bacon, tomato slices, onion rings, and avocado.
Cook the bacon in a separate pan while the patty sears. Separate pans mean the bacon renders its own fat and gets properly crispy, instead of steaming in the burger juices. Pull it when it curls at the edges but still has a slight bend. It firms up as it cools.
Why This Works
Behind this recipe
Is 52g of protein in one burger too much for one meal?
No. The 30-gram ceiling came from older trials that cut the measurement window short. A 2023 isotope-tracer experiment tracked absorption for 12 hours and found amino acids from 100g of protein in a single meal were still being used at the end. Your 52g is well within range.
Read the full evidence reviewDoes the cheddar block the lycopene in the tomato?
Probably not at this dose. A controlled trial gave participants 500mg of calcium carbonate alongside tomato and saw lycopene uptake drop by 83%. But that was a supplement, not food. Your 28g of cheddar carries roughly 202mg of calcium, less than half the tested amount. At that level, the competition is unlikely to matter.
Read the full evidence reviewWhy half an avocado instead of a whole one?
Fat budget. A full avocado adds roughly 120 extra calories and 11g of fat, pushing the burger past 1,000 kcal. Half keeps the meal under 1,000 while still contributing monounsaturated fat that helps absorb fat-soluble compounds from the tomato.
