If you had a choice, would you put lettuce on your burger or leave it off? Many people enjoy adding lettuce to burgers for the crunch, the flavor, and the textural contrast. Different kinds of lettuce will affect your burger in different ways. Choose the best lettuce for burgers using our comparison of each type.
How to Prepare Lettuce for Burgers
In order to put your lettuce on a burger, you’ll need to get it ready first. You need to rinse the lettuce thoroughly to remove any dirt, bugs, or debris. Rinse each leaf individually. Shredded lettuce can be rinsed in a colander.
Next, you should pat it dry or spin it so your burger doesn’t get soggy. Finally, you need to either tear or cut the lettuce to fit on a burger bun. Cut lettuce for burgers according to bun size.
So you are using slider buns, reduce the size of the lettuce accordingly. If you want shredded lettuce, use a rough chop with a knife, run it over a box grater, or use your food processor.
Types of Lettuce
Almost any type of lettuce can be used on a burger and each type will have a different effect on the overall taste of the burger. I’ll summarize them in a table with the relative crunchiness and flavor of each lettuce, then we will get more specific about each option.
| Type of Lettuce | Flavor Profile | Crunch Factor | Negative Attributes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iceberg | Mild, Slight Bitterness | High | Breaks Easy. Can get soggy. |
| Romaine | Mild, Nutty, Slightly Bitter | High | Hard Spine. Leafy parts wilt quickly. |
| Green Leaf | Mild | Moderate | Expensive |
| Red Leaf | Mild, Slight Bitterness | Moderate | Bitter. |
| Boston, Bibb, or Butter | Mild, Sweet | Low | Small Leaves. Wilts quickly. |
| Kalera Krunch Lettuce | Mild, Sweet | High | Hard to find. |
| Frisee Lettuce | Bitter, Peppery | Moderate to High | Very Bitter |
| Artisan | Mild to Very Bitter | Moderate | Varies. |
| Arugula | Nutty, Peppery, Sweet | Low | Small Leaves. |
| Shredded | Varies | Minimal | Falls off easily. Can get soggy. |
In order for lettuce to be the best one for your burger when using ground beef vs ground chuck, it needs to have the right flavor profile to complement your other toppings. It also needs to have a contrasting texture and level of crunch to fit well on the burger without wilting.
A good lettuce and topping combination will have contrast, taste, and crunch. You also want one with a high heat tolerance so that the leaves don’t wilt quickly on your hot burger and make a soggy mess.
Lettuce Pairings
The following ideas are examples of excellent flavor contrast on a burger.
- Boston or Butter Lettuce with Red Onion.
- Arugula with Avocado.
- Frisee with Sweet Honey BBQ Sauce.
- Green Leaf with garden-fresh tomatoes and American cheese.
- Artisanal Lettuce with a pretzel bun.
- Crunchy romaine hearts with aioli.
- Red leaf lettuce with pineapple slices.
Selecting
Look for signs of damage, age, or too much moisture exposure. Make sure the lettuce you are buying has firm, green leaves throughout. They should not be browning on the edges, wilting, or turning yellow. The leaves should be free of spots and decay.
Stacking Lettuce
When stacking a burger, make sure to anchor your lettuce with sauce between the bun and the lettuce or between the burger and the lettuce. Or both.
Stacking the lettuce with a little bit of sauce will help keep it from slipping out. Melting cheese on one side also helps. If you pick lettuce with a higher tendency to wilt, stack it further away from the hot meat.
Iceberg Lettuce
If you want to use the most classic lettuce on your burger, go with iceberg lettuce. This lettuce comes as a round “head” and is sometimes wrapped in plastic.
This particular green lettuce has a high crunch factor, high moisture content, and a fairly mild flavor that can occasionally lean to the bitter side. The lettuce is crunchy but also flexible enough to use as a lettuce wrap.
Iceberg lettuce is mild, crunchy, and classic. It’s also the most inexpensive and easy to find.
Romaine Lettuce
If you want crunch with a little more flavor and less chance of bitterness, romaine is the best choice for your burger. This lettuce has a high crunch factor from the thicker spine but the leaves give it plenty of flavor. Only the bottom six inches or so (or romaine hearts) of a romaine leaf is ideal for burgers, and the remaining leaf should be torn up and saved for salads.
If you want a consistent lettuce experience in every bite of your burger, this would not be the best choice because the spine and the leafy edges are completely different. When considering iceberg vs romaine, this might be a key factor.
Romaine lettuce is crunchy with a nice nutty flavor and the crunchy hearts have a high heat resistance.
Green Leaf Lettuce
Arguably the most flavorful lettuce available, green leaf lettuce is considered one of the best options. It is slightly sweet and has a low to moderate crunch factor.
Green leaf has significantly less crunch than iceberg and also stays together well so it can be used for lettuce wraps. It also has curly leaves so it adds a textural element the to burger.
Green leaf lettuce is full of flavor and a little crunchy.
Red Leaf Lettuce
One of the prettiest options, red leaf lettuce is used on burgers when you want the texture of green leaf but a slightly different flavor profile. Unlike green leaf, it really doesn’t have any sweetness to it.
Red leaf lettuce is a little crunchy and a bit of texture from the curled leaves. It comes apart more easily than green leaf lettuce, especially where the colors meet, and is therefore not as good for lettuce-wrapped burgers.
Red leaf lettuce is exactly like green leaf but with a little bit more bitter and earthy flavor from the red portions and is more easily torn.
Boston Lettuce
This classic lettuce can easily be used for wraps because it is flexible and will bend without breaking. As you can imagine, that means it doesn’t have very much crunch. Boston lettuce is very similar to butter lettuce or bibb lettuce, so we are lumping them all into this same category. It has a very smooth texture and smaller leaves.
Boston lettuce is soft, buttery, flexible option with a very low crunch factor and a slightly sweet flavor. This lettuce may wilt quickly with the heat of a burger.
Kalera Krunch Lettuce
If you want an intense crunch factor with a different texture than iceberg or romaine, consider this option. Kalera Krunch lettuce is a baby form of romaine and has sweetness and consistent crunch throughout.
It has intensely curled edges with broader leaves and an ever so slightly sweet flavor. This particular burger lettuce is grown vertically using hydroponic farming methods and until the pandemic was mostly grown for restaurant supply.
Kalera Krunch lettuce is consistent, sweet, crunchy lettuce perfect for burgers.
Frisée Lettuce
When you want extra bitter lettuce with texture, frisée is a great choice. It’s actually not lettuce at all, but a form of chicory or endive. The bitterness offers a nice contrast and balance to a sweet BBQ sauce or a pineapple slice.
The tiny leaves connect to a strong stem that can be awkward to chew. Its small bushy leaves can be off-putting.
Frisée lettuce is moderately crunchy, very textural, and has an intensely bitter flavor.
Arugula
While arugula is not technically lettuce, it is a very popular green to use on burgers. It is mild and peppery, making it a perfect choice when you want a little bit of bite, or an earthy flavor on your burger without bitterness.
Baby arugula is less peppery than full-grown leaves. Depending on where you live, arugula may also be called “rocket”. I’ve seen it referred to as both an herb of Mediterranean origin and a cruciferous vegetable. All I know is baby arugula is really yummy on burgers or avocado toast.
Arugula really doesn’t have any crunch at all and has a licorice smell with a slightly sweet, nutty, peppery flavor.
Artisan Lettuce
You can get endless variety and flavor when you choose artisan lettuce such as Tanimura or Antle lettuce. These different lettuces are more expensive and offer a special treat when you want to really dress up a burger and wow your guests.
Artisan lettuces vary in color, texture, crunch levels, and flavor each according to their type.
Other types of artisanal greens include oak leaf lettuce, lamb’s lettuce, little gems lettuce, watercress, radicchio, purslane, mizuna, dandelion greens, Spring mix, arugula, curly endive, Belgium endive, and Batavia lettuce.
Shredded Lettuce
Shredded lettuce is a classic form of burger lettuce. Any type of lettuce can be shredded. Simply roughly chop it with a knife or use a box grater to get a finer shred. You can also run it through a food processor if you wish.
Shredded lettuce is a great choice when you want a consistent texture throughout and a thicker stack of lettuce than a single leaf. While shredded lettuce can fall off a burger easily, it gives you consistent flavor in every bite. Shredding pretty much removes any crunch factor the individual leaves might have.
Shredded lettuce is consistent, easy to bite, and flavorful. However, it lacks crunch and may fall off easily depending on how your burger is built.
Certain types of lettuce such as radicchio and romaine lettuce can be grilled for added depth of flavor and a change of pace.
FAQ
If you want a burger without the bun, wrapping your burger in lettuce is the way to go. Green leaf lettuce is an excellent choice because it is flexible with a little bit of crunch. Butter or Boston lettuce also works very well. Kalera Krunch is a great choice for burger wraps if you can find it. Iceberg lettuce is often used in restaurants, but it honestly doesn’t flex very well and will be messy.
Lettuce has been used on burgers for as long as they have been around. It has many benefits, including flavor, texture, crunch, contrast, and of course — a little vegetable with your beef. I’ve even heard that iceberg lettuce has a temperature contrast and some find the effect of chilled lettuce very pleasing to the palate.
Each kind of lettuce will need to be cut differently. With iceberg lettuce, you can smash the head onto the counter to create natural cuts in the lettuce. Then, chop off the end and pull the various pieces apart in burger size portions.
For romaine lettuce, use the top six or seven inches of each leaf for your burgers, and the remaining ends can be chopped up for a later salad.
WIth green leaf and red leaf lettuce, spread the lettuce out and cut bun-sized pieces. You can also choose to shred it using a box grater, food processor, or some simple knife action.
You can easily make your own! Just grill your burger like you normally would, and wrap it in green leaf or Boston lettuce. It’s that easy.
I recommend either Boston lettuce or green leaf lettuce when you want a bread substitute with flavor.
It is made of tender baby lettuce, spinach, and other edible leaves. The mixture varies depending on the brand.
Best Burger Recipes with Lettuce
Smoked Hamburgers. When you want to go all out, our smoker recipe is a true winner.
Grilled Kobe Beef Cheeseburger. Use this recipe for kebabs to make exceptionally flavored patties instead.
Grilling Frozen Burgers {15 Minutes}. Frozen burgers are not impossible to enjoy. Follow our simple instructions to grill a great burger from frozen.
Travis Scott Burger Make this McDonald’s Copycat in under 10 minutes using simple burger condiments.
Be sure to read about the best onion for burgers and the best buns for burgers!
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