For this weekend's Green Themed potluck, I made a vegetarian filling for the Asian lettuce wraps. I was rather surprised that hardly anyone touched the meat filling that I also prepared for this dish. The lime juice didn't stand out on its own in the sauce base against the stronger flavors of garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. This could also be served by itself as a salad. I had leftover chestnuts from when I made the zongzi, so these also went into the dish.
For the wraps: use washed/patted dry individual leaves of butter lettuce or romaine lettuce
Ingredients
1/4 c. roasted chestnuts, diced
1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
4 stalks green onion, thinly sliced
2 c. bean sprouts
red, yellow, orange bell peppers, thinly sliced
extra firm tofu, cut into small cubes or thin slices
6. fresh basil leaves, julienned
Marinade/Sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp ginger, grated
1 red chili pepper, de-seeded and chopped (optional)
2 tbsp lime juice (1 lime)
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
1. In a large bowl, combine vegetables, tofu, and chestnuts.
2. In a small saucepan, heat olive oil over medium, then add ginger, garlic, chili pepper until the oil is fragrant and the garlic is lightly browned. Add soy sauce and lime juice. Stir to combine. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Toss marinade and vegetables together.
Showing posts with label lettuce wraps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lettuce wraps. Show all posts
Asian Lettuce Wraps
I am passing off this dish as a "main" dish for my company's potluck lunch. It seems that a lot of would-be appetizers in Asian cuisine can be eaten en mass and then counted as a main entree. The sheer lack of a key ingredients (fermented black beans) made me buy pre-made hoisin sauce instead of making it from scratch for this recipe. This one came out tasting better than expected. This is one of those needs some assembly meals if your guests were to be serving themselves.
There are two primary components to it: the lettuce leaf and the filling. You fold the leaf up like a pocket and eat it with the filling inside. 1 head of fresh butter lettuce leaves (or a few Romaine hearts, if butter lettuce not available) Carefully separate the leaves from the stem, wash, and pat dry. Stack leaves on a plate and set aside.
Filling ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef a few stalks of green onion, white part only, chopped
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil one 8oz can of sliced water chestnuts, minced
1/2 cup dried shitake mushrooms, reconstituted, minced
a few stalks of green onion, green part only, minced
2 tsp sesame oil 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/3 c. hoisin sauce (optional)
1+ tsp chili pepper sauce or 1+ tsp Tabasco sauce (depends on how much heat you want in this dish)
Directions
1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat (if using olive oil, high heat if using other cooking oil), brown the ground beef and stir often so that it doesn't burn or stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove beef to a bowl and set aside. Leave the juices in the pan, this will help keep the next set of ingredients from burning.
2. Add the chopped white part of the green onion and stir frequently. Add garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, hoisin sauce, and hot sauce (optional) together. Stir/mix in water chestnuts, shitake mushrooms, sesame oil, and chopped green part of the green onion stalks.
3. Return ground beef to the skillet and mix until well combined. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Assembly: Take one lettuce leaf and place it on a plate. Fill it with a few tbsp of ground beef filling. Wrap like a pocket and eat.
Oh, a kitchen note on the spacing between ingredient sets. You could save yourself some time and combine each set of ingredients into its own bowl. Then add the bowls of already combined ingredients to the skillet as they are fried together. I'm thinking that this would be a good filling for a Chinese meat pie or potsticker.
There are two primary components to it: the lettuce leaf and the filling. You fold the leaf up like a pocket and eat it with the filling inside. 1 head of fresh butter lettuce leaves (or a few Romaine hearts, if butter lettuce not available) Carefully separate the leaves from the stem, wash, and pat dry. Stack leaves on a plate and set aside.
Filling ingredients
1 lb lean ground beef a few stalks of green onion, white part only, chopped
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil one 8oz can of sliced water chestnuts, minced
1/2 cup dried shitake mushrooms, reconstituted, minced
a few stalks of green onion, green part only, minced
2 tsp sesame oil 2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/3 c. hoisin sauce (optional)
1+ tsp chili pepper sauce or 1+ tsp Tabasco sauce (depends on how much heat you want in this dish)
Directions
1. In a large skillet over medium-high heat (if using olive oil, high heat if using other cooking oil), brown the ground beef and stir often so that it doesn't burn or stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove beef to a bowl and set aside. Leave the juices in the pan, this will help keep the next set of ingredients from burning.
2. Add the chopped white part of the green onion and stir frequently. Add garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, hoisin sauce, and hot sauce (optional) together. Stir/mix in water chestnuts, shitake mushrooms, sesame oil, and chopped green part of the green onion stalks.
3. Return ground beef to the skillet and mix until well combined. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Assembly: Take one lettuce leaf and place it on a plate. Fill it with a few tbsp of ground beef filling. Wrap like a pocket and eat.
Oh, a kitchen note on the spacing between ingredient sets. You could save yourself some time and combine each set of ingredients into its own bowl. Then add the bowls of already combined ingredients to the skillet as they are fried together. I'm thinking that this would be a good filling for a Chinese meat pie or potsticker.
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