Healthy food can taste amazing! These Thai Turkey Lettuce Wraps are bursting with fresh ingredients and bold flavors; as a result they are delicious and nutritious. You're going to love them! Honestly, these are one of our very favorite things to eat. We serve them as a main dish, but they would make great appetizers too.
Ingredients for flavor
Ingredients for flavorExciting ingredients like chili sauce, lime juice and zest, red pepper flakes, onions, brown sugar, cilantro, mint, etc. combine to create a flavor explosion and really livens up the ground turkey. No one will suspect you're serving them a low fat entree.
Why does ground meat have more flavor?
We saute chopped onions in a little oil, then add ground turkey, garlic and ginger. Ground meat has increased surface which allows it to absorb more flavor than other cuts of meat.
Can I use meat other than ground turkey?
As mentioned above, ground meat packs a lot of flavor. Our Thai lettuce wraps would be great with ground chicken. You could also use ground pork or ground beef. We use ground turkey as it's the lowest fat of all these meats. If you use ground beef or ground pork, make sure to pour off additional fat after cooking the meat.
Sauce
Sauce for these lettuce wraps can be made 2-3 days in advance, making for even faster dinner prep! The sauce has it all: the flavors are sweet, tangy, spicy, and salty by bringing together sweet chili sauce, soy sauce and hoisin sauce along with brown sugar red pepper and lime. Yum! This recipe had me at lime! And it just kept getting better from there.
The secret ingredient flavor and crunch!
A key ingredient for this dish is Thai Lime Chili Cashews from Trader Joe's. They give that extra crunch and "je ne sais quoi" to this flavor-filled dish. If you can't find these, you can substitute roasted cashews or roasted peanuts.
Mix the sauce into the meat
We like to mix the sauce right into our meat mixture because we get lot of flavor that way, next we spoon the mixture into a lettuce leaf and eat it taco or burrito style. Some people may prefer to scoop the meat mixture onto the lettuce and then add a bit of sauce. Taste the sauce and see what you think! You might also want to adjust the sauce for additional salt or red pepper flakes depending on your palate.
Do your lettuce wraps need additional toppings?
These lettuce wraps are really flavorful on their own. However, you can get creative and add additional toppings. Try these lettuce wrap toppers:
- shredded carrots
- thinly sliced cucumbers
- sprouts
- squeeze of fresh lime
- diced celery
- crisp rice noodles
- extra sauce
We always prefer to eat this mixture wrapped in a lettuce leaf. Thai turkey lettuce wraps are so refreshing. Sometimes when we have leftovers, we'll serve it over rice the next day. It's great with rice as well. We hope you'll try this exciting recipe and love it like we do!
Enjoy!
Dianna
We think you might like these other tasty recipes too!
- Thai Peanut Sauce
- Thai Panang Curry
- Thai Chicken Pizza
- Chicken Tikka Masala Mac and Cheese
- Cherry Salad with Gorgonzola and Toasted Almonds
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Thai Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients
For Meat
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 Tablespoons oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger chopped
- ½ cup Trader Joe’s Thai Lime Cashews chopped
- 4 green onions sliced fine (green parts only)
- ½ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves chopped
For Sauce
- ½ cup sweet chili sauce
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- fresh juice and zest from two limes
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon salt
For Wraps
- 1 large head Bib or Romaine lettuce washed, leaves separated and dried
Instructions
For Meat
- Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and saute until softened.
- Add ground turkey, garlic, ginger and cook, tossing occasionally, until meat is cooked through, then remove from heat. Add chopped cashews, green onion, cilantro and mint and toss together.
For Sauce
- In a small bowl combine the sweet chili sauce, hoisin sauce, and soy sauce, mix well.
- Add brown sugar, lime juice, lime zest, red pepper flakes and salt to sauce and stir to combine. Then add sauce to cooked meat
- Spoon meat and sauce mixture onto lettuce leaves and eat taco-style.
Nutrition
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originally posted on 01/5/19
Served this several times and it never fails. I do omit the cilantro and cut back a bit on the red pepper. Definitely a winner.