We see lettuce wraps on the appetizer section of menus at a lot of restaurants, and since we are fans of them, we decided to make them for dinner! Our favourite part about lettuce wraps is that no two renditions are the same (unless you are at a chain restaurant). When making them at home, you get your choice of lettuce type, sauce, veggies, and even protein. With that level of customizability, the only way to not like these is if you have a lettuce phobia!
Now, onto a major tip for how to eat these…I was struggling mightily, as the stem of my lettuce would snap, and then all my fillings would run out. Then, my wife told me to fold the lettuce in half so that the base of the stem touched the top of the leaf first and then to add the toppings, and fold like a taco. After I tried that, she asked me if it worked, and I said, “NO!” because I knew she might gloat a little, and I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction…but it really did work. Here’s hoping she doesn’t read this paragraph!
Time: 15-20 Minutes
Ingredients:
- Shrimp
- Veggies per your tastes. We are using red peppers and peas.
- Lettuce (broad sturdy leaves are best)
- Any topping you like…we are using dried chow mein noodles
- Sauce component. Hoisin and General Tso sauce are great here, but we decided to make our own with (you’ll have to pick your own quantities based on how tart/sweet/spicy you like your sauce…but water is the main ingredient):
- Water
- Rice vinegar
- Black vinegar
- Soy sauce
- Sriracha
- Oyster sauce
- Freshly grated ginger
- Sugar
- Corn starch
Method:
- If you’re making your own sauce, pour all of your ingredients (except for the corn starch) into a sauce pan, and start to simmer.
- While the sauce heats, cut your veggies, and start to sautee them in a little oil (we used peanut oil)
- Mix about a tablespoon of corn starch with some warm water and stir to combine and dissolve the corn starch. Then, pour this into your sauce, and keep simmering. It will thicken while the rest of your meal cooks…should take between 5 and 9 minutes to thicken. Note, you may need to turn down the heat a little if it looks like it will boil over.
- Wash and dry your lettuce, and put it on plates.
- When your veggies have softened a bit, and your sauce is thickening nicely, add your shrimp to the veggie pan, and cook.
- Pour a little sauce into your shrimp/veggie pan. You’ll want enough to coat, but not have too much excess. (We poured too much sauce in ours). Any leftover sauce you have would make for a good stir-fry sauce another day.
- Plate, devour, and enjoy!
