Healthy Ground Turkey Lettuce Wraps

The first time our older daughter heard of lettuce wraps was several years ago watching her favorite tv show at the time, Arthur.  I can’t remember the details of the show but I think Arthur made a friend with a boy from China and got to try lettuce wraps which he loved.  It was soon after that our daughter was begging to try lettuce wraps.  Good ole’ grandma came over and made some for her.  They seemed so exotic back then.

Since those times we’ve seen lettuce wraps pop up in restaurants, namely P.F. Chang’s and subsequently recipes trying to imitate the Asian lettuce wraps from P.F. Changs.  The problem with many of these recipes is that they are heavy in oil and sugar.  Because our girls love Healthy Ground Turkey Asian Lettuce Wraps so much, I’ve made them a zillion times and adjusted this recipe to be both lower on sugar and oil, hence healthy, And very delicious.

These Asian lettuce wraps have replaced the beloved taco night in our house.  We literally have them once a week.  The girls are always thrilled when they hear we are having lettuce wraps.  I’ve learned to throw some rice in the rice cooker for the hubby who needs something a bit more substantial than flavorful meat and lettuce.  The meal I try to prepare includes the lettuce wraps that my husband eats as an appetizer and the girls and I eat as a main dish.  We have rice and stir fry fresh veggies as well.

Here is the ingredients list:

2 heads small gems sweet lettuce

2 lbs (2 packages) lean ground turkey meat

1 tablespoon olive oil or go lighter and use spray olive oil

2 t crushed garlic

2 T chives (cut small with kitchen shears)

2 T cilantro (cut small with kitchen shears)

juice of 1/2 a fresh lime

1/4 red onion or 1/2 medium size onion

Sauce:

Hoisin sauce

TJ’s Sesame Soy Ginger Vinagrette dressing

Rice vinegar

Low sodium Soy sauce

Toasted sesame seed oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional:

chopped peanuts

Directions:

Lightly saute the onions in olive oil or spray oil add crushed garlic and cook another minute.  Add ground turkey – cook until light brown.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Squeeze fresh lime juice into cooked meat.  Add all of the sauces, just a bit of each since individuals can add more soy sauce or dressing if preferred – I like to keep it light and flavorful.  Cut in chives and cilantro.

Stir all ingredients of meat mixture together in a bowl.  Remove lettuce leaves individually.  Dish out meat mixture onto lettuce leaves – the lettuce leaves act as cups or bowls.  My kids prefer to fill their lettuce on their own and create their own wraps.  When we happen to have peanuts in the house we chop some up and sprinkle on top of the meat in the lettuce bowl or wrap.

That’s it.  We never have left-overs on this dinner.  That is a good sign!  Hope you and your family enjoy this recipe for Healthy Ground Turkey Asian Lettuce Wraps as much as we do!  Leave me a comment if you try it and let me know what you thought and if you tried something different – love to hear about the variations.

Happy cooking 🙂