Take Out Fake Out: Beef Lettuce Wraps
Is anyone else still in a coma from all the sweets and rich food that has been happening over the past few weeks? I sure am. Christmas happened, then second Christmas and of course, first New Year’s… I’m still snacking on leftover chocolates and goodies that are hanging around from last week. This doesn’t even include the stocking full of candy and chocolate I received (yes, I am five years old.) I think I have enough to last me till next year, or next week (depending on my mood.) The whole point of me telling you about my disgusting eating habits, is that even though I can put back a serious amount of chocolate, after a while I end up craving some veggies. I was especially getting a hankering for some lettuce wraps. I absolutely LOVE going out for Vietnamese food. We have a great place nearby that has a lettuce wrap platter that is to die for;. It’s nice because they lay out your lettuce, meat of choice and of course all the toppings, fixings and sauce. The one that they serve has a fairly basic grilled beef or chicken, but then has sauce on the side that you can drizzle on top. When I was recreating this, I decided to cook the meat in the sauce, just to make it even easier to put together. I did a simple Asian style sauce, using stuff that you may already have in your fridge (hopefully!) You can use any combination of veggies you like, which also makes this a great recipe to use up whatever is dying in your produce drawer. You can literally have this on the table in 15 minutes if you are a fast chopper, and it is super easy on the wallet too!. I’d say you could do a single serving of this for around $3 versus the $12 you will pay at a restaurant. Plus you won’t have anyone to judge you when you bust into a brand new chocolate orange afterwards. What? I ate my veggies. Enjoy folks, and as usual, please comment below if you have an idea you would like to see on Take Out Fake out! Peace out ya’ll. Beef Lettuce Wraps:
Serves 4
Total time: 15 minutes
Total time where you’re actually doing things: 15 minutes
What you’ll need:
- 4 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp hoisin sauce
- Juice of two limes
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp fresh grated ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp sriracha chili sauce (only if you like it spicy)
- 1 lb (16 oz) strip steak cut into thin strips (you could also use the pre-cut stirfry beef they usually have at the grocery store)
- 1 tbsp peanut oil
- 1 red pepper, thinly julienned
- 2 medium carrots, thinly julienned
- 1 cup beansprouts
- 1/4 cup thinly chopped green onion
- 1/2 cup roasted salted peanuts, crushed or chopped roughly
- 1 head of leaf lettuce, washed, dried and separated into leaves.
Mix together all of the sauce ingredients, add the beef and stir until coated. Heat a large pan or wok over medium heat, add the peanut oil and heat. Add the beef to the hot pan and stir-fry until cooked through and sauce is thickened, approximately 4-5 minutes. Remove to a bowl and garnish with one teaspoon of the green onion. Serve with little bowls of each of the veggies, peanuts, green onions and the lettuce leaves so that everyone can make their own wraps the way they like them.
