Yesterday I had some hamburger and was just going to make a stir fry, when I opened the fridge to reevaluate what vegetables I had in the fridge for the stir fry. I saw something my mom had brought, a beautiful head of butter lettuce. The butter lettuce got my head spinning what if instead of using it for a salad I used it for lettuce wraps.
So instead of adding the usual garlic and onions to my hamburger, I threw in some fresh ginger and seasoned with salt and soy sauce. I waited on my sweet and spicy sauce until the meat was done, because I didn’t want the sugar to caramalize and burn before the meat was done.
Once the meat was almost done I drizzled some of the sweet and spicy sauce over everything added some fresh basil and cilantro. I cooked everything together for another five minutes or so and everything was ready to go.
I only had one head of butter lettuce, and it was just enough for me and my husband and two year old. I just gave my one year old the meat, there was no way I was going to try to have her eat dinner as a wrap. It was hard enough for my two year old, she liked it, but is was hard to hold. So if you are planning on having more than two people over the age of five, I would suggest two heads of butter lettuce.
This would also have been good with some rice noodles or rice, but honestly my family loved eating the wraps just as they were.
Easy Substitution Ideas
- Ground beef: ground turkey or ground pork
- Butter Lettuce: romaine lettuce or red leaf lettuce
Ingredients
- 2-3 lbs ground beef
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1-2″ ginger, sliced
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 1-2 tspn salt, to taste
- 1-2 Tbspn soy sauce, to taste
- 3 Tbspn sweet and spicy sauce
- 2 heads butter lettuce (depending on how many people, one head serves about 2 people)
- I bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1-2 sprigs fresh basil, rough chopped
Directions
- Peel and slice the onion, garlic and ginger. Put the onion in a medium hot skillet first with a little bit of butter and when the onion is translucent add the ginger and garlic. After about 2 minutes, when the garlic and ginger is fragrant, add the hamburger.
- Season with salt and soy sauce. Cook the hamburger thoroughly.
- Taste to see if more salt or soy is needed. After you have tasted the meat, add your sweet and spicy sauce, fresh basil and cilantro and cook on medium low for about five minutes.
- Carefully peel apart your butter lettuce. The lettuce naturally forms almost like a little bowl.
- Scoop a decent amount of meat into the lettuce, drizzle a little extra sweet and spicy and serve.
