Please don’t be scared off by what I am about to tell you.
Monday night I was bored and I wanted to make something I had never done before. I spent at least half an hour going through my cupboards/fridge in a sorry attempt to create something new. I began to digress and wash the bags of lettuce from my most recent trip to the grocery store. As I rinsed the butter lettuce leaves I had an idea – Asian Lettuce Wraps. But I had just used my ground pork in another dish , what would I do? Ah ha! Use the leftover half brick of tofu!
Tofu Lettuce Wraps turned out delicious. I diced the tofu very finely with a minced onion, and chopped button mushrooms, all of which I sauteed in a little toasted sesame oil with Chinese five spice. Then I added a broccoli slaw mix (I also used it as the garnish in the photo) which is shredded broccoli stems & carrot – so I ran my knife through it until it was fine and added about 1 cup of that as well. Then I simmered the mixture in low sodium soy sauce, sriracha (a chili paste available in all grocery stores), rice vinegar, honey (yes Samantha – you can leave it out), and some water. At the very end, I made a slurry of water and cornstarch and added that to thicken the sauce without adding fat. Not bad for a) never doing this before, and b) for not having a recipe.
I also happened to have a bag of edamames (soybeans) in the freezer, so I made those as well. They are so easy; just boil them for 5 minutes and you are done. When you eat edamames, they have salt on them and you dip them in soy sauce and get the beans out of the pod. I skipped the salt after the were cooked, and mixed some sriracha in the low sodium soy – delish!
Let me know if anyone wants the vague recipe I have in my head, or if you have a recipe for lettuce wraps I could look at. I am not as familiar with Asian ingredients/spices yet, so it is harder for me to cook on the fly. I appreciate any help.
