Skip to main content

Asian Ground Beef Lettuce Wraps

Asian ground beef lettuce wraps served on a plate with beef, mushrooms, peppers, and cashews wrapped in butter lettuce.

Made with a combination of flavorful ground beef, crunchy veggies, and bold aromatics, these Asian Ground Beef Lettuce Wraps are out-of-this-world delicious. Serve them as a stand-alone dish or pair them with your favorite grain for the ultimate healthy summer meal.

Picture this: It’s a beautiful summer day. You soak up the sun in your backyard or at the pool with your loved ones, working up quite the appetite. To cap off a glorious afternoon, you serve up these delicious and healthy lettuce wraps. It’s the perfect end to a perfect day. If you’re a Slender Kitchen regular, then you probably know how much I love lettuce wraps. Believe me when I say that this recipe is one of the best ones on my site.

With so many bold and delicious flavors, Asian Ground Beef Lettuce Wraps make for the perfect way to kick off the summer. This mouthwatering dish is low-carb, dairy-free, grain-free, and can be made gluten-free if you swap out the soy sauce for tamari. Just one bite will have you instantly feeling like you’ve been transported to the Far East, right from your very own kitchen.

Whether you’re looking for low-carb meal prep recipes or healthy summer recipes for your next backyard barbecue, family dinner, or poolside lunch, these Asian Ground Beef Lettuce Wraps are guaranteed to be a hit. For the ultimate meal, serve them alongside my Instant Pot Brown Rice and/or Grilled Summer Vegetables.

Ingredients for Asian beef lettuce wraps including ground beef, peppers, mushrooms, water chestnuts, and soy sauce.

What You Need and Easy Swaps

To bring this flavorful dish to life, you will need the following key ingredients:

  • Lean ground beef: For this dish, I prefer to use 95% lean ground beef. You can use any kind you like, or swap it out for ground turkey or chicken. Vegetarian meat products will also work.
  • Veggies: You will need mushrooms, red bell peppers, water chestnuts, green onions, and a head of butter lettuce for this dish. Feel free to swap in other veggies. Favorites include zucchini, summer squash, and cauliflower.
  • Aromatics: Fresh garlic and ground ginger add a ton of bright, savory flavors to our lettuce wraps. If you don't have fresh, swap in garlic and ginger paste or powder.
  • Soy sauce: The bold umami flavors in the soy sauce add a ton of flavor to the Asian ground beef that acts as the star of the dish. For a lower sodium option, use coconut aminos.
  • Rice vinegar: The acidity in this ingredient brightens up the rest of our ingredients, maximizing the delicious flavors. In a pinch, you can swap in white vinegar or even some lime juice.
  • Sesame oil: I like to use this as my cooking oil instead of olive or avocado oil because it perfectly complements the Asian flavors in the dish. However, any cooking oil will work.

What to Serve With This Dish

While this dish can be served on its own, you can also pair it with a delicious side dish to bulk it up. Here are some of my favorite side dishes to serve with lettuce wraps:

Serving and Substitution Tips

Here are some of my top tips on serving styles and substitutions:

Here are some of my top tips on serving styles and substitutions:

  • If you prefer your meals with a kick, you can add finely chopped red chillies or crushed red pepper flakes to the ground beef mixture as you saute it. You could also drizzle sriracha over the lettuce wraps just before serving them.
  • Want to switch up the protein? No problem. You can swap out the ground beef for any other kind of meat you like. Ground turkey and chicken both work great.
  • For vegetarian lettuce wraps, leave out the meat and add in more veggies like zucchini and mushrooms. You could also try using tofu crumbles, although I haven’t tried this variation myself.
  • To make this dish gluten-free, simply swap out the soy sauce for tamari. To make it Paleo/Whole30-approved, use coconut aminos instead.
  • If you find yourself with leftovers of the filling, serve them over a salad or bowl of rice for a delicious lunch or dinner.

How to Store This Dish

If you wind up with leftovers of this dish, you can easily store them for later. The lettuce wrap filling can be stored in an airtight bag or container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Make sure you store the filling separately from any leftover butter lettuce, as the filling will cause the lettuce to get soggy when stored. To keep the dish for even longer, you can freeze the filling in an airtight container for up to 4 months. Make sure to let it cool down to room temperature before storing it in the fridge or freezer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below you will find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about this dish:

What is the best lettuce for lettuce wraps?

The best lettuce for lettuce wraps is butter, iceberg, or romaine. Butter lettuce is my personal favorite choice, as it’s fairly sturdy and big enough to hold a decent amount of filling.

What kind of meat should I use for lettuce wraps?

While I make these lettuce wraps with lean ground beef, you can easily swap this out for ground turkey or ground chicken. You could even make it vegetarian by adding more chopped veggies like zucchini or mushrooms in place of the meat.

Can you make lettuce wraps ahead of time?

Absolutely. You can make the filling for the lettuce wraps up to 3 to 4 days in advance and store it in an airtight bag or container in the fridge until you’re ready to put together the wraps. I would not recommend storing the filling with the lettuce, as the lettuce will get soggy pretty quickly.

Can I freeze this dish?

Yes! The Asian ground beef filling for these lettuce wraps can easily be stored in the freezer. Simply allow it to cool down to room temperature before transferring it to an airtight bag or container, then store it in the freezer for up to 4 months.

Ground beef lettuce wraps with Asian marinade in butter lettuce with chopped cashews on top.

More Healthy Lettuce Wrap RecipesIf you liked this dish, try these next:

Calories 332, Total Fat 15g, Total Carbohydrate 13g, Protein 37g, Serving Size 3-4 lettuce wraps


from Slender Kitchen Blog and Recipes RSS Feed https://ift.tt/35Zy5Zr

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Huevos a la Mexicana (Mexican Scrambled Eggs)

These Mexican-style scrambled eggs are a classic Mexican breakfast that will quickly become a favorite. Huevos a la Mexicana are ready in just 15 minutes and made with a delicious combination of fresh eggs, tomatoes, onions, and chile peppers.  I love scrambled eggs as much as anyone else, but they can get a little boring at times. When I’m looking for something more exciting, I always turn to these Mexican scrambled eggs. It takes your average scramble and instantly upgrades it to something ten times more flavorful. This egg dish is the perfect way to spice up your morning routine for many reasons.  All you do is chop your veggies, whisk your eggs, and cook it all up. It’s also wholesome, nutritious, delicious, and incredibly easy to customize. Take inspiration from Huevos Rancheros and drizzle the final dish with ranchero sauce . Add fresh spinach, cilantro, or avocado. Top the final dish with queso cotija or shredded cheese. Turn it into breakfast tacos or breakfast...

Slow Cooker Beef Machaca

Crockpot Machaca is a traditional Mexican dish full of peppers, tomatoes, and spice that makes a delicious taco or burrito filling. The beef comes out perfectly tender and it has just the right amount of heat.  Last night I dreamed about being a cowboy, about long nights on the trail and campfires and ….smores. So maybe it was more like camping than cowboying, but I was riding a horse and dressed in the best of cowboy attire. Where did this cowboy dream come from? I think the blame lies with this Machaca which I ate much too much of last night. You see, Machaca traditionally was a dish made by cowboys and ranchers involving dehydrated beef, some chili peppers, and was eaten with whatever was handy. Sometimes it was rolled into flour tortillas, many times it was scrambled up with eggs, and sometimes it was fried into crispy little taquitos. This version skips the dehydrated beef but uses all the traditional flavors and can be eaten a thousand different ways. Make extra. You can a...

Honey Lime Tilapia

The best recipe for tilapia with a crispy coating and tons of honey lime flavor. This easy tilapia recipe is ready in less than 15 minutes, including prep, and will please even the pickiest eater. Serve it with some Pineapple Colelsaw or Mango Salsa for a tropical meal that everyone will love. I tend to think of tilapia as an "gateway fish." By that, I mean, I have noticed that many people who swear they hate all things fish end up trying tilapia and liking it. And then that kind of makes them think they'd like other fish, too. The next thing you know, they're visiting actual seafood specialty markets looking for that perfect cut of swordfish. Don't tell me I didn't warn you. But in all seriousness, every time I have made it for people who "don't really like fish" they go crazy. It also happens to be one of my all-time favorite fish recipes. While tilapia isn't going to win any awards in the looks category alone, all you really need to d...