There’s nothing better than Southeast Asian cuisine for a good, healthy meal. After all, the majority of foods include lean proteins like shrimp, pork and chicken combined with stir fried vegetables and a light sauce.
However, getting takeout from your local restaurant isn’t always the healthiest option for you. Because many restaurants frequently use their deep fat fryers to cook things more quickly, calories are added to even the simplest of meals. Also, sodium content could be higher with takeout.
But luckily, we found an intriguing recipe for lettuce and turkey wraps that is perfect for an appetizer at a party or an entrée for a week night meal thanks to our friends at Eating Well.
Lettuce And Turkey Wraps
This is a spin on a classic dish but it uses lettuce cups to give you extra fiber and cut down on calories.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup instant brown rice
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 pound 93%-lean ground turkey
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
- 1 large red bell pepper, finely diced
- 1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, rinsed and chopped
- 1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce, (see Note)
- 1 teaspoon five-spice powder, (see Note)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 heads Boston lettuce, leaves separated
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs, such as cilantro, basil, mint and/or chives
- 1 large carrot, shredded
Directions
Before doing any chopping, you’ll want to get your rice started first. Boil some water in a saucepan, add the rice and cook over low heat for about 5 minutes. Take that off the heat and set aside.
To sauté the vegetables, you’ll want to use a large nonstick pan sprayed with some cooking spray. Heat your pan on medium-high and cook the ground turkey and ginger until you no longer see any pink on the turkey. That should take about 6 minutes, more or less but you want to make sure the ground turkey is cooked all the way through.
After the turkey and ginger have cooked, stir in the already cooked rice and add the following ingredients: Hoisin sauce, water chestnuts, bell pepper, broth, salt and five spice powder. Let these ingredients cook through for about a minute so their flavors start to marry.
As those ingredients are cooking, prepare your lettuce cups by separating leaves from the head of lettuce. Make sure to rinse your lettuce and then either spin dry in a salad spinner or pat dry with paper towel.
Finally, spoon your turkey mixture into each leaf, and serve!
Photo Credit: istockphoto.com
