Lettuce Wraps

We picked up a package of green leaf lettuce today, although it was labeled "greens" and not lettuce! The serving suggestions included wraps, and since this was brought to my attention, rather than using all of it in our salads, I decided to make some lettuce wraps for lunch today. We rarely have them, but I was still surprised not to find a recipe for them on this blog. Most searches lead to chicken wraps, but we had a small bit of cooked ground beef in the freezer, so I selected this recipe to try, scaling it down quite a bit. Bonus points for being able to use some of the ginger paste in the fridge!

Asian Inspired Lettuce Wraps

• 1/2 cup cooked ground beef
• 1/4 cup diced red pepper
• 1/4 cup shredded carrot
• 1 green onion, sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
• Pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce 
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup (or brown sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon rice vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• Lettuce leaves for serving
• Sesame seeds for garnish

Combine all the ingredients except lettuce and sesame seeds and heat until warm. Feel free to start with raw hamburger, but then your first step will be to cook it. Quadruple all ingredients for one pound of ground beef. To serve, place meat mixture on a lettuce leaf, sprinkle with sesame seeds, roll up and eat!

Note: We tried these again and they were just as delicious as we remembered. Someday we need to try marinating some thinly sliced steak in this "sauce" and serving it over rice. We suspect that will be delicious as well.

And we also used the "greens" in a sandwich and regular salad as well.