Recipe: Thai Lettuce Cups with Spicy Peanut Sauce

I gotta say, I only made these for the spicy peanut sauce.  I am pretty much always craving some type of asian fusion and this seemed like an easy yet somewhat fancy dinner for our date night.  I added the beef as a surprise for the hubby who has embraced eating meat with a vengeance after a nearly three year stint with vegetarianism.  He’s jumping all in.  I am dipping my toe back in the animal protein pool, but I’m being very strict with sticking to quality meats.  Only grass-fed, hormone and chemical free, local cow for this girl.

The sauce was the most work, which isn’t saying much because it took no time at all to throw together. The other ingredients were a snap if you have a food processor and maybe an extra minute or two if not.  That’s a lie. It probably takes 20 seconds with the food processor and 10 minutes to clean the darn thing whereas you could just use a nice knife and save 9 minutes in clean up time alone. The fun part of this dinner (besides the eating with your hands) is that you can pretty much put whatever you want in it.  I opted for tons of veggies and a little ground up, grass fed, cow.

Sneak Peek at the final product:

Okay, so we’ll start with the sauce since you could make it ahead of time and let it sit and have the flavors marry.  You can also make it at the same time and I promise it really doesn’t take that long.

Spicy Peanut Sauce Ingredients:

1 can (light or full fat) coconut milk

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (or almond butter)

3 Tbs agave nectar (or maple syrup)

1 Tbs rice vinegar

1 Tbs Sriracha (or more if you’re feeling adventurous) 

1/2 tsp salt 

Add all ingredients to small sauce pan and simmer until thickened.  I put it in a condiment squirt bottle to get fancy with it, you know, so I could ‘drizzle’ it over top.  After I took the picture I pretty much dumped the sauce on top of my lettuce cups.  Ha, kidding….  My hubs said this sauce was great because it starts out sweet and then the kick comes in.  I only used 1 Tbs of the Sriracha because he’s not a fan of it and it had just the right amount of heat.

He can’t stand the heat, so I politely ask him to stay out of the kitchen.  😉 Kidding…he’s the best sous chef ever.

For the lettuce cups you can really use a combo of pretty much whatever veggie.  You just need a few basics to use as a base: garlic, spring onion, tamarin (or soy sauce) lime juice, and cilantro to top.

For mine I used cauliflower, red cabbage, carrots, and ground beef.  Obviously you can keep it vegetarian pretty easily, mushrooms, radish, shredded french green beans, etc could be excellent additions. Or choose another animal protein such as shrimp or chicken.

Base Ingredients:

2-4 Tbs tamari (or soy sauce)

1 lime

1 bunch spring onion

3-5 cloves garlic

fresh cilantro

Shred up your veggies, and start sautéing away. Start with your protein, add the more dense to lighter veggies, and end it with the lime and tamari.

I used large romain leaves this time around because I couldn’t find butter lettuce, but I was also thinking red cabbage cups would be nice and sturdy & so freaking healthy.  Basically use whatever type of lettuce boat you choose.  Fill those guys with filling, top with peanut sauce and fresh cilantro. You’re welcome.  

Oh, and this makes an excellent breakfast the next day…cold or reheated.  I stir fried mine up with some eggs and there you go…super filling and look at all those veggies first thing in the morning.  You could also throw the leftover mixture on top of some mixed greens and you have yourself a nice lunch too.