Asian Lettuce Wraps with Carrot Slaw

Hi friends! How is your week going?

I can't wait to share this recipe with you today!

So, typically an Asian or Chinese dish is not one you would find me making or especially eating. For some reason I just don't enjoy oriental foods. Maybe I haven't had the right kind or I am ordering the wrong thing, but typically it is something I shy away from. Well, except for chicken wings from the China Chef II around the corner from my house. Weird right? Chicken wings from a Chinese restaurant. Seriously, if you have not tried them before...do it!!! Crazy good.

Anyways, the other day my dad offered to make us his favorite stir fry dish. Now, typically I am begging for any other dish he wants to make, but I can only win that battle every so often. So instead of fighting for another type of dish, I offered to make something that would fit all of our taste buds, watch our waistlines, and satisfy even the pickiest of eaters.



Asian Lettuce Wraps with Carrot Slaw
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For the slaw:
1/2 c. julienned carrots
1/2 chopped scallion
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 T. toasted sesame oil

Combine ingredients and let them marinate until the wraps are served. Serve on top of the lettuce wraps as a slaw.

For the wraps:
1 lb. ground turkey
3 T. hoisin sauce
1/2 c. soy sauce
1/4 c. rice vinegar
3 T. toasted sesame oil
1 t. red pepper flakes
1 t. garlic powder
1 t. onion powder
1 t. Italian seasoning
3 c. rice- I used a dish of leftover rice from Chinese takeout last week and about cup of leftover jasmine rice from a previous dinner. Leftover rice works great.
1/4 c. cilantro
2 scallions
peanuts
1 head of iceberg lettuce

Brown turkey in a pan over medium heat until broken into small pieces. To make this easier I use a potato masher! This is by far my favorite kitchen tool. It is so versatile! Once the turkey is cooked through, add the next ingredients stopping after you add the rice. Combine well and cook over low heat for 10 or so minutes to allow the sauce to thicken and the flavors to merry. While that is cooking chop up the cilantro, scallions and peanuts; set aside. These will be used later as toppings for the wraps. Next, take the head of iceberg lettuce and remove the core (this can be done by holding the head of lettuce with the core side down and giving it a good pop on the counter. This will loosen the core and allow you to pull it out leaving a ball of lettuce cups to peel apart). Carefully peel off the layers of the iceberg until you have desired amount of "wraps". It helped when I got further down to the center to allow it to sit and take the chill off.  Add a small sprinkle of the chopped cilantro, scallions and peanuts to the turkey mixture that you had sitting aside. Allow those to merry into the ingredients for another 4-5 minutes. At this point the turkey mixture is complete- I wanted to get it cooked early so I left it on the stove for another hour or so until we were ready to eat. This worked just fine. If you do this as well, just keep an eye on it and stir it every so often. If the mixture looks to be thickening too much add a few splashes of water.

Once you are ready to serve, enjoy this wrapped in the iceberg lettuce cups and topped with the crispy, salty slaw, crunchy peanuts, onioney scallions and cool cilantro.

I hope you like these as much as we did! We had so much meat leftover that we ended up putting it in a flattened freezer bag for easy storage and a future convenient meal!

Enjoy :-)