Crisp cold lettuce wrapped around saucy flavorful turkey…and you have our favorite Thai peanut turkey lettuce wraps! A healthy and delicious appetizer or light dinner.
I love these turkey lettuce wraps! Years ago I was living in Chicago and we all went out to PF Changs for dinner. Everyone was ordering the lettuce wraps and I was like, “meat in lettuce??… yeah sounds really great…blah!” And then I tried them and they were awesome!!!!!!!! I was totally thinking it would be lame, but it was delicious.
This is one of my favorite meals to make in the summer months when you want a light easy meal!
Ingredients for Turkey Lettuce Wraps
A quick and easy recipe is just what I need in the summer time! It always seems like we are running to a soccer practice or rushing in from being at the pool, and simple and delicious is my summer jam! Here are the ingredients that you will need…
For the Filling
- Ground Turkey: You can go as lean as you want, but know that the leaner the turkey, the drier the filling will be.
- Celery: diced up nice and fine
- Carrots: You can shred your own carrots or buy them already shredded.
- Red Bell Pepper: You could use yellow or orange too, but I wouldn’t use green.
- Onion: minced up small
- Garlic: adds flavor
- Slivered Almonds: adds the most amazing crunch to the wraps
For the Sauce
- Peanut Butter: You want creamy and it adds all the great peanut flavor to the sauce.
- Brown Sugar: adds a depth of flavor and richness to the sauce
- Sugar: adds more sweetness to the sauce
- Hoisin Sauce: a thick, dark colored sauce that is both sweet and salty
- Oyster Sauce: a thick, dark sauce made from oyster extract that doesn’t taste fishy despite the name and adds an earthy flavor
- Rice Vinegar: made from fermented rice and adds acidity
- Soy Sauce: adds great umami flavor to the sauce
- Red Pepper Flakes: adds heat to the sauce
- Lettuce Leaves: you want whole large leaves with no tears in them
Scroll down to the end of the post to find all the measurements you will need of each ingredient.
How to Make Lettuce Wraps
You only need about 30 minutes to make this flavorful recipe. It’s as simple as browning the turkey, sautéing the vegetables and whisking together the peanut sauce. Here are the basic steps…
- Brown the turkey until it is almost totally cooked. Remove to a bowl.
- Whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce in a separate bowl.
- Add all the vegetables to the skillet and sauté until tender. Then add the meat back in.
- Add the sauce and let it all simmer together for a few minutes.
- Spoon the meat mixture into the lettuce leaves and sprinkle with slivered almonds and sliced green onions.<