Leaf It To Me! Chinese Pork Lettuce Wraps

 

At the moment I am into spicier food with a bit of crunch. One easy to way to get that is to wrap your filling in a crisp lettuce leaf – Romaine lettuce is good but by all means use what is in season where you live or what you really like. I’ll leaf it to you! It also makes for a brilliant, healthier wrap than some carbier options.

As for the inner crunch then I like to add bean sprouts and chopped spring onion/scallions to my savoury mixture but again you can use bamboo shoots, peppers and shredded cabbage.

This recipe has a Chinese pork mixture with garlic, chilli, ginger, soy sauce, lime juice, cinnamon and sweet chilli sauce. I often make my own chilli sauce for dipping when I feel it necessary to keep the sugar as low as possible but since only 2 tbsp are used for this whole recipe then go ahead and use a ready-mixed one – it won’t tip the balance too far the carby/sugary way.

I find this recipe will generously serve 4  so feel free to halve if you’re not a big family or crowd but it does mean it’s suitable for serving to larger gatherings and can be doubled too. Great for a Friday night ‘fakeaway’ meal!

 

Ingredients

METRIC/US

low-fat cooking spray or mist

500 g/1 lb low-fat (5% fat) pork mince/ground pork

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 red chilli, finely chopped

2 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

200 g/2 cups bean sprouts

3 spring onions/scallions, finely chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

juice of 1 lime

1 Romaine lettuce, stalk removed and leaves separated

lime wedges to serve (optional)

 

Method

1.  Generously spritz a large frying or saute pan with low-fat cooking spray or mist. Heat, add the pork, garlic and chilli and lightly fry until the pork is browned, stirring the pan regularly.
2.  Add the ginger, cinnamon, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, beansprouts and two-thirds of the spring onions/scallions. Simmer for a further 5 minutes, stirring often.
3.  Remove from the heat, season to taste with salt and pepper and pour over the lime juice.
4.  Scoop the mixture into the lettuce leaves and sprinkle with the remaining spring onions/scallions. Garnish with lime wedges to serve if liked.

 

SERVES 4

WLS PORTION: 1/2

 

CALORIES PER PORTION: 200

PROTEIN: 28.9 g

CARBOHYDRATE: 8.8 g

FAT: 5.7 g

 

Image courtesy of http://www.aldi.co.uk