Hand-Held, Healthy Recipe: Turkey Lettuce Wraps

June 18, 2010

Hand-Held, Healthy Recipe: Turkey Lettuce Wraps

By Mark Bishop, HSC Deputy Director

This may sound weird coming from me, but my wife and I realized that we have been in a bit of a food rut. Henry is going through a stage of not eating his veggies, and we haven't pushed it much. But we recognized it and felt like we needed to shake things up a bit and make a veggie-filled dinner that would be irresistible to a three-year-old. So last night we made turkey lettuce wraps.

Like much of what I make, it's based on what's in my fridge at the given moment. (So my challenge is to always keep an adequately stocked fridge!) This is what I did:

Ingredients

1 lbs. ground lean turkey
1 medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 head fresh broccoli, diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 bunch asparagus, diced
1 tbs olive oil for pan
1/3 cup nuts, diced and toasted

4 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs flour mixed with 1 tbs water
1 teaspoon powdered ginger (fresh is better if you have it)
1 tbs sesame oil
Salt to taste
1 head lettuce (iceberg or romaine work well) with leaves pulled apart and washed
Directions

Caramelize the garlic and onion in a large wok. Then add your hard veggies. Carrots work great, but I didn't have any. So in this case, I added the broccoli and let it get bright green and just slightly soft. Then I added the soy sauce and ginger, and mixed. Then I added the turkey. I mixed it up and let the turkey cook mostly through. About 10 minutes. Then I added the softer veggies -- asparagus and zucchini, and the nuts. At this point you'll have a lot of liquid from the veggies in your pan. Add the flour and water mixture and make sure it comes to a boil and thickens. Mix it well so it doesn't get lumpy.

Taste. If necessary, add a bit of salt and pepper.

When done, top with the sesame oil (don't cook the sesame oil because it will lose its flavor).

I serve this with lettuce leaves. We fill up the leaves and wrap them around the stir fry. Tons of protein, tons of veggies and tons of flavor. It makes a meal that's tasty, crunchy and really fun to eat.

Even for a kid who has been a bit picky lately.