Vietnamese Lettuce Cups
These tasty Vietnamese lettuce cups make for a lovely light meal or the perfect appetizer! I will frequently make this dish to bring to a gathering and everyone delights in making their own lettuce cups.
Equipment
- bowls for serving toppings
- serving bowl for the meat mixture
- small serving spoons for the condiments
Ingredients
Pickled Carrots and Onions
- ½ cup apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup coconut sugar or golden monkfruit sweetener to keep these sugar free
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 2 medium carrots julienned
- ½ medium onion sliced thinly
For the lettuce cup filling
- 1 pound ground pork or ground turkey or garbanzo beans or cooked lentils
- 1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp coconut sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 1 tsp Red Boat fish sauce
Toppings for serving
- 8 bibb or romaine lettuce leaves
- ½ cucumber small dice
- 1 small sweet red pepper thinly sliced
- 3 green onions thinly sliced
- ½ cup fresh mint coarsely chopped
- ¼ cup salted peanuts roughly chopped or use hemp hearts!
- sweet chili sauce sweetened with dates
- 1 lime cut into wedges
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix apple cider vinegar, sweetener, and salt until well combined. Stir in carrots and onion; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
- Cook ground meat, ginger, and garlic in a large skillet over medium heat for 6-8 minutes, or until the meat is cooked completely. Break up the meat into crumbles, and drain any fat from the pan.
- Stir in the coconut aminos, apple cider vinegar, sweetener, salt, pepper, and fish sauce.
- To serve, drain the carrot mixture. Place meat mixture into the lettuce leaves, top with cucumber, red pepper, green onions, carrot mixture, and mint. Sprinkle with peanuts, and drizzle with sweet chili sauce. Squeeze lime juice to taste. Fold lettuce up to form a taco-like cup, and enjoy!
- If you are taking this as an appetizer to a party, keep all of the toppings, meat, and lettuce cups separate and let guests build their own lettuce cups!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!