Last week I found a recipe for venison lettuce wraps, and even though I had never tried any wrapped meat in vegetable leaves, I decided to try them and have a tasty meal with my friend. These wraps are served well over steamed white rice with a little soy sauce, but you can also enjoy them alone.
2stalksgreen onions (scallions or green shallots) - chopped
3teaspoonschili sauce (chilli sauce in British English)
1mediumiceberg lettuce - 5-6 leaves
½cupvermicelli rice noodles
2tablespoonsolive oil
½cupboiling water
Instructions
Mince or chop 2 cloves of garlic, dice 8 mushrooms, chop up 2 green onions and set all the veggies aside.
In a pan, add half the oil and brown the ground venison; Stir in the minced garlic and half tsp ginger.
While the meat and garlic are cooked, fry the noodles in a pan with oil for around 10 minutes.
After they cool, crush them down with your fingers.
Add diced mushrooms to the frying pan once the meat is no longer pink. Cook the mushrooms until they are soft, around 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash and pat dry about six lettuce leaves. Cut off the stems and slice the large leaves in half if needed. Set them aside.
Once the mushrooms are done, add 3 tsp chili sauce and stir.
It will be pretty dry at this point. Add some water to make the meat a bit saucy.
Once the meat is nice and saucy, stir in the sliced green onions and remove the skillet from heat.
Spoon 2 – 3 tbsp meat over each piece of lettuce. Top the meat with the fried rice noodles.
Roll ‘em up, and there you are!
Notes
If you thought about skipping the fried noodles, think again. My thought was, what difference will these things make? The answer: a HUGE difference! I love the crunchies! It’s like when you’re eating a salad: croutons or no croutons? Definitely croutons! So take five minutes and fry up some rice noodles. You will not regret it.