Hello Hello!
Happy Friday! 🙂 Hope everyone has something fun and exciting to do for the weekend! I don’t know about y’all but I have been in excellent spirits all week. The weather here in China has taken a turn for the best and we’ve been faced with sunny days & plus 20 degree weather nearly every day. Its at that beautiful time where the weather is not too cold, not to hot, but JUST right…prior to the arrival of excruciating heat and humity and the notorious Shanghai smog.
We have about 5 weeks left of classes, two weeks of exams and then it is back to Canada for the summer! 🙂 (And then a move to Hong Kong in August with my boyfriend!!!! 🙂 (But i”ll discuss that more in detail later…) The prospect of looming bikini season, seeing friends and family I haven’t seen in months (and moving to a new city at the end of the summer with a ton of beaches) has pushed me to jumpstart my summer fitness routine and lighter,healthier eating habits…which brings me to…Vietnamese-style lettuce wraps! :).
Lettuce wraps are a new fad light up news feeds everywhere andddd I love them! :). They are filling, flavourful and you can be creative with ingredients used. My inspiration for these lettuce wraps is Vietnamese salad rolls. Growing up, my parents exposed me to many types of cuisines and a few Vietnamese restaurants in Ottawa were some of our go to spots (and still are to this day). My favourite dish was always the “Wrap and Roll” platter. This platter included a variety of veggies and herbs, flavourful grilled meat and sometime noodles and fresh rice paper to wrap them in. The mix of ingredients, and the aspect of playing with my food I always enjoyed from a young age. So my “adult” version is low in carbs but still packed with flavour lettuce wraps with lemongrass pork and Vietnamese-style dipping sauce.
Recipe:
Pork, shredded into small pieces
Marinade for Pork:
1 Tbsp of Oyster Sauce
2 Tbsp of Fish Sauce
1 Tbsp of Honey
2 Cloves of Garlic finely chopped
1 Tbsp of Lemongrass
Mix together Marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add pork, mix together, cover and marinade for an hour or more. (The longer you marinade, the more tender and flavourful your pork will be! 🙂
1 cucumber, julienned (cut into match-size pieces)
1 Carrot, shredded (reserve 2 tbsp for dipping sauce)
Bean sprouts, for garnish
Cilantro, for garnish
Green onions, for garnish Sriracha, for garnish 1 Cabbage, leaves pulled apart
*You can also choose to use different veggies and/or herbs. You could also add chopped peanuts for a bit of crunch8
Dipping Sauce:
6 Tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Thai Chillies Finely Chopped
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp of Lemon or Lime Juice
1 Tbsp of Soya Sauce
2-3 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp Shredded Carrots
1/4 cup of Hot Water
Mix together ingredients for dipping sauce in a bowl, set aside.
Once your pork is marinated, pan fry or grill pork on bbq on a low heat until the pork is cooked through and has a nice caramel brown colour on the outside. Allow to cool
Arrange your lettuce wraps according to preference. I chose to use green cabbage in this dish and the crispy texture worked nicely but romaine, butter lettuce,etc would also work.
Add your chosen veggies and herbs. Top with a dollop of spicy Sriracha or other hot chilli sauce if desired. “Wrap” your leaf around your veggies and meat. Serve with dipping sauce.
This recipe wow-ed my foodie boyfriend (and myself) as there are sooo many flavours and textures going on here. The sweet lemongrass pork, with the crunch of the cabbage, and tangy flavour of the sauce were LITERALLY an explosion of taste in our mouths. This recipe is super simple to make, healthy and incredibly flavourful. This is definitely a must make…and for us…and “must make once a week recipe”! Let me know if you try them and what you think! 🙂 Have a great weekend!
Savoury Travels 