Turkey Lettuce Wraps ala P.F. Chang's

Someone mentioned P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps the other day and they've been on mind ever since. Cue walking into the grocery today and seeing iceberg lettuce on sale...the rest is history. Yep, we just ate YUMMY and HEALTHY lettuce wraps for dinner!

I combined several different recipe versions I found online.

20 min prep time

Turkey Lettuce Wraps

1 head iceberg lettuce, separated and washed
1 lb lean ground turkey, browned (could sub chicken, beef or tofu)
1 Tbsp olive oil (x2)
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ginger, minced
1 can water chestnuts, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 Tbsp hot chili sauce
2 tsp dark sesame oil

Brown ground turkey over medium-high heat in 1 Tbsp olive oil. Set aside.

In same pan, saute chopped onion in 1 Tbsp olive oil.

After a few minutes, add garlic, ginger, water chestnuts, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice wine venigar, chili sauce and sesame oil. Mix well.

Add the meat back into the pan with green onions.

Serve with whole lettuce leaves and wrap like a burrito to eat.

I didn't make the sauce today because we were too hungry, but I think I will try it next time.

Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp ketchup
1 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp hot mustard
2 tsp water
1 -2 tsp hot chile sauce

Asian Noodle Salad

I spent a small fortune on these ingredients today for an asian noodle salad.

I just hope it looks like this when it's finished. And tastes as good as everyone claims!

I found this on http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/ and have been thinking about making it for two weeks now. It's time!

Asian Noodle Salad adapted from Jamie Oliver

SALAD INGREDIENTS:
1 package linguine noodles, cooked, rinsed, and cooled
1/2 to 1 head sliced Napa cabbage1/2 to 1 head sliced purple cabbage1/2 to 1 bag baby spinach1 red bell pepper, sliced thin1 yellow bell pepper, sliced thin1 orange bell pepper, sliced thin, 1 small bag bean sprouts,3 sliced scallions, 3 peeled, sliced cucumbers, LOTS of chopped cilantro—up to one bunch, 1 can whole cashews, lightly toasted in skillet.

DRESSING:
Juice of 1 lime, 8 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons sesame oil, 6 tablespoons soy sauce, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 3 tablespoons fresh ginger, chopped, 2 cloves chopped garlic, 2 hot peppers or jalapenos, chopped, More chopped cilantro—LOTS
Mix together salad ingredients. Whisk together dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Mix with tongs or hands and serve on platter. *Dressing keeps up to three days before serving, WITHOUT cilantro.

UPDATE:

I made this salad on Sunday. YUM-O! If you are flavor shy, this salad (or at least the dressing) is probably not for you. But, if you loves veggies and like a sweet and spicy ginger sesame dish once in a while, then this salad is right up your alley. This salad would also be excellent with a rice wine vinegar and oil (milder) dressing, if that's more your style.

I probably spent about $12 on ingredients, but $3 was cashews and $3 was sesame oil because I didn't have any. Next time, I'll still have both of those ingredients on hand, because I didn't even use half of them.

This is a HUGE salad. Like, so huge it didn't fit in my largest bowl. It would probably feed 12-15 people, so you can easily halve it. I also store the noodles, salad and dressing separately, so they'll keep.