Asian Lettuce wraps are a great idea for a quick and simple meal that can be easily scaled up to cook for a larger crowd. I find 4 of these is enough for dinner, or 3 served with some steamed Jasmin or sticky rice.

Instead of mince beef you can make this using pork, chicken or Quorn mince or use finely shredded beef or pork.

While making this time I didn’t have any minced pickled ginger or rice wine vinegar so substituted with what I happened to have available, in this case pickled sushi ginger which I just chopped up and a mix of sushi vinegar and white whine vinegar.

Ingredients – (serves 4)

• 500g Lean mince beef
• Leaves from 2 Gem Lettuce
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 bunch spring onions, chopped
• 1 x 225g can water chestnuts, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp minced pickled ginger
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 1tbsp soy sauce
• 1tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 tsp Toasted sesame oil
• chilli sauce, as much as your preferred taste

Method

1. Separate, clean and dry the lettuce leaves and set aside.
2. Heat a wok or frying pan to medium hot and fry off the beef until browned. Drain off any oil and set the beef aside in a bowl ready for later.
3. Fry the onions for 5 minutes or until tender.
4. Stir in the hoisin sauce, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, chilli sauce and garlic into the onions. cook for a couple minutes.
5. Stir in the water chestnuts, spring onions and beef, cook for a further two minutes.
6. arrange the lettuce leaves onto a plate and spoon the meat mixture into the centre of each leaf.