Turkey Lettuce Wraps

PF Chang's and Pei Wei make amazing lettuce wraps. I had a craving a little while ago, so I set out to make some of my own. I found this recipe that has a ton of ingredients--all full of flavor and nutrients. I've made some modifications, but the original is from today.msnbc.com - Joy's slimming chicken lettuce wraps.

If you have a food processor it can be fairly quick to make, but since I have a small one, I must admit it took about an hour to make.

One more note--you might experiment with the type of lettuce you use. I tried Bibb lettuce and thought it was too fragile, but iceberg broke up too. I've been told romaine wrap lettuce works, so I'll try that next. :-) Good luck! It's definitely worth it.

serves 4

• 4 medium carrots, peeled and finely diced
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 1 large red bell peppers, seeded and finely diced
• 1 8-ounce can water chestnuts, drained and finely diced
• 3 green onions--the white and green part- thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon grated or finely minced fresh ginger. *the recipe called for 2 tablespoons, but one is MORE than enough. :-)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pound ground turkey-- at least 90% lean. *The recipe called for ground chicken, but pound for pound, ground turkey is cheaper, so I usually get that instead.
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/3 cup Chinese Plum Sauce
• 2 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon hot chili paste such as sriracha--you can use less if you don't want it too spicy.
• 1/4 cup unsalted roasted cashews, chopped
• 1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro--if you like cilantro. It's optional
• 1 head Boston or Bill lettuce(or iceberg, or romaine wraps... see above :-))

1. Liberally coat a large skillet with Pam and preheat it over medium-high heat.

2. I would pre-dice everything and have it ready. Add the carrots, celery, bell pepper, water chestnuts, green onions, ginger and garlic. Saute, stirring occasionally until the vegetables soften slightly--about five minutes. You can add a tablespoon of water at a time if necessary to prevent scorching.

3. Add the ground turkey to the skillet. Break the meat up with a wooden spoon, and cook until the meat is no longer pink. Season with salt and pepper. In my case, I had to drain some juice off to keep the filling from being too runny.

4. Add the plum sauce, soy sauce, vinegar and chili paste--stir to coat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until heated through.

5. Remove the skillet from heat and stir in cashews and cilantro. Allow the mixture to cool slighly--about five minutes.

6. Clean the lettuce and break off 12 individual leaves. Trim away the stem end if they are tough. Fill each lettuce cup with about 1/2 cup of the turkey filling.

nutritional facts:

The recipe is confusing unfortunately. I don't know if this is per serving or total. I believe that 1 lb of ground chicken is 640 calories all by itself, so my guess is this is the nutritional count per serving.

Calories – 298 Protein – 27 g Total Fat – 9 g Saturated Fat – 2 g Cholesterol – 80 mg Sodium – 610 mg Carbohydrate – 34 g Fiber – 5 g