Last month was full of traveling. My husband, daughter and I flew out to Oregon to visit family for a few days. Then I flew to Seattle, WA for a work training. The following week we drove to Kansas to visit more family. I am incredibly thankful for these opportunities but it also completely wore us out. I can’t help but think the exhaustion is partly due to a shift in diet. Whenever I travel I end up eating more junk food than I normally would – certainly more than I should. I’m not alone in this habit, right?!?
Now that I’m back home I’m craving healthy food. I always find the easiest way to eat healthy is to cook at home. When I’m coming up with recipes I typically start with what type of dish I want to make and then figure out the details and ingredients. However, this particular recipe started with the sauce. I actually tried it out on some peeled carrots and it tasted pretty great (give it a try if you need an easy salad) but it wasn’t quite what I wanted as a final product. After some brainstorming, I came up with these lettuce wraps. This is such an easy dish to make, it might just make it onto my regular dinner menu rotation.
Tips:
- You can easily make the sauce the night before and then refrigerate it until you are ready to use it.
- The easiest way to crumble the tofu is to do it by hand. Alternatively, you could put the tofu in a bowl and break it apart with a fork.
Portobello Lettuce Wraps
Serves 4
½ cup balsamic vinegar
½ cup + 1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons ginger, finely chopped
2 Tablespoons peanut butter
½ teaspoon salt
16oz firm tofu,
4 medium Portobello mushrooms, rinsed, stemmed & chopped
2/3 cup water chestnuts, chopped
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
2 heads of bib or butter lettuce
Optional additions: rice, crushed peanuts, sliced green onion.
Directions:
In a small saucepan, over low heat, whisk together balsamic vinegar, ½ cup olive oil, ginger, peanut butter and salt until ingredients are fully combined. Remove from heat.
Press tofu with a paper towel to absorb moisture. In a large pan, heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Crumble tofu into pan and sauté until it starts to brown. Stir in mushrooms and continue to sauté until mushrooms are tender. Reduce heat to low, stir in water chestnuts, crushed red pepper and sauce.
Spoon rice and mushroom filling into lettuce leaves and garnish with peanuts and green onions.
